V6 fuel consumption on LPG

[guru]

LPG is great and basically a way to 'cheat' and run a fun car for the cost of a diesel however availability is the biggest problem. I ran LPG cars for around a decade (still have one) and at the start they were great however a few LPG stations closed leaving me with a long drive out of my way to fill up. Our Jeep which is LPG'd mainly runs on expensive unleaded because I hardly get a chance to gas up. The other thing to bear in mind is maintenance. If you have a good local maintainer this isn't a problem however if your nearest one is a crook that you wouldn't trust for anything then it becomes an issue.
That said it is sometimes useful having a second fuel tank........going back to a diesel it's taken a bit of getting used to the concept of empty really meaning empty!

[andymc]

Originally Posted by Astraeus

Remember to compare like with like. What is the cost of diesel/petrol there? If £1.08/1.10 then 63p is still just over half the cost.

Chris

That's a good point, and is more or less how I would think about it.

Diesel currently costs me about 1.07 a litre (about 15% less when I fill up across the border, but I'll ignore that for now as being anomalous). Conservatively, I'll say that I average about 46mpg, although I have seen 52/53 or thereabouts on longer runs. The car runs just as I like, with excellent torque and mid-range acceleration for overtaking (thank you Brian!), so I'm happy with that. At current prices, it takes £67-£68 to cover 640-650 miles, or about 10.5p a mile (in fuel).

On gas, the only forecourt price I've seen recently shows it would cost me 63.9ppl / £2.90 a gallon. At 24mpg, covering 650 miles will take 27 gallons, or about 123 litres. At 63.9ppl, it would cost £78.67 to cover the same distance. However if I was able to get LPG for the same sort of prices mentioned above, it would only cost me £61-£62.

Over 10000 miles, the figures come out as follows:
diesel (at 107ppl) - £1046
LPG (at 63.9ppl) - £1210
LPG (at 50ppl) - £954

So it's definitely worth it for you lucky people across the water - however it doesn't keep its nose clean over here, unless I can find somewhere supplying gas at a much cheaper price. Or unless the diesel price rises while the gas price stays the same or even drops.

I'd also have to see how my insurance would be affected. Last time I looked at this, IIRC the best quote from a variety of insurers was an extra £180 or thereabouts onto my premium about 4 months into the policy, just for a theoretical change from a diesel 75 saloon to a ZT 2.5 tourer on LPG. Maybe if a 75 on LPG comes up, the premium may be lower ("a ZT's a sports car, innit?") but I'd have to check it out thoroughly beforehand.

I'll keep an eye out for other LPG prices, but for now the idea falls into the "nice idea, but not feasible" category.

[StewartIngram]

I've never had any change in insurance prices for lpg, and I've always stated it as a modification, can't be too careful about that! Some insurers ask for an install certificate which costa about £25 (or it did when I last checked), I've always done DIY fits and had them checked after by a professional. Mind you there is a bit of a" cartel scam " going on with certs, but that's another story.
And I reiterate, check gas supply depots 1st, NOT forecourts. My local Flogas (noted as expensive or so I've heard in the trade) is 47.0p, whereas Shell is around 63.9p. BP (always the dearest I've found wherever I've been in the last 16 years) is around 69.9p. Morrisons actually is often very cheap; locally it has been 47.9p for months which is unusual as their prices often change almost daily. I have heard recently that you can go as low as around 36-39p in the W.Midlands, noted as a cheap area.
And of course as a green fuel the Govt. helps us out, we get all of a £15 rebate on the Road Fund!

Stewart

[andymc]

Hmm, it didn't occur to me that anywhere other than a forecourt would supply LPG as a road fuel. I'll bear that in mind.

[mystabe]

To be honest if anything happened to my diesel Tourer the only Rover/MG I'd replace it with would be an auto MK2 ZT-T 180+ with LPG. That would be a pretty tall order to find though and you have to drive a lot of miles to justify/recoup the cost of having a decent kit fitted yourself

[Darcydog]

Originally Posted by Astraeus

I have been interested in recent questions about the V6 and its fuel consumption figures. Over the past couple of weeks I have been recording things very carefully. This includes a wide mixture of driving including commuting, leisure weekend stuff and a 260 round trip from here to visit our son in RAF Lossiemouth.
As my car runs on LPG I was particularly interested in the comparisons between it and the diesel unit.

