Critique my work pls

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Right ocuk. I've started writing for a private hire drivers website and would appreciate some feedback on my first proper piece
Now it's for taxi drivers so or doesn't need to be Shakespeare but some pointers would be good

With a change of vehicle looming in the next 12 months you would think my search criteria would be plain and simple, something with room for 4 passengers some luggage, a bit of comfort and a reliable diesel under the bonnet. But with the cost of fuel continually increasing and the price gap between petrol and diesel widening ever further I thought it might be prudent to weigh up all my options, Enter stage left Petrol and LPG. Whilst obviously diesel is widely regarded as a more economical option over petrol I thought I’d better break the calculator out before I dismissed it entirely. Modern diesel engines have evolved to the point where they are technically superior to their petrol fuelled siblings and can as any PHV driver will testify to give eyewateringly large maintenance bills over the course of ownership.

So the challenge was on, I decided to look at a future PHV favourite the Vauxhall Insignia, Budgeting a maximum of 10k I decided I would find similar examples of petrol diesel and LPG powered vehicles.

First one I eyed was a 2009 1.8 16v petrol model in Sri trim with 38k on the clock 1 previous owner with FVSH screen price £8495
Next up was an identical car bar the engine, this time a 2l 16v 130 horsepower diesel lump again FVSH 1 owner screen price £9999
And finally the hunt was on for an elusive LPG powered insignia.I finally tracked one down on a forecourt in identical trim and spec to the other 2 powered with a 1.8 16v petrol engine with lpg conversion screen price £10250

So I have 3 likely candidates which are to all intensive purposes indentical apart from their pump of choice come fill up time. Quite a price difference in terms of purchase costs as well so it came time to break the calculator out.

Now as a Private Hire Driver my work is mainly in urban environments so it would be safe to quote urban fuel figures when doing the maths, My current Vectra has never strayed beyond 3mpg either way of her factory quoted urban mileage in 3 years of ownership so lets compare.

1,8 16v petrol – Vauxhall quote an urban mpg figure of 26.2 mpg
2.0 16v Diesel – Vauxhall quote an urban mpg figure of 44.2 mpg
1.8 16v LPG- no official mpg figures available but the general consensus is that lpg with a lower calorific value to petrol generally returns 10% mpg than a petrol equivilant so we’ll say 23.6 mpg

Some simple maths if I average 50k miles a year at current fuel costs of Diesel 142.9p Petrol 135.7p and LPG 73.9p per litre, (prices checked with petrolprices.com cheapest to the authors home within a 5 mile radius)

So cost per year is 50k /cars mpg figure x (cost perlitre x4.54)
Gallon of each

Diesel- £6.49 x 1131 Gallons per annum =£7340 a year in fuel or £4404 for 30k p.a
Petrol-£6.16 x 1908 Gallons per annum = £11753 a year in fuel or £7052 for 30k p.a.
LPG-£ 3.36 x 2119 Gallons per annum= £7120 a year in fuel £4272 for 30k p.a
Certainly gives us some food for thought, although there are a lot of variables to consider including the repair costs of each vehicle (diesels are generally deemed more expensive to maintain) and the fact that an LPG powered vehicle needs to be started on petrol before switching over to LPG also needs to be added to the thought process which makes if very difficult to separate Diesel and LPG.

In conclusion the only thing I can draw is that petrol is the clear loser. Both diesel and LPG have their pros and cons and after writing this piece I have to say i’m still not sure which i would go for. I would imagine the choice would come down to engine preference, a revvy petrol/lpg engine or a lazy torquey diesel lump.

one thing i would say is ignore the formatting (bleeding copy and paste) but any comments good or bad or helpful will be warmly welcomed

 

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Couple of quick things:

Thrase is, "to all intents and purposes"

You missed the word less when describing LPG efficiency.

Have a good day.

cheers updated my copy

 

[233]

cheers paradigm, edited my copy

other than the odd typo etc what do you guys think of the actual content?

 

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Quick update which I'm settling on

With a change of vehicle looming in the next 12 months you would think my search criteria would be plain and simple, something with room for 4 passengers some luggage, a bit of comfort and a reliable diesel under the bonnet. But with the cost of fuel continually increasing and the price gap between petrol and diesel widening ever further I thought it might be prudent to weigh up all my options, Enter stage left Petrol and LPG. Whilst obviously diesel is widely regarded as a more economical option over petrol I thought I’d better break the calculator out before I dismissed it entirely. Modern diesel engines have evolved to the point where they are technically superior to their petrol fuelled siblings and can as any PHV driver will testify to give eyewateringly large maintenance bills over the course of ownership.

So the challenge was on, I decided to look at a future PHV favourite the Vauxhall Insignia, Budgeting a maximum of 10k I decided I would find similar examples of petrol diesel and LPG powered vehicles.

