Is LPG worth it?
Discussion
Just looking around for 4 seater convertibles that are reasonably fuel efficient (was considering around 30mpg combined) and found a Saab Aero that has an LPG kit fitted; is this worth having these days? I thought LPG was going up in terms of cost and wasn't really worth the hassle, given the savings are not as big these days and you have to also factor in an additional service for the LPG mechanicals.
Based on the fact that ads says "The 65 litre tank located under the boot floor will deliver a range of up to 300 miles for just £45 of LPG." does anyone know what sort of real world mpg that would equate to? I do about 15k miles a year so just trying to work out if its worth the hassle or if I should stick to a std petrol car.
Many thanks for any advice.
Matt
Based on the fact that ads says "The 65 litre tank located under the boot floor will deliver a range of up to 300 miles for just £45 of LPG." does anyone know what sort of real world mpg that would equate to? I do about 15k miles a year so just trying to work out if its worth the hassle or if I should stick to a std petrol car.
Many thanks for any advice.
Matt
Hi my farther has a 95 Aero and he bought it already fitted with a LPG system.
He is doing the equivalent of 40mpg on petrol. If you are buying a car converted already then there is not much point in not using it the service cost will be barely noticed next to the deprecation.
I did look to convert one of the Jag’s but the conversion costs / hassle meant it is not really worth it. And as you point out the cost of the gas has gone up more as a percentage then petrol.
By the way my old boy has said that there is a fair difference in price of the gas from one place to the next so it can pay to shop about.
He is doing the equivalent of 40mpg on petrol. If you are buying a car converted already then there is not much point in not using it the service cost will be barely noticed next to the deprecation.
I did look to convert one of the Jag’s but the conversion costs / hassle meant it is not really worth it. And as you point out the cost of the gas has gone up more as a percentage then petrol.
By the way my old boy has said that there is a fair difference in price of the gas from one place to the next so it can pay to shop about.
To work out what real world MPG you are getting from your LPG tank, google for "300 miles per 65 litres in miles per Imperial gallon". No need to do any maths. Google says 21mpg.
To figure out the bizarro world MPG that people like to quote, first work out the cost of LPG: £45/65L = about £0.69/L. So it's a little bit more than half the price of ordinary petrol. That makes it easy. So, roughly speaking, you're paying as much as you would for a petrol car that does about 40mpg.
Working it out more exactly, my spreadsheet says that doing 8000 miles per year, if your car does 21mpg then you'd pay ~£1195/yr in LPG @ £0.69/litre. If you paid ~£1195/yr in petrol @ £1.35/litre to drive that distance, your car must be doing 41mpg; if you paid £1195/yr in diesel @ £1.41/litre to drive that distance, your car must be doing 43mpg. You can pick and choose which figure you use depending on who you're arguing with.
If LPG ends up increasing sufficiently in price that it's no longer cost-effective (which you can check by running the figures) then you can always run the car on petrol. Maybe it would do better than 20mpg when running on petrol, but I'm sure it would still sting a little. Anyway, as you can tell from the figures, there's a while to go before that will happen, even if LPG does have a lower energy content than petrol.
To figure out the bizarro world MPG that people like to quote, first work out the cost of LPG: £45/65L = about £0.69/L. So it's a little bit more than half the price of ordinary petrol. That makes it easy. So, roughly speaking, you're paying as much as you would for a petrol car that does about 40mpg.
Working it out more exactly, my spreadsheet says that doing 8000 miles per year, if your car does 21mpg then you'd pay ~£1195/yr in LPG @ £0.69/litre. If you paid ~£1195/yr in petrol @ £1.35/litre to drive that distance, your car must be doing 41mpg; if you paid £1195/yr in diesel @ £1.41/litre to drive that distance, your car must be doing 43mpg. You can pick and choose which figure you use depending on who you're arguing with.
