Diesel or LPG ?

djt100

Hi,
Looking for some advise on this? I'm after replacing my car with something econiomical, I'll Mainly be using it for the commute to work and back 40 miles each way about 80% on the motorways. Have between £3000 and £4000 to spend.
I'm guessing diesel or LPG will be the most economical ways to go but wondered does anyone do a similar commute, what sort of car's do you have what mpg do you get?

Currently thinking of a Clio Diesel 1.5 dci 80 mainly due to the £35 a year tax. But Very much opening to all your suggestions and experiences .

Thanks Del.

P.S.
Any motor dealers out there who can give me an idea of P/X value, 1998/S Volvo C70 T5 GT, 94k, FSH

AdrianHi

For most people diesel will be the answer if for no other reason than getting a supply of fuel. I thought about LPG but there is no where within 20 minutes of home that I can buy it.

Asking what kind of fuel consumption people get will not tell you anything useful. I could tell you that I get somewhere between 37mpg and 56mpg on my car, which is 100% true, really depends on the trip I'm driving. On my day to day commute it is 46mpg. How far short of the official EU MPG figures do you fall with your current car? 10%? Taking the official figures minus 10% is probably a fair guide for other cars, but then I used to get bang on for petrols cars and fall short on diesels.... no telling.
Used Clio for £4,000 a good bet, just don't buy one new, super expensive due to steep depreciation retaining only 33% at 3 years old. You will never save enough fuel or tax to offset that. If you are buying newer, or even at £4,000 a Skoda Fabia is the similar sized car that holds it's value best and comes out highly rated in consumer surveys (JD Powers etc.), there is a 1.4TDI in the range now at 70+ MPG (official figures) and £35 tax disk.

Is this really the right car after that comfy Volvo you have now?

djt100

Thanks for the reply, Clio looked to be a good bet as the spec is really high on them, I had thought about the fabia as but they end to be holding the money a bit to much for me to afford one with resonable miles on. As for a change from the Volvo, the volvo is great and officially it does 26mpg... But i've never seen more than 18 on it unless i'm on a run..and then only 22-23.but i'm changing jobs form working round the corner to 40 miles away, So happy to sacrafice in the name of saving money...

avantra

To go LPG you should really get an original LPG model made by the car maker.
These are far and few between, a converted petrol to LPG might be a bit of a hit and miss as some LPG conversion were done on cars with valve seats that can't take the extra heat involves in burning LPG (dead engine for u and me).

If you drive say 220 days per year (20 working days per month roughly X11 month,taking in to account one month for holidays etc') and looking at car models that do the equivalent of 65 mpg for less than £4k than there is really only one design to go for: Toyota Aygo/Citroen C1/ Pug 107.
The petrol 1.0 will do something along the 60 to 65 mpg while the diesel will do similar number.
At the moment petrol is £1.13 per 1 litre and Diesel is £1.22/litre so if you do 220 days x 80 miles = 17600 miles than you can see that you will save
17600 \ 65(mpg) x 5.13 (1 UK gallon of petrol) = £1389
17600\65 (mpg) x 5.53 (1 UK gallon of diesel) = £1497

This is very small saving of £108 per year so the deciding factor should be the price you pay for the car and the ongoing maintenance which is cheaper when you buy the 1.0 litre petrol variant of this great trio.

Tucker

To decide if LPG is an option, check what availability you have locally and on your commute, here

You won't have full access to prices, but it will give you an idea if LPG is an option for you.

I converted my car when petrol reached £1 per litre. There's good availabilty locally, but the price does vary quite a bit. My local one has just gone up from 44p to 46p a litre (first increase since Jan 08), but most charge around 50p a litre here, but it vary's from region to region.

Some sound advice regarding buying a diesel with good MPG. My only concern is the rising cost of diesel. With developing countries like China now using vast quatityies of fuel, the demand is rising constantly for it and supplies are reducing at the same pace. Therefore, petrol and diesel prices will only go one way and who knows at what rate?

Would anyone bet against it hitting £1.40 or even £1.50 by the end of the year? It was 87p last autumn, so don't think it's not a reality.....!!

mr_cool

The reality is LPG will probely rise in cost as well as I think the tax freeze on it ends soon? It still may repay itself if you can find a vehicle which has already had a good conversion done for a good price.

Tucker

I don't think the tax is going to be an issue. The frozen duty is till 2009 I think and then it's been assured it will be no more of an increase over petrol than by 1p per annum.

As a by- product of the process by which oil is converted to gasoline, LPG cannot be considered a renewable fuel but it is an under used resource. It's the demand for petrol and diesel that is driving it's price through the roof, nothing to do with tax.

LPG hasn't got the same demand and logic would say it's price is likely to be more stable.

Tucker

Just found this in an article from Feb 2007:

"At the time of writing this article a litre of unleaded petrol in my local garage costs 86p; a litre of LPG is 42p – and most major garages sell it. To put that into perspective, the last time petrol cost 42p a litre was in 1986, when Top Gun had just hit the local Odeon and a new fashion craze for men was sweeping the country - a new type of underwear known as boxer shorts."

I am sure there are retailers and parts of the country where the cost is still about half, but here in Greater Manchester I can still get it for 45p a litre (nearest retailer is 46p), so if you have the availability, then it's much less than half a year on from that article, as the cheapest petrol I know of is £1.08 and most are £1.10+.

Around here, the gap is widening........and long may it continue....:j

djt100

I was seaching the trader for a diesel when i saw a few bi fuel vauxhalls and volvo's. so the idea of LPG came to me late in the game compared to the default choice of diesel, but from reading all your comments above LPG may become the default option for me, The local sainsbury does LPG about 2 miles away but once a week thats not a big issue.
does anyone have a factory LPG? what's the reliability like and what sort of tank range do you get on lpg alone ???

djt100

Ok I've done some calculations on this using a factory LPG / Diesel / Pretrol
MPG figures are form parkers.
Cost is for 20000 miles
Fuel prices are the average fuel price in my area from www.petrolprices.com

Petrol Astra 1.6 Envoy 5dr AC 39mpg Tax band E
£1.11 x 4.546 = £5.05 Gallon
20000 / 39mpg = 512.82 gallons
£5.05 x 512.82 = £2589.74

Diesel Astra 1.7 Envoy 5dr AC 60mpg Tax Band C
£1.20 x 4.546 = £5.46
20000 / 60mpg = 333.33
£5.46 x 333.33 = £1819.98

Bi-Fuel Astra 1.6 Envoy 5Dr AC Tax Band D
£0.58 x 4.546 = £2.64
20000 / 30mpg = 666.67
£2.64 x 666.67 = £1760.00

So cheapest is LPG, but thats only if i use LPG all the time, neaxt for a little extra is Diesel, and the tax band on the diesel is lower than the lpg and the petrol so the best option even with cheap lpg is still going to be the Diesel, As i think there will be occasions when I can not get Lpg. Of course this is all dependant on the price of each fuel. Could all change.

Hope this helps anyone else in the same or similar position to me.
If your wondering why I the Astra, No other reason than it was the fist one I found factory Mpg figures for, the one thing I would not have taken into account would have been the Lower MPG for LPG against the same Petrol Engine.

djt100

Missed this bit.

Peugeot 107 1.0
£1.11 x 4.546 = £5.05 Gallon
20000 / 61mpg = 327.87 gallons
£5.05 x 327.87 = £1655.74

107/ C1 /Aygo Cheaper still, Only problem is i don't want to drive 80 miles a day in one!