First one I eyed was a 2009 1.8 16v 140bhp petrol model in Sri trim with 38k on the clock 1 previous owner with FVSH screen price £8495
Next up was an identical car bar the engine, this time a 2l 16v 130 horsepower diesel lump again FVSH 1 owner screen price £9999
And finally the hunt was on for an elusive LPG powered insignia.I finally tracked one down on a forecourt in identical trim and spec to the other 2 powered with a 1.8 16v petrol engine with lpg conversion screen price £10250

So I have 3 likely candidates which are to all intents and purposes indentical apart from their pump of choice come fill up time. Quite a price difference in terms of purchase costs as well so it came time to break the calculator out.

Now as a Private Hire Driver my work is mainly in urban environments so it would be safe to quote urban fuel figures when doing the maths, My current Vectra has never strayed beyond 3mpg either way of her factory quoted urban mileage in 3 years of ownership so lets compare.

1,8 16v petrol – Vauxhall quote an urban mpg figure of 26.2 mpg
2.0 16v Diesel – Vauxhall quote an urban mpg figure of 44.2 mpg
1.8 16v LPG- no official mpg figures available but the general consensus is that lpg with a lower calorific value to petrol generally returns 10% mpg less than a petrol equivalent so we’ll say 23.6 mpg

Some simple maths if I average 50k miles a year at current fuel costs of Diesel 142.9p Petrol 135.7p and LPG 73.9p per litre, (prices checked with petrolprices.com cheapest to the authors home within a 5 mile radius)

So cost per year is 50k /cars mpg figure x (cost perlitre x4.54)
Gallon of each

Diesel- £6.49 x 1131 Gallons per annum =£7340 a year in fuel or £4404 for 30k p.a
Petrol-£6.16 x 1908 Gallons per annum = £11753 a year in fuel or £7052 for 30k p.a.
LPG-£ 3.36 x 2119 Gallons per annum= £7120 a year in fuel £4272 for 30k p.a
Certainly gives us some food for thought, although there are a lot of variables to consider including the repair costs of each vehicle (diesels are generally deemed more expensive to maintain) and the fact that an LPG powered vehicle needs to be started on petrol before switching over to LPG also needs to be added to the thought process which makes if very difficult to separate Diesel and LPG.

In conclusion the only thing I can draw is that petrol is the clear loser. Both diesel and LPG have their pros and cons and after writing this piece I have to say i’m still not sure which i would say is the best choice. I would imagine the choice would come down to engine preference, a revvy petrol/lpg engine or a lazy torquey diesel lump. But for this owner driver the choice falls with the diesel mainly down to the fear of the unknown and the relative scarcity of garages selling LPG which would necessitate the need for some forward planning for fill ups. It certainly isnt the clear cut choice I thought it was and has more or less come down to personal preferences to split the 2 fuels






Next up for me is comparison of engine sizes and outputs in one make and model most likely comparing various engines octavias if theres any interest I'll stick a copy up here

 

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Surely the 2.0L Diesel doesn't achieve 44.2 MPG Urban?

quoted figures direct from vauxhall,


my 200k vectra 1.9 cdti 150 averages 42mpg round the schemes and the town. and will push that average a bit higher when you manage a bit of motorway work in between.

perfectly reasonable to assume a new insignia with a very similar engine and weight will manage a bit better with a detuned 130bhp FYI the 160 sri insignia is quoted at 41mpg urban


the real scary part is when you look at alternatives to either of the 1.8 16v or the 2l cdti i've mentioned

If you go down the LPG route, you can do 50k miles a year in a 2l 16v petrol turbo insignia for a mere £100 a year more in fuel bills
if you wanted to run a VXR 2.8 twin turbo 4wd thats when it does get a bit pricier, an extra £2700 a year of circa £50 a week more in fuel.

BUT i could almost justify that if i could ignore the original purchase price difference, £50 a week would be cheaper than buying and insuring a weekend toy

certainly gives some food for thought though a 2l 16v turbo insignia with LPG vs a 2l 16v diesel now bear in mind that figures quoted for the oil burner are based on the 130 if you switch to the 160 then the petrol turbo on lpg is the cheaper of the two cars to fuel for a year.

5minutes on autotrader shows that the publics love for all things oil burning (ZOMG THINK OF THE MPGZZZZZ) means you can pick up a 2l 16v petrol turbo for less than the equivilant diesel, and i'd be shocked if you couldnt squeeze a better discount from a dealer buying a petrol turbo over a diesel in the current climate. which would more or less give you enough of a saving on the purchase price to cover the cost of an LPG install.

So the choice boils down to petrol turbo or diesel turbo both with similar fuelling costs and similar maintenance costs i'd imagine . both will map to good figures (petrol turbo to 260 bhp derv to circa 200 horses) although there seems to be quite a few 2l petrol turbos specced with 4wd. Aww FFS i thought i'd gove over this stupid idea

 

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MPG is an acronym for miles per gallon though. Fewer miles per gallon. Less MPG.

Meh

thanks for the critique guys all up and posted now,



have a couple of other irons in the fire regards ideas but would be interested in any suggestions that ocuk motors could offer for me to cover.

The blog is afocused on the private hire(minicab trade) so anything generally motors related would be fine