Now the facts over just short of 500 miles. This has worked out at exactly 23.8 miles per gallon. That perhaps does not sound great but that has been the truth. However as this was running on LPG this equates to an equivelant in cost comparison with the diesel of

Lpg @0.49 p per litre equals £2.23 per gallon
Diesel @ 1.08 per litre equals £4.92 per gallon.

Given some folk claim to get 48 MPG figures overall on diesel I will base it on that

Roughly speaking the cost of running my V6 compared to running a diesel is actually ( talking purely fuel here) about the same.

This is more or less what I expected. Given that LPG returns slightly less MPG shown in the 23.8 ( with petrol a bit more)

So there you go ....about exactly the same as a diesel, if anything a bit better..

Given that V6 purr that is...
Footnote...this includes the cost of and mileage of petrol used! In summer months mine runs on petrol for maybe 1 minute before switch over first start in morning almost instant thereafter.

Chris

Same sort of ratio to what I achieved with my V8 Petrol/LPG Discovery. The Disco did about 18 mpg on petrol and about 16mpg on LPG - with LPG about half the cost of petrol (and 3 years ago Diesel was significantly more expensive than petrol remember - so by m calculations - my old Disco did the equivalent cost wise of about 30 to 32 mpg on LPG.

This compared well to the LR diesels where the 200 series and the 300 series did about 27mpg and the Td5 not a lot more.

So I always thought buying a cheaper and often more luxurious V8 Petrol (the petrol LR's were usually top of the range) and converting it to LPG such that the total cost was about that I would have paid for a diesel was a mpre sensible option. That said - the conversion did not, sadly, increase the value.

Equally sadly - LPG round here is between 54 and 58 pence per litre. Wish it was 49p/L !!!

On the M3 on Thursday - Fleet Services - LPG was 57.9p/L and petrol and diesel were 122p/L - This is the first time I have ever seen LPG being less than half the price of petrol or diesel.

Overall - It really is making sense to look at a nice tope of the range 2.5 V6 and LPG convert it.

[Darcydog]

Originally Posted by StewartIngram

One argument often put forward for not converting is the (non)availability of lpg in your area, and/or the price at the local petrol stations.
Do take note that with lpg you have far more choice that garage forecourt pumps. The main names I think of are Calor, Autogas, Flogas; do a Google for suppliers. You will find outlets at many distributors, or caravan dealers, at prices below forecourt suppliers, and where there are no forecourt pumps in the area.

Stewart

Just to add to Stewarts excellent post re the availability of LPG - I used to use Calor Gas centres a lot.

Also airports often have an LPG outlet - Bournemouth Airport has one.

In the SW - Countrywide Farmers have an LPG Distribution network that works well. You get a card and a pin number and can go and fill up on a Farm or similar. No money changes hands - you get a monthly bill based upon your usage.

https://www.countrywidefarmers.co.uk...sscontentbasic

Not sure if this has expanded outside of the SW - or if there are similar providers.

[coolguy]

Picked up a ZT 180 Auto with LPG recently. The guy who had it before me reckoned he got 230 miles for £20. I'll let you know how I get on. I may be selling it as I really don't like it's colour (anthracite), and if so, it will go on the forum first.

[fandango151]

Originally Posted by coolguy

Picked up a ZT 180 Auto with LPG recently. The guy who had it before me reckoned he got 230 miles for £20. I'll let you know how I get on. I may be selling it as I really don't like it's colour (anthracite), and if so, it will go on the forum first.

Sounds about right... But prices vary big time. Birmingham has cheapest I've ever seen currently 38ppl. In Bristol I pay 47.7 at asds. V6 auto.. Can squeeze around 60l in which is around the 20ish mark in brum and go for around 260 miles.

A session on t4 or vt4 can help enabling LPG not massively but on my v6 for sure it has advanced timing or changed fuelling (instantly after sending new tune to car, cold start = high revs when it fires then it brings them down almost like an air leak).

Next car will be LPG - 11 years of mgr products but fancy a 300c on barbecue fuel.

[Darcydog]

Originally Posted by fandango151

.... but fancy a 300c on barbecue fuel.

I looked a couple of these - stunning car for the money. But sadly for me the high lip on the rear door of the Tourer makes them impractical.

But I am still tempted..........