What to buy??

[Byff]

I've got a 4.0 Jeep Grand Cherokee & 4.5 Cerbera.

I've also got a wife thats been offered a job that has a 50 mile round trip.

I simply can't afford the petrol anymore :-( So what do I do? Convert the Jeep to LPG (but it already has 96,000 miles on the clock) or trade it in for something more economical. I will still need something capable of towing a heavy load i.e. over 2600kg.

Only ones i've thought of so far is a volvo estate, mercedes E class est or an Omega est, but I'm not sure if these will be able to pull safely.

4x4's are nice but i'm a bit sick of them now, so what do you lot in PH land reckon?

[davidy]

I'm surprised the Jeep is 'authorised' to pull 2600kg, most cars certainly aren't but the best two pullers (for 'authorised weight') are the Trooper and the Defender (both over 3000kg). I suspect that you are stuck with a 4x4

davidy

[Byff]

Jeeps max towing weight for a braked trailer is 3500kg.

Found out the omega is only 1650kgs, so yes, looks like i'm stuck with 4x4's



>> Edited by Byff on Saturday 28th September 14:21

[davidy]

Wasn't aware of the Jeep's ability, so your list is up to 3 now

Another Jeep (or keep the same one)
Trooper
Defender

Any more to add??

I expect through that the cost of vehicle change, especially in today's over supplied market, may be more than the increased costs in fuel (or the LPG conversion).

Why not get a little runaround for the trips to work??



davidy

>> Edited by davidy on Saturday 28th September 16:12

[Byff]

Personally, I wouldn't mind a V8 Disco with a LPG, but the missus hates them, along with rangies, troopers and shoguns. She likes the Landcruisers but have you seen how much they go for

I just don't know what to do for the best, little runaround would be perfect, but then i've got three lots of tax, insurance and MOT's to upkeep.

Two cars are enough IMO, but I just can't think of any powerful saloon/est cars capable of pulling such a heavy load.

Really I should just give er indors a slap and get a Range Rover - 4.6 HSE with LPG so I can afford to run it

[Hut49]

Might be worth taking a look through the following towing guide - it's from US so the weights are in pounds rather than kilos, but you can divide the pounds by 2.2. Your towing mass is around 5700 pounds.

www.trailerlife.com/downloads/02towingguide.pdf

Some nice tow trucks in the US but this guide seems to list saloons as well. Hope it helps keep peace at home!

Hutch

[Byff]

Thanks Hutch - that proved very helpfull.

It turns out a Lexus LS will be up to the job. Whey hey, wafting along the motorway and still able to load lug. Very economical if converted aswell.

I might have found a successor to the jeep.

Edited to say that UK spec LS has tow rating of 2000kg. I wonder if I can do a bit of weight reduction? Put my trailer on a diet

>> Edited by Byff on Saturday 28th September 18:40

[incorrigible]

LPG conversion pays for itsels after a bit, when you've spent as much on gas as you did on the conversion, worked out at just less than 10,000 miles for a Range Rover, well worth considering IMHO of course

[iguana]

I had a turbo Diesel grand Cheroke as a company car for a bit & quite liked it, bit slower than the 4.0 and noticably slower the TD cheroke (non the grand) that preceeded it, however goodish mpg and resonable handling for a 4x4- well far better than disco anyway.

Also could you be a buyer for the Porsche cayenne??? in 450bhp turbo form I dont think the mpg will be too good but you will be able to tow quickly... but seriously the VW version will have a diesel option.

[Podie]

How about a Disco TD5?

[pbrettle]

quote:
Also could you be a buyer for the Porsche cayenne??? in 450bhp turbo form I dont think the mpg will be too good but you will be able to tow quickly... but seriously the VW version will have a diesel option.

Yes, VW are going to do a V10 TD - with 300 BHP!!! Nice. Still that one will be around the £60K mark though. They will do the 3.2 petrol for around £28K which is much better - but not better on the fuel...

As for what to buy - I would get the Jeep LPG'ed. Looking to get one for myself and from the investigation that I have done already nice and reliable if done right. The Jeep engine is simple and easy to convert - lots of space for the tanks and now that almost all motorway and major petrol stations have LPG - makes more sense..... Plus the government has commited that it will freeze duty (tax) on LPG until 2004 and then keep its rise in line with inflation.... so no nasty suprises there then.

On the work that I have done looking into Jeeps and LPG you should expect to get around 12-14MPG under LPG. Which is a bit down on petrol, but at less than half the price you are looking at an effective 30ish MPG which is much better. Take it really easy and you should be getting 35ish. The costs for conversion range from nothing to lots. But from what I know go with a known and trusted convertor that has the Powershift thingy. Pay them to do the work (dont get a DIY kit) and get a 1 year waranty with it. That should come in at under £1500. This sounds like a lot, but you should save yourself that in about 4 months.... which is nice...

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Paul

P.S. Just go to Google.com and search for jeep and LPG ("jeep lpg") and go through the links - quite enlightening...

[squirrelz]

quote:
Yes, VW are going to do a V10 TD - with 300 BHP!!! Nice. Still that one will be around the £60K mark though. They will do the 3.2 petrol for around £28K which is much better - but not better on the fuel...

....but you can buy a lot of fuel with £32K

[Byff]

I suggested gettin a Lexus to the wife who replied -

"Youve just spent a fortune on a Cerbera and now you want another car, do you think were made of f&*@in money"

Looks like I'm going to have to convert the Jeep to LPG and hope the engine/gearbox/axels holds up for another 50k miles. Funny how when you think of sellin something it starts to misbehave, I'm sure the engine gave a little stutter when I went to pull away the other morning, there may be trouble ahead....

[williamball]

My wife has a 4.0 Cherokee. I have a Cerbera 4.2. I can't afford to run both daily now, so I have an el-cheapo Cinquecento for the daily grind. It's actually saved a fortune over the past year in terms of petrol and servicing for the Cerb. I can handle the embaressment of the Cinq as it lets me keep the Cerb, plus I've actually grown to like the challenge of getting it from A to B quickly, which was never really a challenge in the Cerb! Plus we keep the wife's Cherokee, which is a bit of a hoot, espcially in the snow.
WB

[icamm]

quote:
My wife has a 4.0 Cherokee. I have a Cerbera 4.2. I can't afford to run both daily now, so I have an el-cheapo Cinquecento for the daily grind. It's actually saved a fortune over the past year in terms of petrol and servicing for the Cerb.

I have had a similar experience. I bought a Skoda Felicia 1.3 as a winter hack and it'saved me a fortune on running costs against the Griff.

I bought it for £2K 4 years old with 40K miles. 1.3 engine (low band road tax). Cheap insurance (even on a new 2nd policy without NCD). 35-50mpg on standard U/L. Really cheap to service (even at a main dealer).

If you work on a minimum of £1.50 per day saving on petrol (based on getting 50mpg against 25mpg in other car for your 50 miles a day). Then thats £7.50 a week which means £390 per year in petrol alone. Add the 100's of pounds saved in servicing and tyres (small and therefore cheap) and other running costs!!!!

I have saved in the region of £600 in serving costs during the 10,000 miles of running a second car.

You can also possibly save by having a limited mileage policy on the main car's insurance against the high mileage now required.

If you do the maths you may well find that it doesn't take long to recover most of the cost of buying the car. It will certainly cover the extra tax, insurance and depreciation of most cars.

Hope this helps,
Ian
Red 4.3 Griff - E945 TVR