I'm getting fed up with paying 80pence for go go juice, had a look into LPG and found you can get 780 back from HMG and then you're paying only 30pence/litre.

Had several conversations with conversion companies who reckon on 1500 to do the job, and warranty the system for three years - even with a jabba'd engine.

Now I do approx 45000 miles pa so am I missing something here or is there a catch,

Anyone been here before or know of any good reasons not to ?

Or the oppositte .

Role on Friday!

Morgan

PS must wash it first

Pros - price

Cons - lack of outlets, half your boot disappears to be replaced by a huge cylinder for the gas.

From what I can glean, if your economy and mileage is enough that you will get a return on the invesment, it's a good thing to do (but make sure you go with a proper certified fitter).

The only catches I can see are the rarity of filling stations (though if you go dual-fual this is less of a problem), and also once it becomes popular the government will start taxing it like they have petrol...

On the plus side, you will also be able to apply for exemption from the London Congestion Charging.

Rob.

Seat NL have developed a Leon 1.8T running on LPG. Yes, on a turbo! And it works!

It uses the latest LPI (Liquid Propane Injection) technology by Vialle and doesn't suffer from backfires or other nasty things that can happen to you when running an older LPG installation. It was recently tested against a Leon PD150 and it beat it hands down.

The fun thing is that LPI (also known as G4) is known to give a 20% performance increase by itself. :eek:

It's a trick that's been used in racing too, before it was banned from use in, probably amongst other series, the Dutch Clio Cup.

Oh, no problem with filling stations over here. Virtually every petrol station has one of more LPG pumps.

for 45000 miles p.a it has to be worth it - I'm just waiting for the time when LPG gets really commonplace and the duty on it goes up by 100%. !!

I've always fancied a V8 range rover with LPG conversion to help with economy... Hmmm perhaps not!

edit: LPG outlets are becoming very common, or at least a lot more common. With a 45000 annual mileage you're bound to come across one at some point (especially with large range of combined lpg & petrol tanks)

Doesnt the tax breaks on LPG stop in a couple of years? That being the case it seems pointless surely?

Andy

Originally posted by Kentish in this post

Doesnt the tax breaks on LPG stop in a couple of years? That being the case it seems pointless surely?

Yes and no. Even running it for a year on the tax break is going to be extremely profitable for 45k miles a year! Also, while the tax break may end, I doubt it'll go as high as petrol - at least, not as high as petrol will be by then...

Rob.

although not a laughing matter - lpg is unlikely to increase to the levels of petrol/diesel.

[must remap car to get better fuel economy!]

Any idea if 20K a year mileage would justify getting my car converted?

William - the way to work it out is:

(Annual mileage / mpg) * price of gallon of petrol.

If half this is less than the cost of conversion then you're going to make a return on your invesment in a year, so it would be well worth looking at...

Rob.

My local ASDA has now had pumps installed and I think there are several retailers around the area. (diesel Pumps in ASDA are rapildly depleting and I have compained that 2 pumps and 8 unleaded is a bit unfair! Stay in Towns and Cities and LPG is O.K go to really rural parts and you might stuggle. Technology is advancing so much they are trying to get a duel fuel Diesel and LPG car. God knows how it works and it sounds a bit of a fantasy to me!

Don't forget availability !!!

I just checked on here and there are a grand total of 7 (yes SEVEN) known outlets in the county of Wiltshire where I live. It so happens one of these is within a mile of my home, but I didn't know it existed. Many of them are not petrol stations but what I guess are Calor Gas depots. Fine if you know where they are, but when you are close to running out in an unfamiliar area of the country, you don't want to be trying to find some obscure depot on a trading estate down a back lane.

That means dual fuel is a necessity, and that you may find yourself running on petrol quite a high proportion of the time, especially in unfamiliar parts of the country. The inconvenience and the price penalty of the petrol driven part of your mileage will have to be taken into account in your decision. Not for me, just yet.

I've driven a few Fords with LPG on the Ford Demonstrator Fleet. The Mondeo had a toroidal (doughnut shaped) fuel tank in the spare wheel well which also reduced the volume of the boot; and that space penalty will apply to any car. Instead of a spare wheel there was some sealant in a can and an electric pump - not likely to be very useful in the sort of situations where I have had a flat tyre. On switching over to LPG there was a small but noticeable decrease in performance. The installation adds to the overall weight of the vehicle so fuel consumption will be slightly higher than otherwise. Oh, and if you run out of petrol the car will not start on LPG alone. Effect on resale value is anyone's guess.

