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tearlejc |
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just looked on motormouth - lpg price has dropped over 10 c a litre over the last 12 hours...(in SA) - cheapest was 76.9 cpl
_________________ 351 4V XB Coupe running LPG |
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tickford_6 |
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Posts: 6449 Joined: 11th Nov 2004 |
CPOCSM wrote: More likely to push a lot of installers out of the game, as down here in Vic they don't have to be mechanics to get their gas ticket, and I find there isn't many workshops that really know their s**t when it comes to LPG. I think a lot of installers NEED to be pushed out of business as they thrived on the rebate. I did my sums when I got mine installed and compared the wholesale price with the price of the kit with install. Funny how it had the rebate price smacked ontop of it. The kit I had installed cost me $4500 installed but when I checked on the same kit from a wholesale distributor in Sydney(I asked as a trade price...norty me!) it cost $2250 without install labour costs. Now to this I added the cost of labour at $120 an hour for eight hours and the total came to $960. Add it all up with the 10 per cent for GST to the installer and I got $3460!! Couple to this consumables which mechanics like to tack on to your bill of say $100 and you have $3560 all up with all said and done. I was p****d with my insaller when I got the bill and questioned why this happens - he came back saying it was in the best interest of his business to get as much out of the scheme as he could and it was nothing personal. I would imagine if I had shopped about I would have got it cheaper; however, wanted the system here and now. Think of the WA locals who got it for free after the federal government rebate and then the WA government rebate. Yes I received my $2000 but the installer made a hefty profit of just under a grand. Makes you think doesn't it... Thats funny, you actually think when you buy a "kit" that every single part you need to fit it is in the box. BWHAHAHAHAHAH There will be mark up on the kit too, as lets face it, no business is ever going to sell on parts for zero profit. Oh and consumables are not tacked on. they are there because because no one is going to sit down and list out every nut, bolt, screw, cm of tap, crimp terminal, wire, split tube ect. Would you like us weigh tube of thread sealer before and after and charge you by the gram?? We could do it, But we'd need to add an hours labour on to cover the time of measuring every thing and the extra time in front of the computer itemizing the invoice for you. We could leave it off and put the hourly rate up, but you'd cry about that too. I always have good laugh when you people makes those sorts comments. |
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Nigel |
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Oddly enough, Im in the camp of "the kit is that much cheaper"
Tickford_6 - I take it that your good at what you do, but if I ever walked into your workshop and asked you an outright question, Im sure your answer would piss me off, and you would think I wasnt worth your time. Yet Im one of the fordmodders. Im on this forum to get help and technical ideas, and there are people here who do offer that as long as you dont shaft them. But you - seem to almost always arc up. Its you that stands out every time. The LPG Industry is a rip off. The facts (stated) was that the cost of conversion went up by the cost of the rebate. Thats undisputable. I got LPGi on a car for $2500 right before the rebate came out, and then $4500 the year after. Non-Injected conversions went straight up as well (but not as much). Ive had 2 very poor conversions, and 2 really good ones. The poor ones were by the shops who have the best reputations in their area. Lucky for me, you cant tell me how much better than me you are, or how your workshop is so great and customers like me piss you off. Sadly, I prefer to respect people and their opinions. Nigel |
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tickford_6 |
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Posts: 6449 Joined: 11th Nov 2004 |
Nigel wrote: Oddly enough, Im in the camp of "the kit is that much cheaper" Tickford_6 - I take it that your good at what you do, but if I ever walked into your workshop and asked you an outright question, Im sure your answer would piss me off, and you would think I wasnt worth your time. Yet Im one of the fordmodders. Im on this forum to get help and technical ideas, and there are people here who do offer that as long as you dont shaft them. But you - seem to almost always arc up. Its you that stands out every time. The LPG Industry is a rip off. The facts (stated) was that the cost of conversion went up by the cost of the rebate. Thats undisputable. I got LPGi on a car for $2500 right before the rebate came out, and then $4500 the year after. Non-Injected conversions went straight up as well (but not as much). Ive had 2 very poor conversions, and 2 really good ones. The poor ones were by the shops who have the best reputations in their area. Lucky for me, you cant tell me how much better than me you are, or how your workshop is so great and customers like me piss you off. Sadly, I prefer to respect people and their opinions. Nigel I'm not arguing that the rebate didn't push the cost of an install up. But you're blaming the wrong people. You got LPGi fitted for less then the current retail price of the cheap kits these days. A good brand kit has a trade price of over $2500. I speak my mind, If you don't like it stiff s**t. And when people like you, who do not run their own mechanical workshop start to invent prices based on no knowledge and a few guesses, I will tell you what I think of it. And yes If you walked into my shop and started to waste my time, my reply would piss you off. But it doesn't worry me. As at the end of the day a business does not survive on being every ones friend, doing work for rock bottom price, or cutting corners. Come in and ask me legitimate questions and i'll spend as much time as needed to answer them. Try and get my buy prices out of me or question the cost of something and you will be asked to walk straight back the door you came in. |
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CPOCSM |
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Thanks for that Nigel. Mum's XD351 Windsor ute was recently converted and again the wholesale price had the (whats left of)government rebate magically appear on top of the price. I also noticed the lack of installers left in Toowoomba - obviously the break-even margin was not there to make their businesses viable. Out of the phonebook there were 12 installers - now there are three who do the work so Brisbane may have to be the place I get work done(only an hour down the road).
