yep. I'll confirm that in SA gas is 79.9c in 90% of servo's - 78.9 is the `bargain' price It be bullashyt.

I was putting some gas in this morning, noticed the servo I was at had unleaded for $1.32...I remember somebody saying that as a rough rule of thumb petrol's more viable if gas is more than half the price of petrol (taking into account less BTU's in gas, less mileage /power and so on...

My question (and I suppose everyone's, really,) is are these prices here to stay? They did talk a few years ago about tax excises being would down or whatever, and I do remember the doomsday date was 2012...other thing is, that while we whinge right now, if it just stays at 79.9 for a few months will most people just accept it? Remember when it went to 69.9 ? (Hell, remember 59.9?)

When I weigh this up against the ugly Impco mixer setup hanging over the side of my clevo , the less than optimal tune trying to go the dual fuel route, and the power drop at higher revs compared to petrol, I'm really beginning to wonder if theres any point hanging onto the gas...

yeh they'd be the goods...imagine how much more driveable, torquey and willing to rev that this would be compared to a mixer ring with a footlong alloy tube over a carby...

Sooo, any one got any insights into whether this gas price hike is temporary or here to stay? Any of the gas fitters on here got any inside goss?

interesting spiel on this topic...

http://www.1015fm.com.au/2012/02/racq-l ... -rise.html

but here's the official word on tax increase by the ato...http://www.ato.gov.au/businesses/conten ... 298947.htm

Date
LPG
(cents per litre) *

1 Dec 2011
2.5

1 July 2012
5.0

1 July 2013
7.5

1 July 2014
10.0

1 July 2015
12.5

When I had my conversion done, (and I paid $4100 for a venturi system) LPG was 76.9c and petrol $1.35. I still saved money every week. You lot are carrying on as if it's the end of world.
I managed 79.9 on the way home from dinner tonight, but I suspect come the end of next week that servo will be 83.9 like the rest of them. Even then at my moddest 340km a week i'm still $15 a week better off. Injection could push that back to $20 if spent a little time on the tune.
It also wouldn't cost a great deal to pull the head off and have it shaved 20-30thou to pick up some compression and get better economy again. Lets face it, You would be loosing economy through poor valve sealing and carbon build up disturbing flow past the valves, most 10 - 20 year old falcon could do with top end job anyway.

But this was pretty much my point before, you lot have had such cheap LPG for so long that having a poor tune or a sad engine was never really much of a problem. Where as If I did a tune on some ones car here and it dropped 20km to a tank of gas they would be bashing my door down.


People will accept it, The only other choice you have is petrol, and at these prices LPG is still cheaper. Or you sell the car and buy something that uses less fuel.

Petrol isn't going to get any cheaper either.

true, but - what about those tax excises? gas is going to be less and less viable - and 2015 is when my tank runs out...

We still do conversions.

It's just you lot have had it too good for too long.

dont forget the carbon tax is arriving in a few months...

what i want to know if we have such a strong dollar then why is petrol and gas not a bargan for us now...remember not so long ago when out dollar was under 50 cents US...if that was the case now we'd be looking at petrol at over 2.70 per litre and lpg at over 1.70 per litre...

as usual we are being left in the dark and fed s**t...dont worry people our government will look after u like they always havent...

That's a little short sighted.


For us that $15-20 a week was difference between trying to squeeze a family into a small hatchback and being able to afford to run a falcon.

When we bought the car we had the money to buy a BA (at the time was about $14 000 for MK2)
Or buy an AU and convert it. So we bought the AU.

The first question I ask people that call me for quote on a conversion is 'How many km do you do a year?' If it's less then 20 000km I tell them the conversion isn't worth it.
Conversion will still happen if prices stay like they are and your LPG conversion industry will just have to adapt to it. The people that don't will go broke, the people that are good at it will go well.

The tight a*** will still complain.

If all you care about is paying itself back then yeah you're right.
I tend not to look at cars as any sort of investment.

I had the money to do it and it's saving me money, I could have bough a big a*** TV instead and still be paying for petrol. How fast does the TV pay itself back?

The LPG was a smarter choice.

An LPG installation a capital investment which will return a small amount to your pocket for every km you travel. Not at all unlike purchasing a property and renting it out or investing in the share market and receiving dividends (lets forget the possiblity of capital gains, as you said we don't exepct this from cars).

That $4000 install should net you 5%pa - if not, its under performing and you're better off investing your money elsewhere and just footing the bill for your petrol.

A kiwi perspective. LPG price = NZ$1.15 per litre. 91 Octane petrol = $2.12 per litre. Road user charges fully built into both fuels.

I installed a GRA single TB system on my EB 5.0 work hack about 7 years ago. Second hand kit was $300. Tank fitting & line running = $500. The rest I did before it went in and they just connected up the hoses. I tuned it with a narrow band O2 guage. I get 400k's from 62 litres of LPG on the highway = 5.6k's per $1.00. Highway petrol useage is 10.5 litres per 100k's = 4.5k's per $1.00. So my LPG fuel cost is 80% of petrol for the same distance. I burn 55 litres of LPG per week saving around $15 per week

Payback was a year. Zero ongoing costs as the A/F gauge is always in the car and I never have to change the jets anyway. The key was doing the engine bay fit-out myself. Lots of fiddly stuff that adds heaps to the install cost, but (just about) anyone is capable of doing this. Getting the LPG installer to fit the tank & fuel lines ensured compliance.

The way I look at it, is for the last 6 years I have had a free dozen of beer every week thanks to my LPG

A good way of looking at it. Trouble is most of the people wanting an LPG conversion are not thinking that far ahead, only "how much is it going to cost to fill compared to petrol"....

My investment, well I worked out that I've tripled my initial outlay in savings since 2004.

Cheers

ToranaGuy

yes, yes, yes, all good points - looking at gas prices as they stand right now, even at their current inflated rate...but what about when you figure in the excise I mentioned earlier?

These numbers need to be figured in. The advantage of LPG financially is pretty marginal right now. How could it be justified in 2015 with an EXTRA 12.5 c on board? Someone else mentioned carbon tax...how much is that going to add?
1 July 2012
5.0

1 July 2013
7.5

1 July 2014
10.0

1 July 2015
12.5