Do people actually drive around looking at signs to decide which station to fuel at?
I thought I was relatively frugal, but I never once did this. I simply went to whichever station was more convenient.
Are you asking about gas signs?
It's been over 10 years since I've actively gone to gas stations, but yes, I absolutely did this! I would either take a quick scan of the prices in a particular area (sometimes literally across the street), or I would pay attention to the price of gas each day as I drove past the station on the way to work and once I worked out the pattern, I would fill up on the day I noticed a drop in the price.
Gas back then was climbing to levels that it's back up to today (but in 2011 dollars) and a fill up was running over $50. So yeah, I didn't waste an opportunity to save a buck or two by trying to save 5 to 10 cents/gallon. That whole game, silly as it may seem for just a couple of bucks, is one of the reasons I wanted to get out of buying as and switch to electric.
I didn't go out of my way to find the absolute best deal in town, but yeah, if there were 10 gas stations along the ride home, for sure I'd pick one of the cheaper ones.
That said, when it comes to Superchargers (and other DC fast chargers), I don't think we're yet at the point where I need a sign to tell me how much it's going to be. For one thing, most of my charging is at home, so if I'm using a DC fast charger, I'm pretty much guaranteed to be on a road trip. And when I'm on a road trip, I don't have a huge choice about where to plug in. My charging stops are pretty much determined for me by my car's range and where the stations are on my route. Maybe some day there will be multiple choices at every exit, but for now, I'm a bit of a captive customer.
