- Ease of Use
- Utility (usefulness)
- Design
- Compatibility
- Value (price)
I first began using Car Minder Plus on my iPhone 3G a year or so ago. At the time, I was buying/downloading/examining app after app after app, trying to find the right one to help me track my vehicle maintenance. It seems like a small thing, but I really wanted to find an app that captured and maintained the elegance and simplicity of the iOS interface itself, and where automotive maintenance apps are concerned, the pickings were rather slim.
At long last, I came across the Car Minder Plus app, which is designed and updated by developer Josh Monroe of JGM Apps. Currently in version 3.3.2, the app is exactly what I was looking for – elegant, easy to use, and fully functional. Car Minder is focused on one thing and one thing only – the way your car is maintained. The basic premise behind the application is that it allows you to add your vehicles, and then set up the services you perform on each one, as well as the desired intervals you wish those services to be performed at. For example, I change my oil every 3000 miles or every six months, whichever comes first. Once I have told Car Minder that this is how I wish to manage my oil changes, the app will alert me when I am nearing oil change time again, either when enough time has elapsed or when my mileage is closing in on the target. How does Car Minder know your current mileage? Simple! You can either periodically update the mileage yourself, or you can use its handy gas log feature and keep track of your fill-ups. Not only will the application then tell you your average gas mileage (a nifty indicator of automotive health in and of itself), it will also automatically update your mileage each time you enter a new gasoline purchase.
The app icon in iOS is badged to let you know the number of services that are due or past due, and it keeps separate track of your routine services, your repairs, your gas log, and your vehicle’s general information. Under the Services section, each service you have entered intervals for shows up as either a green (no service due), yellow (service approaching due timeframe) or red (service due or past due) “stop light.” Under Repairs, you are able to quickly and easily log and notate the details of any completed repair work. The Gas Log keep a running graph of your average fuel economy, and the Car Info section allows you to manually update your mileage and even e-mail all of your records to yourself or someone else.
To summarize, this application has become an absolutely invaluable tool to me in keeping up with mine and my wife’s vehicle’s scheduled maintenance, and I no longer use any other tool to keep track of it. I have been an avid user now for well over a year, and have found the app to be reliable (not a single crash!), intuitive, and invaluable – well worth the $2.99 purchase price. It stays focused on it’s main mission, and does not veer from it (for a more comprehensive commuting/travel tool for your vehicle, check out Chris S’s review of the excellent iOS app Car Butler). If you’re maintaining one or more vehicles, this is a must have for your iOS device.
