75ZT Community

Back in 2008 Mick kindly accompanied me to look at a ZT-T190 which member Pondweed had pointed out to me. I was looking for something with a bit more practicality and 'sportier' handling for the commute from Skeggy to Swadlincote. The plan being to get it converted to LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) so as to match my CDTi's consumption whilst giving me all the benefits of a V6 190bhp tourer. It has been a brilliant car and this has been a real money-saver over the years whilst I was doing the commute. Unfortunately, my issue has been with LPG suppliers....over here in the depths of rural England, they can be a bit sparse... where I am though there has been one quite nearby which was great. However, in the past two years this place has been shut down and re-opened no less than 4 times....usually with large gaps of time between the two events. On this occasion, first the petrol / diesel went and now the whole place has just shut again! So, sadly, once again, I have to look at swapping the LPG 190 for a CDTi Tourer.....unless they re-open...... again...

And it's not as if you can get some in a jerry can to stock up...

Oh, well time to bite the bullet. As I have a nice CDTi Tourer and as there's an LPG station less than half a mile from where I live, looks like we are going to have to swap at last......

This does raise a question -

I fully appreciate the benefits of LPG to someone travelling enough miles to warrant the initial cost. There are loads of motorists in this category who would benefit from having an LPG conversion. If those people cannot be persuaded to go the LPG route (bearing in mind that the engineering is fully sorted and we know what the benefits are etc), how on earth are we ever going to persuade people to change to electric / hybrid cars which are pretty much still an unknown quantity when it comes to performance and long term reliability?

Yes, I know that some may be put off of LPG because of the availability problems like Zeb is experiencing, but exactly the same can be said for charging stations for electric vehicles which just reduces the incentive to go that route even further.

Yes, very true but the younger generation are being brainwashed into thinking that they can 'save the planet' by buying such products.

It's the chicken and egg scenario again. No stations with LPG so no cars, so no stations, so no cars..... There are incentives for people to buy electric cars why not for LPG converted vehicles?

You know what will happen ZEB? As soon as you get rid the stations will open up in their hundreds!!!!

The problem over here is that there is only ONE supplier of LPG to the garages and they take merciless advantage of that monopoly anyway...quite apart from all the other problems service stations struggle with financially... Got to admit, I do it to save money as much as save the planet...and the economic argument is hard to justify when the supply chain is so unreliable!

Just to annoy you, I paid 65.9p per litre last week, just so much competition around Bristol.

Ouch!!! CHEAPEST here is 82.9p per litre....

LPG cars & vans can travel in to the congestion zone in London free of charge with just the one of fee of £10 to registrar where it normally cost £10 per day.
And you don't have to be using the lpg at the time.

kandyman wrote:LPG cars & vans can travel in to the congestion zone in London free of charge with just the one of fee of £10 to registrar where it normally cost £10 per day.
And you don't have to be using the lpg at the time.

And that is a good thing because.....?

Dave wrote:

kandyman wrote:LPG cars & vans can travel in to the congestion zone in London free of charge with just the one of fee of £10 to registrar where it normally cost £10 per day.
And you don't have to be using the lpg at the time.

And that is a good thing because.....?

The last company I worked for had 15 vans which worked in London every day so by converting to LPG saved the company thousands a month, but the government got there money back by is paying hundreds a day on parking charges.