[s.hughes]

Does anyone drive an lpg van or car for work? I'm wondering if it is cheap to run compared to a diesel. Its cheap to buy but dosnt do as much to the gallon as a petrol and theres also the extra weight of water so would like to know if it would be worth looking into in the future.

Steve

[[GQC] Tim]

Perhaps doesn't do as much as a Diesel no, but it's half the price of Petrol/Diesel. My dad drives one, and he's really happy with it. And he gets excellent mileage. (Mitsubishi Carisma)

[Spruce]

Hi
Cheap to run but as nobody wants them secondhand, their resale valve is very poor. Who wants a petrol engine van - nobody.
Spruce

[East coast window cleaning Services]

Bought a Astra van lpg 3 years ago full vauxhall history 40k on the clock. It was one of the worse purchases ever once they go wrong there . Cost me £1500 at vauxhall to repair and was never right. Shot it out and bought another diesel

[NWH]

I have afreind with a 320 merc 4x4 jobbie,it`s diesel and lpg and he gets nearly 900miles on both tanks combined.

[[GQC] Tim]

Bought a Astra van lpg 3 years ago full vauxhall history 40k on the clock. It was one of the worse purchases ever once they go wrong there f*cked. Cost me £1500 at vauxhall to repair and was never right. Shot it out and bought another diesel

Astra van, Vauxhall.

There's your problem right there.

[NWH]

The trouble with the vauxhalls is the older ones especially,is that the bits go wrong early on you don`t expect ie shockers electrics.I had 3 vauxhalls and the same things went wrong with all of them at near on the same milege.

[newpy]

Hi
Cheap to run but as nobody wants them secondhand, their resale valve is very poor. Who wants a petrol engine van - nobody.
Spruce

Absolute tosh!!

We run a 2.3 petrol mwb transit, with lpg conversion as standard, carry 700 litres if water + petrol pressure washer and all the other stuff no problem. Get about 200miles off a 55 litre tank. . Combined with the approx range of 200 miles on unleaded, if you need that sort of range! Costs me about £20 a wk in Lpg, and about £2 in unleaded, u only use the unleaded to start the van. As for resale are you telling me that you never lose any money in depreciation on a vehicle!!!!!

[Mike_G]

Had an astra lpg and although cheap to run it did go wrong and the local vauxhall garage did not have much of an idea about them. My advice would be if you have a garage near to you that specialises in lpg conversions pop in and ask them what is the best buy. I know a lot of early ones are single point injection jobs and these are not thought to be as good as the multi point ones and I dare say some factory fitted conversions are better than others. Vauxhall and volvo both did them as an option and I think ford did as well but like I said go and find an expert you will be better off for it.

[s.hughes]

I have afreind with a 320 merc 4x4 jobbie,it`s diesel and lpg and he gets nearly 900miles on both tanks combined.

You cant have a diesel lpg can you as it needs a spark from what I know, am I right?


Steve

[macmac]

I have afreind with a 320 merc 4x4 jobbie,it`s diesel and lpg and he gets nearly 900miles on both tanks combined.

You cant have a diesel lpg can you as it needs a spark from what I know, am I right?


Steve

Think you're right

tony

[mark dew]

Get about 200miles off a 55 litre tank.

Thats about 16 miles to the gallon. 

[ps outthere]

I run an LPG converted 2001 Mitsubishi Galant family car, approx 140,00 miles on the clock.
The LPG unit is an old unit but works well, uses about the same litres per mile, petrol or LPG (50.9ppl here) . It has never let me down in 3 years.

If I put the car in for an MOT using LPG it would fail the emission test, it's not as environmentlly friendly as I thought.

[Mike_G]

You can have diesel and lpg but it is so expensive to have installed it is not common. 

[[GQC] Tim]

You can have diesel and lpg but it is so expensive to have installed it is not common. 

I highly doubt that will work. Diesel being glowplugs, and petrol/lpg being sparkplugs. Just a complete different design.

[Mike_G]

When LPG is used to fuel internal combustion engines, it is often referred to as autogas. In some countries, it has been used since the 1940s as an alternative fuel for spark ignition engines. More recently, it has also been used in diesel engines.  This place does em, http://www.chilterngascars.co.uk/cars/lpgdiesel.htm

[Spruce]

Hi
Cheap to run but as nobody wants them secondhand, their resale valve is very poor. Who wants a petrol engine van - nobody.
Spruce

Absolute tosh!!

We run a 2.3 petrol mwb transit, with lpg conversion as standard, carry 700 litres if water + petrol pressure washer and all the other stuff no problem. Get about 200miles off a 55 litre tank. . Combined with the approx range of 200 miles on unleaded, if you need that sort of range! Costs me about £20 a wk in Lpg, and about £2 in unleaded, u only use the unleaded to start the van. As for resale are you telling me that you never lose any money in depreciation on a vehicle!!!!!

Hi Newpy,
This comes from many years experience selling commercial vans in the motor industry.
Every LPG conversion vehicle would hardly get a bid at auction and some with higher mileages (under 100k) never attracted a bid at all.
Generally people are scared off by the potential for costly repairs to the conversion should anything go wrong.
The best choice is a factory delivered van with the conversion already inplace. Many after market conversions were done to vehicles whose engines were not designed to use LPG.
I'm not disagreeing that running costs are lower (especially if it cuts the daily congestion charge in London), but the second hand market will buy a diesel first every time.

Another issue to further 'aggrivate' the issue was the  governments withdrawl of LPG conversion subsidies and that they won't give a guarantee that  reduced taxing on LPG will continue as it is currently.

Spruce

[newpy]

Hi
Cheap to run but as nobody wants them secondhand, their resale valve is very poor. Who wants a petrol engine van - nobody.
Spruce

Absolute tosh!!

We run a 2.3 petrol mwb transit, with lpg conversion as standard, carry 700 litres if water + petrol pressure washer and all the other stuff no problem. Get about 200miles off a 55 litre tank. . Combined with the approx range of 200 miles on unleaded, if you need that sort of range! Costs me about £20 a wk in Lpg, and about £2 in unleaded, u only use the unleaded to start the van. As for resale are you telling me that you never lose any money in depreciation on a vehicle!!!!!

Hi Newpy,
This comes from many years experience selling commercial vans in the motor industry.
Every LPG conversion vehicle would hardly get a bid at auction and some with higher mileages (under 100k) never attracted a bid at all.
Generally people are scared off by the potential for costly repairs to the conversion should anything go wrong.
The best choice is a factory delivered van with the conversion already inplace. Many after market conversions were done to vehicles whose engines were not designed to use LPG.
I'm not disagreeing that running costs are lower (especially if it cuts the daily congestion charge in London), but the second hand market will buy a diesel first every time.

Another issue to further 'aggrivate' the issue was the  governments withdrawl of LPG conversion subsidies and that they won't give a guarantee that  reduced taxing on LPG will continue as it is currently.

Spruce

Oh Well!!! You win some you lose some!
Not that i'm bothered at all, i won't be getting rid of ours till it dies. It's the first van of the fleet so i'll keep it for a while, got me diesel comin end of the mth though!! nice new tranny

[pootwo]

LPG NEADS A SPARK TO MAKE THE BANG AS DOS PETRAL/ DISEL IT IS THE HEAT FROM COMPRESING THE AIR THAT MAKES IT GO BANG  <TALK>& BACKSIDE.                                 IN       SAME SENTCE