'Green' cars

PabloNeruda

Is there a vibrant second-hand market out there at the moment? I would like to trade in my car for something with a hybrid engine like a Totota Prius. Are there many makes and models out there? I know these hybrids are a relatively new concept so I'm not sure if the price will be worth it at the moment, particularly for those on a low income.

tr3mor

Just get yourself a diesel, my 307 estate does 55mpg if I keep it under 70mph.

PabloNeruda

Diesel is hardly eco-friendly though, is it? The primary aim of my switch is eco-friendlyness, with the financial side second.

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

A Diesel converted to run on Waste Vegetable oil then?

Better for the environment than electric cars.

savvy

We're just looking at ones that can switch from petrol to gas at the mo, and prices are quite reasonable.

PabloNeruda

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule wrote:

A Diesel converted to run on Waste Vegetable oil then?

Better for the environment than electric cars.

Are these really out there?

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

PabloNeruda wrote:

Are these really out there?

They certainly are, search for Waste Vegetable Oil or Straight Vegetable Oil

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html
http://www.thevoicenews.com/news/2003/0411/Features/f01.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_vegetable_oil

Plenty of kits to do it quite cheaply yourself, or you can get a professional installer in if you prefer..

Savvy: the thing with LPG is it is still bad for the environment - it's still a fossil fuel thats going to run out very soon. We need to move away totally from fossil based fuels and onto something different - WVO and even biodeisel are two that are here NOW, and can be used until a permenant solution can be found.

chilli_dog

If you use it in too high a mix with diesel you can get probs, especially now its getting colder. The veg oil goes thicker in the cold.

Also the dear old government dont like us using it because of the difference it loses in fuel duty. You are supposed to monitor your mileage and send a cheque to the government every month for the tax it loses. I kid you not.

If you get stopped at the roadside by the excise people and they dip your tank and find you using it with being registered then there could be trouble.

Have a look around for bio diesel as that is a natural product ( not fossil fuel based).

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

chilli_dog wrote:

If you use it in too high a mix with diesel you can get probs, especially now its getting colder. The veg oil goes thicker in the cold.

I'm not talking about cars using a blend but running on solely WVO/SVO (using biodeisel for the first few mins till the oil is hot enough)

Also the dear old government dont like us using it because of the difference it loses in fuel duty. You are supposed to monitor your mileage and send a cheque to the government every month for the tax it loses. I kid you not.

Not quite every month, but yes your are supposed to pay the duty on veg oil. If you buy your oil from somewhere that has already processed it (there are a few veg-oil garages out there now) then they will have already paid the duty.

If you get stopped at the roadside by the excise people and they dip your tank and find you using it with being registered then there could be trouble.

No trouble - you will just have to pay the duty you owe (if you haven't already paid it).

Have a look around for bio diesel as that is a natural product ( not fossil fuel based).

Biodiesel has to be heavily refined though - it's much better to convert your engine once to run S/WVO (you can still use petro-diesel and biodeisel in it), than to convert every bit of oil you put in it to biodiesel.

Volcano

I'm a big fan of biodiesel but.....

Garages sell biodiesel blend which is something like only 5% biodiesel, the rest is fossil diesel.

Waste oil (from chip shops, restaurants etc) is now classified as hazardous waste and now has to be removed by licensed operators.

Getting hold of enough, cheap oil is a problem. Your local supermarket is likely to stop you buying its stock in bulk (this happened during the last fuel protests), catering suppliers tend to be expensive (though you can get 20L containers) and the bulk suppliers won't deal with the man-in-the-street.

I think chili_dog was referring to the problems that you'd get if you were using red diesel in your tank, where the authorities have the power to seize your vehicle. I'm not sure whether they can do this for non-payment of tax on veg oil (which is easy to detect by the smell from your exhaust.)

PabloNeruda

Anyway, is the Prius the only kind of hybrid out there?