Why Is LPG Overlooked when its 50% cheaper than petrol

DON_41D

I actually owned an LPG car back in June of this year. It was a Vauxhall Astra which was factory converted to run on LPG. It had a 1.6 engine, and i paid £2500 for it. I only had the car for 3 months. I was covering around 300 miles per week, and compared to my Audi A4 diesel, i was only saving about £15 per week. I found the LPG system to be unreliable, couldn't get used to driving the car as it always felt sluggish, and it the availability of the LPG at the pumps was also an issue. In the 3 months of ownership, i was unable to fill my LPG tank 5 times, having to fill up with petrol instead. Factoring all this into account, i was not really any better off with LPG than with my diesel car. Also, no local garages would ouch my car for servicing because of the fact it was LPG, which would have resulted in an expensive 3 hour ferry journey and 2 hour drive to my nearest Vauxhall dealership for a service! Needless to say i sold the car.

antispamman

Nail wrote: »

I had hoped the price of conversion had gone down, however it’s still quite high.

I've ran LPG/Autogas cars for years. Nail let me tell you - there is no way the price of conversion is coming down any time soon.

At the moment I'm running a 4.7 V8 Toyota Landcruiser on LPG and I'm saving a fortune and very happy with the performance. Yes there is slight loss of power in the engine when running on LPG but its nothing to worry about really. I'm not into to racing, just getting from A to B.

I have not had any problems with engines in any of the cars I've ran in the past (VW Golf, VW Passat and AUDI A4). The only irritation I have had is when a car has tried to switch from petrol to LPG too early and it beeps at you to say it failed to run LPG. This is just a timing thing. I took it back to the garage where they adjusted it and the car engine would warm up properly and then switch over to LPG with no problems.

On very rare occasions I have experienced a few garages where the pumps don't flow the gas and have had to continue on petrol until I find a LPG garage. I think this is a minor annoyance. (There is always petrol pumps until you find a LPG pump that works.)

The only other thing I have noticed is that the tank indicator tells lies. It would show that it was running on its reserve but when I went to fill up again it might actually be half full. Again, not too much of a hassle.

My only quibble these days is the fact that some garages are keeping the price high now that petrol and diesel prices have dropped. I just avoid them and get my LPG elsewhere but I do tell them so.

little_miss_moneysaver_3

All I can add to this is this whole thing happened in Australia a little while ago. The government encouraged everyone to convert to gas. Not sure how true this is - but my cousin even told me they gave grants to people. AND THEN... increased the price of gas similar to petrol.

Call me cynical, but does anyone else have the same feeling we'll get the same deal?

So the vast cost of converting your car to a fuel that'll do more damage than petrol so more mechanic bills for the same price as petrol? Don't tick my boxes.

The only "safe" way to save money in this field is either walk or invest in a bicycle.

LMMS

carroger

I have an lpg landrover v8 and well it's great on price but it costs me to go and get LPG the pumps rarely put out the correct pressure in half the garages and the nearest to me is 12 miles away and it's always touch and go to it working then I travel a further 15 miles to the next ...LPG mechanics are few and far between too..It certainly needs to be a subject pushed so that all garages supply it and mechanics want to train in it and we can all be green lol