My dear old Gotilda is costing me a fortune in fuel, with her 23mpg (she can do 30mpg if overdrive kicks in, but it only takes one tractor or lorry on my new single carriageway commute and she drops drops down a gear. So I'm thinking of getting her an LPG conversation. LPG is less than 70p per litre. For ages its been typically just under half the price of petrol. I'm told it burns cleaner too, so is better for the environment as well as your pocket. So this gets me wondering. Why aren't more cars already LPG compatible? Its very expensive to get the conversion done, with prices ranging from about £600 to well over £2k, and as much as I love my Gotty, that's a lot of money to spend on a 15 year old car.
I think you may have to fill up a more times an you do with petrol, and when you fill up with gas you have to make the good connection between pipe and car and you will have to wear a good pair of gloves as your hand will freeze to the pipe Strating can be harder when cold
Yep, Betsy the fork lift on the mushroom farm ran on LPG, I remember all sorts of fun getting her to start, think it involved a blow lamp somewhere along the line.
Can't take LPG on the Chunnel I think? probably a non-issue though. Do you / have you thought about adopting a "hyper-miling" driving style? I find it less effective with our modern 70 mpg vehicles, but before we had those I easily got an extra 30%, which ain't to be sniffed at! Now I am lucky to get 15%, although that isn't "nothing". Works best on roads you know well, of course, as you will acquire landmarks for which you know the ideal approach speed at which you can then coast to the next bend / junction etc. In essence: Avoid braking. To do that you need to coast, in neutral, when possible. A variation on that is pulse-and-glide - accelerate gently to, say, 65 then coast (in neutral) to 55 or 55 before accelerating again. You may find that your car will use zero fuel if coasting IN gear (although it may not be new enough for that), if so always coast in gear when preparing to brake - e.g. downhill towards a junction. Sat Nav helps. At 65 or 70 on dual carriageway etc. Sat Nav says "in 800 yards go straight on at the roundabout" and 800 yards is a nice coasting distance You'll probably only lose 10-15mph on a flat road. Leave a huge gap to vehicle in front (when no opportunity to overtake). When they brake you can just lift off / coast instead. Don't accelerate uphill, maintain constant throttle instead (and allow speed to drop) Consider using cruise control (if fitted) on motorways - I have read that it can be 5% or so better than manual speed adjustments. If Gotilda is automatic this will all be moot :(
Dunno if it is illegal, I thought it was deemed to be "not in control". Never understood why coasting is considered to be not-in-control. No one has ever been able to explain that to me (including a driving instructor). If you need to stop either you brake, or you change down and brake. If you change down and brake then its no different changing down FROM neutral. Loads of hypermilers out there, not read that there is an issue with gearbox oil. Last vehicle owned for 80,000 miles over 10 years, plenty of pulse-and-glide and coasting, no apparent problems with gearbox. Anyways, each to their own, but my experience has been positive and I have had noticeable fuel savings.
It dose in lorrys, we had a person that used to knock out of gear to make it go faster (80mph) to get the job done and in two weeks on two lorrys they had to have new gear boxs, the person then tipped the lorry over when coasting down hill and then got sacked
Be VERY wary of a cheap LPG conversion - its a job that has to be done with decent kit and has to be done methodically and properly; also be mindful that LPG generally burns hotter, and may just be a bridge too far for an old engine. Also bear in mind that not all petrol stations sell the stuff, so will supply be an issue? LPG can also give less MPG, the bonus of course being that it is considerably cheaper. And finally, as has already been alluded to, it can be a bar-steward to start on a cold morning. To be honest, I wouldn't even consider it on a car of Gothila's age - its going to take a considerable amount of time to recoup the costs, and there will never be any additional value to the vehicle. If fuel consumption is definitely going to be an issue, then I would suggest that your best bet is to pass Gothilda on to another family, and put your money into a newer diesel hatch or estate.
Would starting from cold still be an issue if she was dual fuel? Its my understanding that the computer decides whether to feed the engine LPG or petrol based on a number of considerations. That being the case, wouldn't the LPG people program the ECUs to use petrol when the engine is cold? Gotty may be elderly, but I think there's lots of life in the old girl yet. She's been well looked after, and lets not forget that she is statistically one of the most reliable cars ever built (the 940 tops the official Volvo high mileage table, with one having achieved in excess of 2 million miles over its lifetime). Value is irrelevant because I live by the rule of 'Bangernomics'. That is, you buy a good car but very cheap, then you own it outright. Then after a couple of years, if maintenance costs creep up too high, you scrap it and get another. Compare that with putting down a few grand for a deposit, then pay a couple of hundred per month on finance, then the mandatory services to keep the warranty etc. The 940 is a good candidate because it is a lovely, comfy, solid car that holds its age well. Dear old Gotty, with her unmodified, 240,000 mile 15 year old engine can still show up many much newer cars. Lets not forget that I acquired her after my much more modern, much lower mileage pile of french baking foil broke down once too many times. Gotty is staying. I got rid of Helga, my previous 940 estate, after a change of job meant a longer commute. I regretted it ever since until the opportunity finely presented itself to give a home to another 940 estate. That's when I met Gotilda. Diesel is a non-starter for me (pun intended), and if I was to get a hatchback, I'd have to get the wife driving lessons just to justify it, as the hatchback isn't for me other than maybe the commute. Gotty would have to stay, and she would be my car. I did see a little dual fuel Focus on autotrader that interested me. I thought if I did that, it would also serve to mitigate the risk of that inevitable situation where one morning you can't get to work because the car wont start. Two cars means half the risk, but I'm still keeping Gotty, and when she goes, I'm thinking about an 850, early V70, 960 or V90, so always a nice chunky Volvo for me.
