LPG conversion - am thinking of getting it done.

[StripeyKnickersSpottySocks]

I have a 3 year old Yaris and do about 14,000 miles a year in it. I've been told I'd save about £700 a year on fuel costs with that level of mileage. I've had a quote which was £1800 so it would be cost effective within a couple of years.

However - I read that the gov have only agreed the current tax levels on LPG until 2010 and there are fears that then the cost of it is going to rocket. Does anyone know if thats true - I'm reluctant to shell out if its going to cost the same as petrol in 18 months time.

Also if anyone has had it done did it affect your insurance premiums by much?

Also what are the liklihood of anything going wrong with it and costing a lot of money to fix. It would come with a 2 year guarantee but I don't want to have to totally replace the whole system 3 years down the line!

TIA.

I don't know anything about it - but I'm bumping for you

we had a factory fit conversion and it is fab - costs about £18 to fill a tank - gives us about 220 miles - fairly good saving, but don't know how much per year - guess you can work it out from the mileage. don't know about the tax levels - think it might be unpopular if they lifted them in 2010 given the push being made towards alternative fuels. No effect on our insurance premiums - but as I said, ours was a factory fit, not a retrofit. We've only had one problem with the LPG - the car wouldn't start one day, and it turned out the petrol had gone off as it had been almost a year since we'd filled the tank. Now we just fill £10 of petrol at a time (needs petrol to start and then switches over to LPG). Hope this helps!

I heard that the tax relief on LPG at the moment will end soon and it will massively increase in price so it may not be worth doing.

Where do you hear things like that car girl? Scares me as LPG makes our car affordable and greenish

LPG is only available with the extraction of oil, more people are switching to it, using up supplies quicker. As supplies dwindle the proce will have to rocket as it has for petrol, wouldn't even try and predict when but doubt it'll take too long. It might easily still pay off considering the rise of petrol costs, assuming that LPG won't rise as sharply before 2010 but it's still a risk.

Think if LPG rises they'll just push electric cars, which really would solve the problem, especially if the government are continuing with their plan to go for nuclear power.

My mechanic told me, I was thinking of getting my ancient thirsty 2.2 auto espace converted - he told me not to bother because the tax cuts would be stopped in a year or so.

Thanks, think you have confirmed my worries. Will stick with petrol for now.