What car; £3-5k, 20k miles pa?

Lashout_UK said:
I'd avoid LPG, it usually proves to be a false economy or a massive cost at worst, an inconvenience or irritance at best - especially if you're doing lots of miles.
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Nonsense, old mans been doing em for 5 years, LPGA approved everything.

If you do a lot of mileage then yes its worth it, otherwise no. It's usually that simple. a lot of private hire taxi drivers in birmingham use LPG.
 
B&W said:
If you do a lot of mileage then yes its worth it, otherwise no.
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If you're doing starship mileage, maybe, yea - but even so there's still lots of negatives. The average user will never see any benefits.

A quick case study (not for you B&W, sure you're aware, just for those interested):

18,250 miles a year on LPG, at 30mpg (assuming 65ppl, lower economy due to LPG installation) : £1,795.19

18,250 miles a year on petrol, at 35mpg (assuming 116ppl) : £2,722.38

Difference: £927

Cost of fitting a decent 6-cylinder multipoint system: £1,500

Time to recoup initial outlay: 1.6 years.

......so you'd have to drive the car for over a year and a half, before you even started to break even - and that's negating the cost of any replacement vapourisers, assuming LPG gets the same tax breaks, keeping the system serviced and so on.

Plus there's the real bugbear of limited range (although obviously more, larger, tanks can rectify that but then there's added weight) and the fact that it is still quite hard to find LPG on a casual basis, and if you do a lot of pumps tend to be out of order. Also potentially weaker performance although that does vary.

If you're going to buy it brand new, a decent top-of-the-line system, maybe - but you'll be driving that rig for a looooooong time in most instances to recoup, or maybe even save, a little bit of money. Won't add £1,500 quid to the value of your vehicle, either - it'll just be another worn out motorway wreck with a few hundred quid tagged on because it's got LPG on it......

People seem to always rave about it but I think they've either very limited experience with the kit or have never actually done the sums :D

Second hand systems seem well worth steering clear of as well......we had a big long thread on RR about it recently and every single person had nothing but trouble with cars with 'working' LPG systems fitted to them.
 
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Yeah, average car user does say 10-15k miles? Not worth it for them, when ever someone asks me is it worth it the first thing I ask them about is the mileage.

White van drivers/taxi drivers that's who it really benefits.
 
B&W said:
Nonsense, old mans been doing em for 5 years, LPGA approved everything.

If you do a lot of mileage then yes its worth it, otherwise no. It's usually that simple. a lot of private hire taxi drivers in birmingham use LPG.
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probably due to tax breaks more than anything? for me, it would be a bit annoying having to wait for a escort through Dartford tunnel every time.
 
paradigm said:
I'd have something like http://pistonheads.com/sales/1812971.htm
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LOL @


Full BMW Main Dealer Service History:

03/07/01 Cooper Cobham BMW 0
16/12/02 Cooper Cobham BMW 16,952
13/03/04 Cooper Cobham BMW 31,104
01/06/05 Cooper Cobham BMW 43,589
21/09/06 Cooper Cobham BMW 59,704
27/07/07 Cooper Cobham BMW 73,967
02/06/08 Barons Farnborough 88,282
11/08/09 LAW BMW Specialist 105,240

And

Cheap Tax Band (unlike the less desirable Automatics)
 
No, it doesn't. It costs £245. Just like an M5 does. And just like my 229g/km 530i manual does.

Cars registered prior to March 2006 are capped at Band K, at £245 a year, regardless of emissions.
 
Ah yea, I forgot all about the band K thing :) Ta!

Bizarre how it goes 'Cars registered on or after 1 March 2001' and then 'before 23 March 2006', like they suddenly realised it was a massive miscalculation. I guess they had to give manufacturers a chance.
 
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It was a huge issue back in 2008 when, for 4-5 months, it was announced that all cars after March 2001 would be subject to the full range of VED rates.

They eventually bowed to pressure and u-turned in the next budget as it was deemed grossly unfair to impose such huge retrospective tax hikes.
 
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