Nearly Halve your fuel costs

robforcash

There are companies who will install a LPG convertion to petrol cars - it runs alongside the petrol system and so you don't have to worry about always finding an LPG terminal.

The savings quoted to me for an 1966cc 2001 Ford Focus doing 20,000 miles are nearly £1.4k a year. I have recently moved jobs and now have an 90 mile round trip, thus the looking up of cost saving options, as well driving more conservatedly.

The cost for the conversion for my car is £1800 and so it does mean that I start to make money only after 17 months, but the difference in monthly outgoing should make a massive to my budgeting ability!!

Well worth the outlay, and should increase the value of your car as well (but not by the full £1800). They said that they have different converisons for differenent cars, and so prices would vary - I would guess cheaper if you have smaller engine.

They also claim no loss of power as well, which is nice!

I am just trying to locate the £1800 (downsizing my house at the moment anyway) and then will convert.

iolanthe07

This is OK so long as our beloved government don't decide to increase the tax on LPG in line with petrol and diesel.

BenL

Looks like a good deal for you.

Not so good for my smaller engine car and less miles though.

I used the calculator on here http://www.autogasyorkshire.co.uk/savings-calculator.php

and i would save £707 a year, making £2121 saving in 3 years.

Astra 1.6, 15000 miles, 38mpg at 101.9p a litre. Works out 12p per mile.

Lpg gets 30 mpg and 50p a litre for lpg, 7p a mile.

If my car is the same for a conversion it would take about 2 1/2 years to get it back at current prices.

Equivelent petrrol mpg after savings 65mpg.

A big petrol 4x4 owner would make a large saving.

I wonder how many Astra lpg Dualfuels they sell and what the resale is on them.

moonrakerz

If it is a Ford - check with a Ford dealer that the valve seats on your car are suitable for LPG.

DON'T trust the conversion company !

gilbert_and_sullivan

Just my tuppence, there's always lpg converted cars for sale on the autotrader and they really don't fetch much more than non converted.

You can pick up vehicles that were built as dual fuel by the manufacturer, i know the focus was one though rare, but far more astra and vectra's on the market, quite a few volvo's too.

Might just be worth changing your car for one that already been done.

balsingh

robforcash wrote: »

There are companies who will install a LPG convertion to petrol cars - it runs alongside the petrol system and so you don't have to worry about always finding an LPG terminal.

The savings quoted to me for an 1966cc 2001 Ford Focus doing 20,000 miles are nearly £1.4k a year. I have recently moved jobs and now have an 90 mile round trip, thus the looking up of cost saving options, as well driving more conservatedly.

The cost for the conversion for my car is £1800 and so it does mean that I start to make money only after 17 months, but the difference in monthly outgoing should make a massive to my budgeting ability!!

Well worth the outlay, and should increase the value of your car as well (but not by the full £1800). They said that they have different converisons for differenent cars, and so prices would vary - I would guess cheaper if you have smaller engine.

They also claim no loss of power as well, which is nice!

I am just trying to locate the £1800 (downsizing my house at the moment anyway) and then will convert.

Where have you been for the last 5 years or so??? This is nothing new.

harveybobbles

Volvo and Vauxhall have them fitted in the factory. Vauxhall, you loose boot space due to the spare wheel and it has a seperate filler, which is glaringly obvious on the outside.
Volvo don't bother with a spare wheel and hide the LPG filler in the regular filler cap. So it looks like a regular Volvo. Well, with the exception of a slightly smaller tail pipe.
Now i'm splitting hairs.

According to the calculator mentioned above, I'd save 0.06p per mile if I converted my car.

Nail_Lad

I like the idea of LPG a lot. Being able to drive a big 4x4 and not worry about the cost of fuel (much). However, things I believe hinder LPG are:

- Future taxation by the government (as mentioned).
- Availability of LPG stations (although with petrol too you'd be ok but thats not what you want to be running on is it?)
- Loss of luggage space used up by the LPG tank
- Invalidty of any manufacturer or after market warranty
- Slight performance decrease (despite what is claimed)
- Quality of LPG installation (despite being a certified installers things can/do go wrong)
- What is the true saving in relation to initial outlay, mileage driven, final resale value, length of ownership etc when compared with owning the equivalent diesel/petrol model for the same period of time?
- The biggest problem for me is servicing. Who services the LPG system? Your local garage won't. Will they service your car with an LPG system added? If not, then will an LPG fitter service your car as well as the LPG system at the same time? And so it goes on until you end up with a lot of hassle and decide not to bother servicing part of the car, not servicing it at all or getting in a frazzle getting the whole thing serviced. Tied to this is the impact of anything major going wrong with the car, try getting a head gasket replaced on a car with LPG added, who would do it? Will having LPG effect any guarantees offered by garages for work they do? etc etc etc.

plane_boy2000

Think you will find that LPG reduces the value of your car in the trade as the general public are wary / unsure about it especially if it didn't leave the factory with a conversion.

goldspanners

that is a good point,when servicing it is a whole new ball game,there is no real legislation as to who can do this,i really dont understand this,you need to be corgi registered to work on gas from the mains (which is low pressure) but you dont need to be qualified to work on lpg systems (which is very high pressure) if it isnt serviced properly and certain parts like the vapouriser diaphragms arent changed as often as they should be then you can start getting problems,not to mention if you get a leak and it goes un noticed.
i work on lpg systems and im still wary of it.