Should I buy a pre LPG converted car instead of a tdi golf?

[da_murphster]

Right the 172 is going to make way for a mile muncher – missis does approx 20k a year and my mileage is likely to rocket as well.

I have about £5k and was looking at 320td, fabia vrs and golf 150 tdi’s

Just read a thread about LPG and thought maybe I should consider this.

I once bough a 185k 156 v6 alfa with a rubbishly done ‘self installed’ LPG kit….to say it didn’t really work out was an understatement – car needed huge amounts of TLC, the lpg used to switch off over 70mph and alfas drink fuel!

Am I wrong to let this experience put me off lpg – can they work? I am looking for a hassle free car experience with lots of mpg (or decent mpg equivalent).

I have good access to LPG around me and am ‘competent’ with filling etc.

I have had a quick look around and E46 328 or 330’s pre converted are in my price range – if they genuinely got the equivalent of 45mpg, hassle free, I would be a happy man with one of those.

Is it too good to be true? Do they ever work ‘like petrol’?

[da_murphster]

A bump for my quest for cheaper motoring (in a half decent car)

[Jem0911]

I run an LPG converted car.

Second I've had.

Can't praise it enough, gives me a pound for pound equivilent mpg of 31 from 4.4V8 car.

[Superhoop]

Not sure about the LPG side of things, but if you're looking at Golf TDi's, the 130 is a better car to look at... The 150's have a quite well known issue with camshaft wear

[Dino D]

I had a 330i saloon which got converted by: http://www.afs.uk.com/afsprocess.htm
The cost was about 2,1k but I looked for the best outfit rather than best price as the problems with conversions tend be from bad installations.

The only real drawback I found was lack of range-I had a 'doughnut' tank in the spare wheel well and left the space saver loose in the boot. If you do not need all of your boot than you can get a big cylinder mounted tank under the rear shelf, against the seats. If space is an issue then it best done on the big barges like 5/7 series so you don't miss the boot space. I would advise always go for the big engined, nice sounding cars, ie 330, 540 etc. If you convert something like a 318 then you might as well buy a diesel and have a torque+rubbish engine note rather than rubbish engine not and no torque...

There were hardly queues at the pumps as still not many people use LPG. It is sometimes hard to find LPG but I always had half a tank of petrol just in case so no worries if I was late for an appt didn't have time for detour for LPG etc.

I loved running a petrol car for diesel costs (even with the reduced fuel consumption on LPG it was cheaper than a 330d to run per mile). Come re-sell time my car got snapped up very quickly too.

For me the key thing was to have a petrol 330 but my job meant big miles and I did not want two cars hence I went for the one car solution

The above info is from 4 years ago so I do not know the cost of LPG/Petrol has changed now and how it works out now.
I averaged 25mpg (according to the OBC, so that means petrol consumption) over 20k or so miles. The LPG consumption was 21mpg (measured by tank to fill ups) over the same period.

[da_murphster]

I have spotted a BMW 330i with lpg - reckons to get equiverlent of 52mpg.

It does have 150k on the clock but these engines are supposed to be strong.

Good idea?

Sounds good to me - as long as it works!

You say you cannot praise it enough - it works flawlessly? Does not switch over to petrol on the m'way?

Is 85% of petrol mpg about right to work off for LPG?

[Dino D]

My car was a black sport saloon (facelift) with grey leather, sunroof, 18' MV alloys and the most amazing dark walnut trim you have ever seen!!!! Reg was LA51FMG iirc.

I sold it on about 70k miles 4 years ago.

I believe big mileages are no problem for the 330i and if someone has it on LPG chances they are not the type to wring it out much (although I guess was the exception the rule and drove it more like an M3 taking it on a few PH runs too - in case it is the one you are looking at I always let it warm up properly and kept oil topped up and I never crashed it!)
It was great fun enjoying petrol motoring at diesel rates! If I kept it longer I would have gone for an adjustable back box by Remus to make it louder on weekends and quiet in the week.

[Dino D]

da_murphster said:

You say you cannot praise it enough - it works flawlessly? Does not switch over to petrol on the m'way?

It starts on petrol from cold and on the coldest days ran for a minute or two on petrol then switched to LPG automatically. If you run out of LPG whilst driving then it will beep to warn you and switch to petrol automatically. You can manually select modes at the push of a button too - I used to run some nice Vpower for hoons as the throttle response was slightly better - this is apparently down to the BWM Bosch ecu being better than the LPG units ECU (a new tank, ecu, gas lines and injectors are installed).

The 330 has fly by wire which on the early models has a delay which can make the car jerky - an early model I test drove was very bad. Mine was a later one and not a problem, BUT on lpg the 'anti stall' feature was not so good - so it meant that I could not dawdle along as easily in 1st/2nd in heavy traffic. It is something I got used to after a while and more of a 'quirk' rather than a serious drawback.

da_murphster said:

Is 85% of petrol mpg about right to work off for LPG?

Sounds right as I was getting 25mpg on petrol and mpg on gas although some people say they get better than that - it may be down to the way the set up is tuned.

Detractors talk about the LPG unit needing an annual service so 'double servicing costs'. It is actually just a check up and a filter change and no more than 100.00 so hardly 'double' the service costs.
I also remember people saying LPG will become as expense as pertol - this was 4 years ago - what it UK LPG prices now?