Driving Green

The lastet MPG marathon has just been run and those nice people over at thegreencarwebsite have written a comprehensive blog on the subject.
It makes interesting reading.

Cumbria, the Sahara of LPG

I've just returned from a few days in Lake District. A warning to all Green motorists. There is NO LPG in the Lake District National Park. I don't know if this is on purpose or there is some other geographical or political reasons but it's just not funny. BP seem to have a fairly major monopoly on the fuel stations within the park but even beyond that there is no LPG from any of the mainstream providers.
I managed to fill up (having run 80 miles on petrol!) on my way home at Penrith thanks to the late night opening of Ullswater Road Garage
This map tells the story.

From A day out in the Lakes

All in all quite disappointing and considering the environmental angle of vehicle use within the national park, quite odd.

In search of Gas

Having now completed 8000 miles in the Outlander i'm in a good position to comment on some of the more mundane aspects of running the car.
The little things that bug me.
Firstly, there's the whereabouts of the LPG filling stations. I dont use Sat Nav but even if I did i'd struggle. Simply finding up to date information of stations on the web us almost impossible. I can't put my finger on it but there are a number of websites that 'claim' to have maps and postcode look ups of station locations but non of them are anything like accurate or up to date.
Take last weekend. I was in Nantwich visiting family. The previous day had been frantic and I hadn't had time to pre plan my fuel stops, Needless to say I reached the magic 209 miles just down the road from them. A quick borrow of the internet and i'd got the two most local providors and a map. One of them was a used car lot clearly based on a now disused petrol station. the other was a Countrywide store about the size of your local Spa and clearly NOT one of their LPG stations.
So i'd wasted 10 miles worth of Petrol on a wild goose chase and had to then divert to Morrisons at Crewe, about 5 miles out of my way, on the way home to brim the tanks. This isn't an isolated incident.
The second thing that has annoyed me is my own studpidity. The filler cap on the LPG 'was' attached by a plastic strap but at one of my refuelling stops I trapped it and broke it. Subsequently over the next week or two I left the cap at a number of stations until I got clever and left it on the roof. whereby it's rolled off and gone somewhere.
I think i've got so used to my filler caps being attached to the car or having somewhere to hang them that i dont think about it these days. Anyway, a quick google and i'd found lpg-kits.org.uk and order myself 3 for less than 4 quid each. Bargain and the delivery was prompt too.
So now I have some spares for the next time i'm a numpty.

In previous blogs i've commented on the lower than expected mpg figures. This has also been coupled with a noticeable lack of power. Manifesting it as an unwillingness to rev to the red line in 2nd gear at Wide Open Throttle. (Remember, this is an auto gearbox). I've rasied this with ThinkGreenCars and await their response.

Since my last post the car has also been through it's first main dealer service. No suprises but confirmation that the front brake pads are worn, as are the rear anti-rollbar bushes. Both jobs i'll get done during my next holiday. Worse though was the estimate of the next major service. I'd been assured that the MIVEC engine was chain driven cam but Mitsubishi say no, it's a belt and it needs changing along with the tensioner pulley at the 54k service. First estimate was a service cost of around £700. GULP! They've since offered me a deal to bring it under £400 and still retain the dealer service stamp. Still, this adds to the running costs more than expected.

Running totals thus far:
Best MPG: 23.29
Worst MPG: 19.05
Average over 7422 miles: 20.69MPG
Average cost per mile: 10.8 pence per mile
Most expensive fill up: £0.58 per litre (BP Doncaster M18)

Cost per Mile

Been running the Outlander for a month properly now. Time to review the fuel figures.
The table below shows the detail but the headlines are:
Best MPG: 22.46
Worst MPG: 19.05
Average over 3343 miles: 20.55MPG
Average cost per mile: 11 pence per mile
Most expensive fill up: £0.56 per litre (BP Doncaster M18)

View Larger Map

Cheapest fill up: £0.479 (Morrisons Sheffield)

View Larger Map

Trip	Litres	Cost	Per Litre	MPG	Avg MPG	Cost per Mile
210	47.6	£ -		20.06	20.06	0
210	46.36	£25.92	£0.56	20.59	20.32	0.123
196.5	39.77	£19.85	£0.50	22.46	21.04	0.101
215.1	48.44	£27.08	£0.56	20.19	20.82	0.126
219	48.03	£23.01	£0.48	20.73	20.81	0.105
198.6	44.27	£21.21	£0.48	20.39	20.74	0.107
154.7	34.36	£16.46	£0.48	20.47	20.7	0.106
214.6	49.78	£27.83	£0.56	19.6	20.56	0.13
165.9	37.04	£17.74	£0.48	20.36	20.54	0.107
222.3	47.87	£25.28	£0.53	21.11	20.6	0.114
62.3	13.49	£7.00	£0.52	20.99	20.63	0.112
221	47.76	£22.88	£0.48	21.04	20.67	0.104
189	41	£19.64	£0.48	20.96	20.69	0.104
194	43.03	£20.61	£0.48	20.5	20.67	0.106
146.5	32.21	£15.43	£0.48	20.68	20.67	0.105
186.9	41.89	£20.07	£0.48	20.28	20.65	0.107
185.5	41.41	£20.66	£0.50	20.36	20.63	0.111
151.5	36.16	£17.32	£0.48	19.05	20.55	0.114

All in all a good result and around the expected levels. Running costs are approc 0.5 pence per mile higher than expected. This is due to a slightly lower mpg than predicted and the occasional fill up from motoroway services.
The MPG figure is definatley lower after a few days of warm weather as the Air Conditioning unit in the Outlander is substantial (but very effective).