If LPG ends up increasing sufficiently in price that it's no longer cost-effective (which you can check by running the figures) then you can always run the car on petrol. Maybe it would do better than 20mpg when running on petrol, but I'm sure it would still sting a little. Anyway, as you can tell from the figures, there's a while to go before that will happen, even if LPG does have a lower energy content than petrol.
we had our 3.0 V6 Avantime automatic converted 19mths ago, it cost £1500, and it paid for itself in fuel savings in the first 10,000 miles.
For us, it was a no brainer, as it means we can afford to run the car and get some value out of the tax disc (which is marginally cheaper as an 'alternative fuel car')
Claire
For us, it was a no brainer, as it means we can afford to run the car and get some value out of the tax disc (which is marginally cheaper as an 'alternative fuel car')
Claire
to3m said:
To work out what real world MPG you are getting from your LPG tank, google for "300 miles per 65 litres in miles per Imperial gallon". No need to do any maths. Google says 21mpg.
To figure out the bizarro world MPG that people like to quote, first work out the cost of LPG: £45/65L = about £0.69/L. So it's a little bit more than half the price of ordinary petrol. That makes it easy. So, roughly speaking, you're paying as much as you would for a petrol car that does about 40mpg.
Working it out more exactly, my spreadsheet says that doing 8000 miles per year, if your car does 21mpg then you'd pay ~£1195/yr in LPG @ £0.69/litre. If you paid ~£1195/yr in petrol @ £1.35/litre to drive that distance, your car must be doing 41mpg; if you paid £1195/yr in diesel @ £1.41/litre to drive that distance, your car must be doing 43mpg. You can pick and choose which figure you use depending on who you're arguing with.
If LPG ends up increasing sufficiently in price that it's no longer cost-effective (which you can check by running the figures) then you can always run the car on petrol. Maybe it would do better than 20mpg when running on petrol, but I'm sure it would still sting a little. Anyway, as you can tell from the figures, there's a while to go before that will happen, even if LPG does have a lower energy content than petrol.
Bear in mind with lpg tanks you can only fill about 80% of them. So approx 52 L which equals 26MPGTo figure out the bizarro world MPG that people like to quote, first work out the cost of LPG: £45/65L = about £0.69/L. So it's a little bit more than half the price of ordinary petrol. That makes it easy. So, roughly speaking, you're paying as much as you would for a petrol car that does about 40mpg.
Working it out more exactly, my spreadsheet says that doing 8000 miles per year, if your car does 21mpg then you'd pay ~£1195/yr in LPG @ £0.69/litre. If you paid ~£1195/yr in petrol @ £1.35/litre to drive that distance, your car must be doing 41mpg; if you paid £1195/yr in diesel @ £1.41/litre to drive that distance, your car must be doing 43mpg. You can pick and choose which figure you use depending on who you're arguing with.
If LPG ends up increasing sufficiently in price that it's no longer cost-effective (which you can check by running the figures) then you can always run the car on petrol. Maybe it would do better than 20mpg when running on petrol, but I'm sure it would still sting a little. Anyway, as you can tell from the figures, there's a while to go before that will happen, even if LPG does have a lower energy content than petrol.
RobM77 said:
Bear in mind that LPG cars are not permitted on the Eurotunnel. For that reason alone I wouldn't consider owning an LPG car.
Could someone link to this other thread perhaps?
we're having a nice relaxing ride on the ferry when we take ours to France later this year (10th anniversary Avi meet up). TBH, not using the Eurotunnel doesnt bother me, and it wouldnt stop me buying an LPG car - I've been on it twice in 7 years, and when I think of the mileage and savings I've made on LPG in that time, it doesnt bother me that I'd have to go on the water rather then under it.Could someone link to this other thread perhaps?
From what I've read, you can lose up to 10% MPG on LPG, so that makes our Avi do around 20-25mpg on LPG, taking 10% off of what the on board computer says the car is doing. Unleaded £1.33 a litre, LPG 69p a litre..... for us its a no brainer.
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