live2learn

Hi there,

I live in Melbourne and planning install LPG on a car so that the car will run on gas making it a dual-fuel car. I've heard gas is much cheaper compared to petrol and gives more mileage. I would like to know:

• How much would it cost to install LPG on car
• Where can I get it done
• How long will it take to install LPG
• and do I get a rebate from the government?

Kindly reply.

All comments and feedbacks are welcomed.

Thank you

rightruccus

1. Ours was $3500 for a Falcon Wagon
2. Cant help on this one, sorry.
3. Took one day
4. Yes. We got $2000, think it's now $1750

FYI took 5 months for us to get payback on outlay through fuel cost saving.
Don't know where you heard about LPG giving more mileage but the opposite is true, though is still significantly worthwhile to convert based on cost of fuel and mileage returns.

live2learn

Wow thats how much it cost you over $3500? and have you seen a significant mileage increase once converted to LPG?

Also, I have heard that petrol is good for the engine health and keeps the engine warm whereas, LPG is cold and not very healthy for the car in the long run.

Has the LPG price come down from $3500 to $1750?

keel

I had my car converted to LPG and found that it used more litres of LPG per KM than petrol but because, at the time 3 years ago, the LPG was a lot cheaper I ended up saving about a third on fuel costs.

Keel

live2learn

So you recommend that I not for go LPG cars. How about dual-fuel that way I can always choose which one seems economical. How does that sound?

By the way I have 2 questions:

• whats the average cost of getting LPG on a car ?
• Shall I buy a car without LPG and get fix it later or get a car already with LPG and pay little extra when buying?

Kindly reply.

Thanks!

keel

Sorry live to learn but I had my car converted about 4 years ago and got it free because of rebates. I don't know how much it costs now.

What I meant before was that you use more LPG to achieve 100km than you would if kept your engine burning petrol however because the LPG is so much cheaper it actually costs less to acheive this 100km. I found that the LPG 100km's would cost 2/3's that of the petrol 100km's.

Have I explained it better this time?

Keel

rightruccus

live2learn
I've just checked receipts from two years ago (!) the price to supply and install the LPG on our Falcon (Wagon) was $3300. I said $3500 cause I knew it wasn't any more than that, plus times change as do prices, so was more indicative as to what you could be expected pay now.
From that $3500 you get a government rebate of $1750, so you will pay in reality $1750 for supply,fit and map.
In our case we paid around the $1500 mark (including the government rebate).

As keel explained better in his last post, if you look at the litre/100km figures, you use more LPG than you would petrol, but the cost saving in terms of cents/litre more than outweighs the mileage you get.
As i said in my first reply it took us 5 months to recoup the cost of the LPG installation which is a quick payback.

Lets look at it this way. (Hypothetical example).Say your car uses 10litre/100km on petrol and 20litre/100km on gas. Petrol is $1 per litre and gas is 50c/litre. You will not save anything, think about it.

For your info, since you mentioned looking at a Falcon on another thread somewhere, Ford say the Falcon averages around 10litres/100km. On gas, Ford say it averages 15litre/100km. (Factory LPG installation). On ours, we average around 12.5-13litres/100km which is roughly 50% town driving, 50% highway.

The reality for us is that in terms of *fuel costs*, it works out cheaper on our wagon than if we had something like a Holden Barina (which has a litre/100km figure of about 6!) purely because for the same mileage travelled, the Falcon would work out cheaper because of the cost of LPG.

You're being fed duff information from somewhere live2learn, but petrol and LPG are just a fuel to power the engine and give you momentum. This runs cold stuff and can harm engine is absolute nonsense.
Properly *mapped* (and i emphasise the word mapped), there will be no difference in terms of ordinary everyday running or longevity if using LPG as against petrol. LPG does give less power than petrol, but for everyday driving, you'll not really notice it.
Unfortunately there are too many so called LPG installation experts that don't map a gas ecu, but let the ecu try and sort itself out over time. This is why you can have issues when running on gas.I know this is starting to get a little technical but what i'm basically saying is some installers cop out for easiness and the quick buck rather than spend the time making sure the car runs as efficient as it could when running on LPG.

To answer your recent questions on what to do, there are many LPG systems out there, so if you're not sure what system to go for (they do vary a fair bit in price and you do tend to get what you pay for) the easiest solution is to buy a car that's already converted