Pros and Cons of LPG conversions?

dapoodee

I have been quoted £1600 plus the use of a courtesy car whilst my car is being converted (4-5days),

is this acceptable?

Scarlett

cheesy.mike wrote:

The other con worth noting is that you cannot take an LPG vehicle through the channel tunnel.

Ooh! I didn't know that. Why? Cos it's converted? What about if you run it on petrol? Tell me more!

OP - just goes to show that it's worth doing your research! There are a lot of things to take into account.

Don't get me started on Congestion Charge London's knowledge of the system either - I thought I had done all my research and necessary checks when I bought my vehicle, including phoning CCL on the day I bought it, as a prospective LPG-vehicle-purchaser to check my car was registered with them as CC exempt. They confirmed that it was and told me to drive on in... one month later, two CC PCNs arrive in the post.

N.B. AS THE NEW OWNER YOU MUST REGISTER YOUR LPG VEHICLE IN YOUR NAME WITH CCL. oh AND RENEW YOUR REGISTRATION ANNUALLY (costs about £10)

I had to appeal those two PCNs, not just with CCL, but all the way to the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service, because of CCL's inability to give out the correct information about the way they run the exemption system! :mad:

I still love my LPG car tho :cool:

And £1600 seems slightly on the higher side of what I was being quoted = £1500. Probably depends on the vehicle and the system tho.

balsingh

With petrol & diesel prices going through the roof, I have noticed the price difference between used cars with and without LPG increasing a lot recently.

ManAtHome

They now allow vehicles manufactured as LPG or dual-fuel through the chunnel http://www.day-tripper.net/ferryraileurotunnel.html (scroll to the bottom) - caravan club is still pushing to get authorised conversions allowed as well.

Wig

I think your best bet these days is to run on free cooking oil from chip shops, paying duty as you go along, add a bit of acetone and it'll go even further.

But LPG is a great fuel if you can get it cheap enough. The cost of conversion is fairly irrelevant within reason, what you should be concerned about is how good your converter is, how many cars has he done, can you see them, can you speak to satisfied owners...talk to taxi drivers and ask if some of them are converted, they will know the best place to go, (you're looking for saloon car taxis).

slrk2007

I have a Nissan Sunny FB-15 1999 model (1300cc) and it's done only 42000 kms. I have a thought of converting it to LP Gas. Here many people say not to convert it to gas because of possible engine problems with gas. A mechanic told me that there will be big unpredictable engine problems after converting to gas. Is there any possiblity of damage to engine with gas? Here mostly I am stuck in traffic congession and The units which I have to install will need to swith gas and petrol manually.

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Hermione54

When you see what the price of oil will be soon-

LPG stands for Liquid Petroleum Gas and is made out of oil. It will be just as affected by oil price rises as petrol and diesel is. The only reason for such a large price differential is because of different rates of taxation, which the Chancellor could change at any time bringing LPG in line with petrol and diesel.

tinker1

Scarlett wrote: »

I have just got my car back running on LPG after some chuckhead mechanic ballsed it up by incorrectly putting two wires the wrong way round and closing a valve he shouldn't have (approved LPG installer my a$$).

The only con for me is finding a mechanic who knows what he's doing, but I've got an MG and have managed to track down the guys who designed and installed the LPG systems for MG Rover, so I'm not really worried about that now.

Finding LPG? No big deal really, as you can run on petrol. Availability locally is something you should definitely consider though.

Slow to fill the tank? Who cares man?! It may be slow but that does not detract from the sense of satisfaction of filling up cheaply and being environmentally friendly/congestion charge free in London!

Pros definitely outweigh the cons IMHO

I used to have a converted Volvo 850 and eventually got rid of it as alaways misfiring and cutting out. Lucky to have been able to get rid of it to a guy who knew what he was doing with lpg. I then bought a Volvo V70 dual fuel factory fitted lpg as I thought factory fitted newish one ought to be go ok. But it's been nothing but trouble and volvo cant give me a quote to put it right other than to say they will keep oliminating the problem at vast expense so I now just run it on petrol. I have no problem with lpg Shell stations near here but stopped using it now.

Spikey_2

what's the cheapest quote people have had for a conversion?

Wig

Spikey wrote: »

what's the cheapest quote people have had for a conversion?

Cheap does not = good,

I used to hear prices of £800 even £600.

The guy I know who did good conversions charged £1200 and it was worth every penny to use him, especially since after conversion I was saving £40 - £50 per week.