I am not having a go at installers who do the right thing, more having a go at the industry in general. You can get a LPG install licence without even being a qualified mechanic(this is the case in ACT)but thankfully in QLD you have to be a qualified mechanic before they allow you to touch LPG. At the end of the day; however, I am happy with my system, just not happy with being ripped by others. I am also here to get info on making my car work better and friendly banter among other members. It isn't a personality contest(of which there are many "personalities" here as with any forum). The internet is a wonderful thing for that. Meh I won't lose sleep over it...moreso it makes me even more wary. Maybe I should have asked for a refund when the fat prick and his offsider who insalled my system soiled my seats and trapsed mud through it. May have got a discount. Anyway, I have bigger prey to fry as I am about to set fire to the EB XR8 - looks like my issues relating to missing and carrying on is related to the fuel I used and the fuel injectors all but being clogged by using a fuel additive that doesn't like plastic tanks. Seems it strips a fine film off the innards of plastic fuel tanks and conveniently deposits it throughout your fuel system. Up for new lines, injectors, pump, filter and a full scrub out of the intake system as well as a new tank. DO NOT USE FLASHLUBE INJECTOR CLEANER!!!! I was shown what came out of the fuel line and it resembles bitumen - sticky and sticks to anything. The Flash Lube upper cylinder lube is fine as it goes nowhere near the fuel system(I have a metering system in the engine bay - no in the tank for me)so I will still use this. Hooroo |
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ryanpatrick42 |
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Ash wrote: Anyone else here noticed the hard hit on LPG prices? I'm starting to wonder if it is even worth while using any more. I am yet to use a full LPG tank to see just how many k's I'm getting but so far I'm leaning to not using it. For those not in NSW, I'm not eve sure if it is all of NSW, but our price went from 59.9 to 79.9. Up a third! For a full tank, this is an extra $13. I know this may not seem a great deal. But imagine it this way, average price of fuel now, lets just say $1.50, that's about what it is for me and I know it will give or take a bit for others. But imagined if over night that jumped to just to $2.00. That means for a 70L tank you were paying an extra $35 a tank. That is the same kind of jump. Yesterday I put in $30 of LPG. It got me about 37 litres of LPG. With a little bit of town driving and the rest on the freeway and open road. By the time I got home, just shy of 190km's, I could feel the tank starting to suck its last few drops. If I had of brought petrol at $1.50 (I had the chance to get it at $1.38 but for arguments sake lets keep it at $150) at about 12L/100, that $30 should have got me 20L and 166km's. So if I had of got that $30 at $1.38 (22 litres) and got a more conservative fuel consumption of 10L/100, which is completely realistic with the majority of open road driving, that $30 would have got me 220km's for the money. I know it's a little bit of give and take here and there. But the once upon a time savings of running LPG, and I've used LPG for a long time, have now diminished. My car use to be 1/2 to 2/3's the cost of running on LPG compared to petrol. Now its about the same. BUT! LPG has its cons too, I can't carry a spare wheel, the weight of the LPG tank behind the rear wheels flogs out my tyres very quickly and I can't get LPG conveniently as we don't have it in town and I have to go out of my way to get it. PLUS, for every tank to 2nd tank of LPG, you use $5-$10 of petrol as well. Depending on how many start stops etc. Right at this moment, my wife's 5.4 G220 has become the cheaper car to run then my vapour injected LPG Territory. The reason I've been doing the maths is I had planned to put the same LPG system on the G220, but is it even worth it? Are any other LPG users thinking the same? I'm way too lazy to read this whole thread, but apparently prices are due to fall back to normal again in around May - June this year when demand goes down.
