Have you taken action to cut your fuel bills?

For LPG to be a success, it would need to be much more widely available than it currently is in the UK.

I agree with Wavechange. The government have shown little interest in encouraging LPG conversions. Look at what they are doing for electric cars by subsidising the cost of new cars, heavily subsidising the installation of charging points (including private charging points outside your own home), and then look at what they have done for LPG. It’s obvious why LPG is not popular.

I can see that one day electric vehicles will become a sensible choice, but until storage and/or portable generation makes a technological leap, conventional engines have the day. Likewise with LPG: if the government subsidised the conversion to LPG and installation of LPG refuelling points at every garage, then we would probably convert.

I agree with Terfar about electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are not yet a sensible choice for most people and perhaps subsidising them is as flawed as continuing to cover the UK with wind generators. Battery technology in laptops and other mobile devices has improved a great deal in the past decade and hopefully the same will happen with electric vehicles.

Electric car manufacturers have focused on high performance vehicles, but when limited by current battery technology, perhaps it would be better to produce city cars with a top speed of 40 mph. These could be attractive for families with two cars. Modern small diesel engines are economical and much cleaner than their predecessors, but the danger is that the DPF will block up if just used at low speed round town. Small electric or LPG cars seem good choices for city use.

When I bought my first diesel car I carried a spare can of fuel on longer journeys because many garages did not stock diesel. Presumably someone maintains a current list of LPG filling stations online, making it easy for Chris and others to plan their travel.

wavechange,
I’d agree that more LPG outlets would be useful, but really it’s a bit of a catch 22 situation, people won’t convert to LPG because there are fewer outlets and there are fewer outlets because not enough people convert, and create demand.
In the early days there was a Government subsidy on conversion but clearly not big enough.
I’m OK locally because there are a couple of LPG outlets nearby, but yes I would have to “fuel plan” longer travel. However even then it’s not the end of the world because the car runs just fine on petrol too, seamlessly at the flick of a switch. Fill both petrol and LPG tanks and I’m good for a total of about 600 to 700 miles.

I agree about noisy, smelly diesels with higher repair costs and expensive particulate filters prone to clogging which is why even though they tend to be quite good on fuel I don’t really like them much.
I did do some calculations when looking for a car with good economy. I found that a lowish mileage petrol car bought then converted to LPG worked out about the same total cost as an equivalent sized diesel, so being someone who prefers a petrol engine car which is what a LPG converted car essentially still is it was possible to find something actually more economical on fuel cost than a diesel, and of course without the diesel drawbacks. Drawbacks at least as I perceive them to be.

I’ve had two LPG cars now very much enjoy the economy without the pitfalls. I’m not planning on changing back to pure petrol or to diesel while I can still get LPG locally, and electric has a long long way to go before that becomes viable.

I presume that the subsidy on LPG conversions was in the days when LPG was a much cleaner fuel than petrol and diesel. If LPG was widely available, the government would probably tax LPG heavily. 🙁

I think you are being a little unfair about diesel vehicles, Chris. The old ones are undoubtedly smelly but not the newer ones with DPFs. Yes DPFs can block, but that’s generally because people ignore advice that they are unsuitable for protracted urban driving and fail to heed the warning of the need to do a longer journey. My diesel car does 600-700 miles without the need for two tanks, and much of my driving is on uncontested roads, ideal for the DPF to do its regeneration business.

I have had consistently better mileage from both BP and Shell diesel and hesitate to use anything else. This is reported on by “Honest John”.

I have not found any difference in fuel economy using either Shell or BP diesel. I remember reading that a difference will only be seen after several fill-ups, which sounds like unscientific marketing hype to me.

The difficulty in making these comparisons is consistency of driving and journey types – not possible in a short period of time. I have recorded consumption over several years – just a routine when I fill up. I don’t know where “unscientific marketing hype” has come from – these are just individual experiences and I am certainly not promoting BP or Shell.

The other criticism sometimes made about cheap fuels is that they can contribute to various engine problems such as blockage of injectors. I have never had any problems and I don’t know one person who regularly uses supermarket fuels that has.

Me neither. If there was any concrete evidence that ‘super fuels’ work, then most of us would be using them.

In absence of nowt but hearsay and flimsiest of evidence that’s easily refutable, I believe that they are a waste of money.

Perhaps Which? would conduct a real trial for us. That means using real drivers out on real roads in identical cars following the same routes over many journeys to try to even out traffic and driving anomalies. Very difficult. But ‘lab testing’ on rolling roads just doesn’t cut the ice.

I recommend Goldacre’s book too, but what I think we really need is a TV series that focuses on current advertising and marketing. Consumers need to develop critical thinking skills, which will help make them aware that advertising is often based on misrepresentation, with the Advertising Standards Authority dealing with only the worst examples.

I’m not going to believe anything that a motoring journalist has to say on the matter, unless they can cite references to proper scientific studies, hopefully independent of industrial funding and peer reviewed.

Fingers too quick! http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/search/?type=question&q=diesel+fuel

I’ve looked at most of the relevant posts on that page and the only honest thing to say is that it’s all hearsay.There’s not a concrete piece of evidence proving the super fuels are better.

If you do find any obvious errors on HJ’s website, let him know and it will be corrected. I can say that from experience. But, as I have said, I don’t see journalism as a serious source of information.