Anyone got experience of LPG

sawood12 · Dec 29, 2007

A bit off topic, as i'm not considering the conversion for my 944. In about 12months time i'll be hunting for another sensible family wagon and would ideally like a used A6 Avant. The Diesels are just out of my pricerange but I noticed that the large petrol engined models (3.2ltr v6 and the 4.2ltr v8's) are a upto £3k cheaper for a car of equivalent year and mileage. It then occured to me that with a good LPG coversion costing between £1500 & £2k I could in threory get one converted just within buget and with the lure of driving a silky smooth large capacity petrol engine over a stinking, rattling oil burner I'm starting to convince myself this is the sensible way to go. The only risk I can see is if the government decides to ramp up the duty on LPG.

My question is that are there any other disadvantages to running LPG apart from the lack of petrol stations that stock the stuff? I've set myself up with a simple spreadsheet to calculate the running costs (fuel only) and by my calcs I come to the conclusion that for a diesel engined car to equal the fuel costs of an LPG car averaging 18mpg it will have to achieve an average of 47mpg at current fuel costs. I really don't believe that many diesel drivers are getting that as a regular average. Have I missed something or are LPG converted cars more trouble than they're worth?

Guest · Dec 29, 2007

I have a VW Passat 1.8T (2001) running LPG. Found it great (cheap, quiet, clean and efficient) and effectively got my money back on the conversion in less than 2 years. A local farm has a pump and I can fill up 24/7 on account.

Guest · Dec 30, 2007

hi i have been running a v8 discovery on lpg it runs cooler gives good fuel figers ie around 245 miles on 72ltrs of gas plus engine oil stays cleaner

cococola · Dec 30, 2007

How does that compare with previous fuel Geoff?
Alan

sbloxxy · Dec 30, 2007

Scott, Just been down this road myself and started with similar thoughts to you. Ended up buying a 2002 BMW 745 - cracking piece of kit thats about as quick as my Boxster - but rubbish on fuel. The LPG conversion cost me £1550. The end result is a storming big V8 that does the equivalent of 36-42mpg.
The downsides are that fuel consumption using LPG is substantially worse than when using petrol - at the moment its around 25% worse. However, my installer thinks that the system needs a small re-map. My car is not as smooth as when its running on petrol but again the re-map will cure this. Even so, I've been told that consumption will still be 20% heavier than when running on petrol so bear this in mind. The other downsides are minor: the pumps can be temperamental to use - the connection between pump and car must be 100% perfect for it to work correctly. Depending on what the outside temperature is, the amount of gas you can fit into your tank differs - which is no big deal.
And thats about it for downsides: I've just put in 46 litres @ 49.9p per litre which will give me around 200 miles (just under £23.00). My previous car was a Jaguar X-Type Diesel which would have cost a very similar amount - but with nothing like the smoothness, speed, comfort etc.

tref · Dec 31, 2007

Trawl arround and you will find a thread on converting my S2 to LPG... I have bought the parts, just need to get them fitted...

Ref the last post - is that a single point or multi-point system? If teh former...things have moved on... if teh latter, from enquiries I have mad, position of the injectors is critical... are they a long way from the position of the petrol injectors?

Regards,

Tref.

zcacogp · Dec 31, 2007

ORIGINAL: sawood12

It sounds like a good idea, and I am sure it is, but the HUGE savings may well not be there in 2 or 3 years time.

Don't want to be a complete doom-monger, but I fear this is the weak point in the argument. Given the way that the tax system is going at the moment, tax on ANY fuel will be going up, and LPG has moreground to make up than most others.

LPG has risen faster than petrol in the last few years (it used to be very cheap, now it is gaining ground on petrol, and the proportional increase is even greater). Rumours suggest that in a couple of years time, it will be even closer in price to normal petrol.

Diver944 · Dec 31, 2007

I was worried about the same thing a few years ago when my S2 was covering 20k miles a year. I hesitated for the exact same reason and did nothing - however it is still 50% cheaper

zcacogp · Dec 31, 2007

ORIGINAL: Diver944

OOps.

Sorry Oli, I hit the wrong button and instead of quoting your original post I edited it and wiped out most of your text

I'll offer you another bacon butty as recompense []

Ahhh ... the powers of being a mod, eh? Absolute power corrupts absolutely etc etc etc!

I have re-edited my post to correct it, and left your comments in there should you want to re-post them. And I'll claim the bacon butty at some meet this coming summer! [

]

Oli.

sbloxxy · Dec 31, 2007

Two points: firstly my BMW 745 is fitted with a multi point system made by OMVL. It seems the LPG market and associated technology moves on pretty quickly so do your homework before taking the plunge.
Secondly, I appreciate the concern regarding the duty on LPG and any potential increase. However, during the last budget, the Chancellor promised that the duty differential between petrol and LPG would remain as it currently is, until at least 2010. So although you may pay more for LPG than you are currently, it will still be substantially cheaper than petrol.