In addition i've got slow punctures from around the valves on 3 out of the 4 wheels so tyre pressures are rarely at optimum. More on that soon as tyres will need replacing and i'm currently looking for a wheel and tyre conbination and good price.

Views from RoadTestReports.co.uk

I recently read this article on roadtestreports.co.uk that covers the basic premise behind LPG and why it is classed as 'green':

LPG

LPG, also sometimes know as autogas produces fewer emissions than petrol and diesel but fuel consumption is worse. It has been popular in the past due to its cheaper cost; it retails for roughly around half the price of petrol and diesel. However there are not many cars that are LPG ready, a conversion costing around £2000 is necessary for most vehicles. It has a simple chemical make-up meaning LPG produces significantly less carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen emissions as well as a smaller percentage of carbon dioxide emissions than petrol. LPG also emits 90 per cent less particulates, in weight, than diesel engines. LPG is also a natural by-product of gas production meaning that there is a plentiful supply. However there are limited numbers of service stations from which you can refill. From an environmental view point, LPG will quickly evaporate in the event of a fuel spill meaning that unlike petrol and diesel, there little risk of ground or water contamination. It also offers a quieter ride, noise levels are around 50 per cent quieter than diesel engines. There are other fuels that can be used in an alternative combustion engine to provide a substitute to conventional petrol and diesel such as compressed natural gas (CNG), Coal-to-Liquid (CTL), Biomass-to-Liquid (BTL) and a whole host of biofuel related sources such as rapeseed or palm oil.

Thinking Green, ThinkGreen

I recently took on a new job based in Sheffield, that's a 47 mile one way journey for me. A roundtrip of just under 100 miles a day, 21 days a month, 12 months a year..... even allowing for holidays a year that's more than 22,000 miles per year commuting.
Add to this a personal mileage of around 17,000 miles and you're looking at an annual mileage of close to 40,000 miles!
I needed to find a cost effective solution.
Our other commuting car is a Diesel Mitsubishi Colt 1.5 AMT that does 16,000 miles per year and averages 51 Miles per Gallon (MPG). That's pretty impressive BUT it's only a small car, in fact it's based on a Smart Four Four and so it's low value and low resistance to high mileage residual impact make it impractical to get another one of those for the much higher mileage.
The other consideration is that the Colt is a small car (Did I mention it's based on a Smart car?) and on the various self catering holidays we have to Scotland and visits to parents where various load lugging is required we need a much larger vehicle.
So, I needed something large(ish) and Cheap(ish) that's also cheap to run. Mission impossible? Well, only time will tell but I think i've got the ideal compromise.
After doing some investigation it was clear that to come into budget for overall running costs i'd need to find a car worth £5000 running on Diesel that returned 45mpg or an LPG vehicle worth around £6000 that would do 21mpg.
That meant buying a Mondeo estate with 60,000 miles on the clock and a lowly spec OR have a look at the LPG option.
Some more google work later and I found ThinkGreenCars based in Grimsby. A very helpful bunch of guys who were happy to talk me through my options of LPG vehicle regardless of if I bought from them or not. Luckily Grimsby is within an hours drive from home and I was able to book some time to go and test drive a couple of their vehicles.
ThinkGreenCars have a long history of not just selling LPG and LPG vehicles but doing the conversions themselves. They therefore have a lot of experience with different systems and have spent time refining the installations to give the best performance/economy compromises.
I did look at a Land Rover Discovery V8 that they had in. While the retail price was lower than budget by enough to compensate for the lower MPG of the 4.0ltr engine the fact that even with twin 76litre LPG tanks on board they told me I wouldn't be able to do more than 180 miles between fill ups. Given that my commute is 100 miles, that would mean filling up more than once every other day!.
The other vehicle I looked at and test drove, before eventually buying, was the Mitsubish Outlander. This vehicle was a petrol only model that ThinkGreenCars had acquired and would convert to LPG after agreed sale. This meant that not only would all the gas equipment be brand new but it would also be warrantied by them in line with their standard vehicle warranty. In addition I was able to make some cosmetic choices on the installation like the location and colouring of the filler point.
The work was completed in under a week and I when I collected the car I was given excellent instructions on the differences with running an LPG vehicle and in particular the method of filling the tanks.
At this point I must point out that the vehicle was not 100% ready and I had to return the following week to have some remedial cosmetic work completed. All of this was done without fuss and I was compensated for my additional journey.
Overall I have had exceptional service from ThinkGreenCars and will be using them to service the gas equipment at a 20,000 mile interval.
I only plan to keep the Outlander for 12 months to keep its overall mileage well under the 100,000 mark and at this stage I plan to return it to ThinkGreenCars to trade in.

Over the coming months I plan to keep a record of the running costs and practical experiences of running an LPG vehicle in the UK