LPG conversion
I've had the Commodore converted to LP gas. I was lucky in that I booked it in before the Government rebate (pork barrel exercise) was announced. The wait went from two month to nine months within days. I paid $2620 for the conversion and will get $2000 back from the government so the pay back time has gone from around 18 months to less than six months. As well as being cheaper, LPG has much lower emissions than petrol or diesel. But it's still a fossil fuel.
So far so good, with the following observations:
LPG is much cheaper; 44c vs $1.20 something at the moment.
The 10% loss in power is barely noticeable except on steep hills where you have to push the accelerator down further than you are used to.
The 30% poorer fuel economy is not an issue in terms of cost, but is in terms of range.
The conversion in my Commodore uses a "donut" tank which fits in the place for the spare wheel. This is because I have a station wagon rather than sedan. This gives you about 40 litres of gas until the low fuel warning come on, which works out to a range of 200 - 240 km. No problem in the city, but in the country a lot of small places don't have gas. Where we were staying in the Otways the nearest gas was 40km away in every direction. At Colac it cost 52c, in Apollo Bay it was 65c and in Port Campbell it was 78c. But as there were no other choices I had to pay whatever they charged. Even at 78c it is still much cheaper than petrol, but it hurts to pay 80% over the odds for anything.
For sedans you would probably have a different type of tank that fits against the back seat and has a larger capacity, so range would be less of an issue. Having a station wagon with a V8 would be a bit of a problem. My V6 seems to give around 17mpg on gas and I suspect will do much better when I get to take it on a country trip in less hillier surroundings.
So far so good, with the following observations:
LPG is much cheaper; 44c vs $1.20 something at the moment.
The 10% loss in power is barely noticeable except on steep hills where you have to push the accelerator down further than you are used to.
The 30% poorer fuel economy is not an issue in terms of cost, but is in terms of range.
The conversion in my Commodore uses a "donut" tank which fits in the place for the spare wheel. This is because I have a station wagon rather than sedan. This gives you about 40 litres of gas until the low fuel warning come on, which works out to a range of 200 - 240 km. No problem in the city, but in the country a lot of small places don't have gas. Where we were staying in the Otways the nearest gas was 40km away in every direction. At Colac it cost 52c, in Apollo Bay it was 65c and in Port Campbell it was 78c. But as there were no other choices I had to pay whatever they charged. Even at 78c it is still much cheaper than petrol, but it hurts to pay 80% over the odds for anything.
For sedans you would probably have a different type of tank that fits against the back seat and has a larger capacity, so range would be less of an issue. Having a station wagon with a V8 would be a bit of a problem. My V6 seems to give around 17mpg on gas and I suspect will do much better when I get to take it on a country trip in less hillier surroundings.