About to buy a ba fairmont ghia (04 mk1) and maybe a fiesta or focus for the ugly half.
First thing i'll be doing is gas, at least on the fairmont...

Spoke to a bloke at the car doctor in port kennedy, wa. and think their the go for direct gas injection for the fairmont (~$4300 - $1000 wa rebate - $2000 federal rebate = $1300 )

He mentioned a few different systems, apollo? omi? and something from sprint (dream...?) only one i've heard of is whats on parnell's website. So any recomendations here?

Also, for a fiesta or focus, is it worth putting on gas? can it be done?

I used to know someone who was running an excel on gas, so I'm sure it could be done

Have heard good things about the Sprintgas Dream system ... don't touch Parnell ... too many horrors stories from them (and poor service as well).

I dount it's worth converting a small vehicle ... economy is pretty damn good on them already ... regaining the cost of the conversion might take a long time.

Although I have seen a Barina done ... and the tank took the entire boot ... a waste really.

dont do anything to a focus. The engine management on them is fiddly enough as it is. A fiesta is a better mechanical setup (very similar to mazda2 setup, AND built in europe not south africa where the new focus' comes from, and so might be a better option, but theres nowhere to put a gas tank and a fiesta will already give u well under 10L/100km

also, when u wanna buy, make sure u call in at work and see what deal they'll do u. Tell them dave from service sent u

Wont worry about the small car then, forgot about losing boot space with the tank. Whats the capacity of those donut tanks (for the fairmont)?

wheres work xpression?

the fiesta will use under 8L/100, LPG is not worth the hassle.

I dunno about that. In the end it will depend on how many Kms the car will do & how long it's planned to be kept. That will decide if it's worth it or not. I'd love to convert my mighty boy to lpg, much cheaper to run & more enviro friendly than unleaded as it doesn't have a cat convert. Yes that's legal, engines under 1lt don't need a cat.



Regarding Parnell, i can vouch for poor service & a horror story, but won't say much here, other than take your business elsewhere!

Cheers

ToranaGuy

why not lpg obn a 4cyl if the fed gov pays for it?
If you do plenty of klm then its still worthwhile dependant on tank space of course... not in a hatchback though!

yeah i've decided against gas on a small car for her, based on her only really driving the kids to school and herself to work and back again. She probably would only do 10-15k km a year.

I average around 25-30k km a year so definetly worth it for me.

Cant wait to see how good these injection systems are. the system on the old fairlane i've got now (92 NC) is junk!

Wont get a parnell systems, cheers.

The fiesta is 1.6L, and i promise you the lpg saving at the pump will not offset the initial outlay until about 40000km.

Yeah, already decided against gas for the small car. Even with the rebates it wouldnt save much money.

What outlay? Havent you heard that WA has $1000 govt rebate plus $2000 fed govt rebate so it costs $000000 for a 4 cylinder... If I had for example a subaru imprezza sedan then I would convert it to gas for sure.

didnt it think it would be that much cheaper for a 4 cylinder?

With upto $3k of rebates in WA, i think anyone who doesn't want LPG on their cars is nuts. I mean, even if it costs you another $1000 out of your own pocket to put a state of the art LPG Injection system onto your car, with the price of LPG Vs Petrol, it doesn't take that long to pay $1000 off. Today LPG is 49.9 near me, Today Petrol is 134.9 near me.

85 Cents Per Litre saving. That's a lot of extra $$ in your pocket.

Let's do a bit of math to work out payback cost of converting that said little 1.6lt car to LPG. Let's Assume conversion cost of $4000, and you get $3000 of grants, meaning your out of pocket expense is $1000.

$10.792 to do 100km assuming 8/100 economy of small car on petrol
$4.99 to do 100km assuming 10/100 economy of small car on LPG
I'm allowing 2/100 worse economy on lpg, but if you get a LPG Injection system on that little car, it probably won't be that big of a differance. I run a LPGI setup, differance between petrol & LPG economy is about 1.2lt/100, bugger all really.

10k kms on petrol will cost $1079.20
10k kms on LPG will cost $499
Differance - LPG is $580.20 cheaper

15k kms on petrol will cost $1618.18
15k kms on lpg will cost $748.50
Differance - LPG is $869.68 cheaper.

If that little car did 15k kms a year, it would take a little over 1year to break even for the LPG Conversion. Say the car has a life span of 5yrs, you could save $4348.4 on fuel expenses over the life of the car. That doesn't take into account factors like price inflation either. If the gap between petrol & lpg grows, you will only save more. I'd be suprised if the price gap between petrol and gas get's reduced to below 40cpl anytime in the next 5 yrs. I'd also be suprised if a little 4cyl would cost $4000 to convert, i know big 6's & 8's can get LPGI setup's for a bit over $4k here in vic, some places are cheaper. I'd be suprised if a 4cyl was more than $3k to convert.

There really is only 1 drawback with LPG cars, tank position. If you could get a " spare wheel " type tank, you won't loose much bootspace, and still have room for the shopping. With LPGI systems, i know the parnell one starts the car on petrol then switches it over, i can't speak for the others tho. I use about 5lt of petrol every 2wks or so usually, to start the car. Even that being said, i'm still a long way ahead on fuel costs. I do about 40 - 45k kms a year.

At the end of all this, i have to say this post isn't trying to make you get lpg on that small car, it's just meant to outline a few figures so you can make an informed decision on the savings that are possible, depending on what fuel type you choose to run.

Cheers

ToranaGuy