_________________ MY BUILD: |
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tickford_6 |
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Posts: 6449 Joined: 11th Nov 2004 |
Ash wrote: For those not in NSW, I'm not eve sure if it is all of NSW, but our price went from 59.9 to 79.9. Up a third! For a full tank, this is an extra $13. I know this may not seem a great deal. Our price has gone from 76.9c to 89.9c ULP in the same time has gone from 142.9 151.9c I'm sure the Cairns price will be about $1/L for LPG at the moment. I remember this happening a few year ago here too. I had a photo of the servo up the street with LPG 90.9 and ULP at 90.9. We just stopped filling the LPG for a month and the price came back down to 74.9 and ULP went back up to 130.9 I guess since i've been paying mid 70s for LPG for the last 3 years I just can't understand why you all think you are being hard done by. |
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Troy |
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looks all cheap to me when lpg is $1.530, 91 $2.19, 98 $2.35 and diesel $1.56.
So don't really know what you're all moaning about. i don't even bother looking anymore, just fill it up |
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Denislovesit |
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yep...was looking at my receipts today
Feb 2012 64.3c/pl average March 2012 89.9c/pl across the whole of the city as far as I could tell f**k oil companies up to their pricing tricks no doubt |
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CPOCSM |
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Well finally found a decent LPG shop that is able to do what I want to do on the EB. Looked at one workshop and it was a dogs brekky and I am suprised the installer knew his head from his a***(the floor was a 1/2 inch thick matt of fuzz and oil!!). This installer I am now using didn't have the king software; however, I gave him the number of my tuner in the ACT - took him a day to get it to him here in Toowoomba. His workshop is like a doctors surgery and is immaculate - shows a bit of pride in the work he does. The added bonus is he cut his teeth on minis and races his own - double win for me!
I second Tickfords words on pricing and the likes - I would be p****d if everyone questioned the pricing and methods; however, it seemed very coincidental that all the systems went up, miraculously, the same time the rebate came in...funny that! I DO know how much the tradies pay for their bits and the markups involved. My father was a Mechanical Engineer/Diesel/General mechanic for 40 years until he passed on - I know exactly how long the pieces of string are as I was his accounts manager before I joined the ADF - nuff said. All said, dont like it - move on...it is a sale they wont get and someone else will. Just be aware of the charlatans out there who would love nothing better than ripping you for a grand or two - DO YOUR SHOPPING and research the installers - you will be pleasantly suprised. Another thing - befriend a tradie - they get s**t cheaper than you will ever hope to get. Good to see the replies coming in. Boycotting the big guys works but takes a lot of work and commitment from all concerned. If you can stay the course - it will hurt the big companies in the hip pocket with flow on effects for the pricing. Hooroo |
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Para045 |
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Age: 59 Posts: 7 Joined: 22nd Aug 2009 Ride: 97 EL Falcon V8 Ex Pursuit Car Location: Perth |
CPOCSM wrote: More likely to push a lot of installers out of the game, as down here in Vic they don't have to be mechanics to get their gas ticket, and I find there isn't many workshops that really know their s**t when it comes to LPG. Think of the WA locals who got it for free after the federal government rebate and then the WA government rebate. Yes I received my $2000 but the installer made a hefty profit of just under a grand. A lot of installers here in WA have gone compared to when the rebate was announced, installers here do have to have mechanical qualifications as well as a gas installers ticket I was lucky enough to be one of those that got the conversion "free" on our 98 EL 5L ex cop car. We booked in with a long standing gas conversion company Steens the 2nd day after the feds announced the rebate, (state already had one). It took ~2.5 months to get the job done due to the backlog of work even at that early stage and a shortage of tanks. We were quoted ~$2600 for the job which effectively meant that we were well under the combined rebate total Thing is by the time we actually got the car in for the conversion the company reckoned all their suppliers had jacked up their prices and the price of the conversion was now ~$3400 Well after a bit of discussion and pointing out the fact we had a quote for $2600 they agreed to do it for the total rebate price of $3000 They had I think 4 installers and 2 apprentices at the time of install, when I went back a few months back for a gas tune, they had 2 installers and 1 apprentice and the owner said they may have to lose one of the installers due to the downturn
_________________ First On Race Day |
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