Originally posted by flyingscot in this post

duel fuel Diesel and LPG car. God knows how it works and it sounds a bit of a fantasy to me!

:eek: Thought the adoption of LPG was because it had similar combustion properties to petrol! Surely a diesel/LPG hybrid would be like having a diesel/petrol hybrid, which would be so complicated that as soon as it goes wrong it'll cost you a fortune to repair...

Unless you had two engines...

Rob.

The biggest drawback is you kiss bye bye to any Warranty with Skoda, and most manufacturers take the same stance. Also the systems are notoriously temperamental and prone to playing (and blowing) up!

Originally posted by LadyLoki in this post

and most manufacturers take the same stance.

Except for the ones that actually manufacture and sell dual-fual cars, and who will happily let one of their dealers do a conversion!

Rob.

Just curious - why is this now a Lounge thread? Seems an eminently sensible and car-focused thread to me.... :confused:

Originally posted by ncarring in this post

Just curious - why is this now a Lounge thread? Seems an eminently sensible and car-focused thread to me....

Probably because it's not Skoda-specific, and will shortly turn into a heaving mass of hearsay and contradiction...

Rob.

It's now back in General, but could be bound for My Maintenance or even Performance next. We shall see... :eek:

Originally posted by robmawer in this post

:eek: Thought the adoption of LPG was because it had similar combustion properties to petrol! Surely a diesel/LPG hybrid would be like having a diesel/petrol hybrid, which would be so complicated that as soon as it goes wrong it'll cost you a fortune to repair...

Unless you had two engines...

Rob.

I think it's fantasy. Like you say I thought petrol had similar burning to LPG so I would be supprised unless they are talking about conversion of an engine to totally LPG. But then there are gas buses here that according to them run on LPG and diesel!:confused:

On the other hand I thought the EU took a stance on manufactures cancelling warrenty's because of LPG conversion as long as it was done at an approved LPG converter much the same in the way towbar manufacturers got a number of years back. Mercedes were certainly hauled over the coals about it.

I am aware some manufacturers do dual fuel vehicles, but most don;t like them- the systems are too prone to fackups to be honest, which is why Skoda are amongst those who steer clear.

Yes, I've seen LPG cars burn out completely due to backfires, but the new fourth-generation LPI systems have all these bugs cured. Your worries are totally unfounded for G3 and G4 systems, so perhaps Skoda UK and other importers should read up on the latest developments...

LPG is pretty big over here, as it offers an alternative to diesel for many company-car drivers. That's why it's available everywhere. Road tax is quadruple the usual petrol tax, but then litre prices are almost a third of petrol prices. Tanks are now placed in all sorts of clever places, so space isn't quite the object anymore. It takes approx. 15,000 kms for a ROI on the installation.

I have to say, I like the idea of lpg. It's cheaper on the wallet, and I also believe it's cleaner...

Just one thing to remember: a lot of car parks won't allow lpg, particularly underground ones.

Also, you can't take an lpg vehicle throught the Channel Tunnel if I remember correctly...

Originally posted by LadyLoki in this post

I am aware some manufacturers do dual fuel vehicles, but most don;t like them- the systems are too prone to fackups to be honest, which is why Skoda are amongst those who steer clear.

I run a fleet with 100+ Vectra LPG's in the mix. We've had numerous problems with around 15% of them, EM problems, non-starts, hesitations on acceleration, fumes in the cab etc., etc.

Generally, from a staff perspective, LPG is still hard to find, therefore they don't bother to use it (so overall increase in cost from a company perspective) and HMG are doing little to encourage the OilCos to invest in pumps. The manufactures that have invested in "production lines" (joke) have actually dumped little in it's development and, having seen the general lethargic take-up, have now pushed far more of their cash into producing more efficient diesel units. Because of this, some are still paying catch-up with the likes of VW, Skoda (!) Peugeot.

As for RV's, there seems to be a trend on the downside compaired to a "normal" petrol version of the same car.

So, my opinion is unless you have a car out of warranty, the fuel maths make sense and you intend to keep the car, don't bother!