why no new lpg staions

[skiprat]

I haven't seen any new lpg pumps installed for a while, some parts of the country could use a few moor!

so it seems to me like lpg has fallen off the radar a bit?

when ever I have to explain lpg to someone, its like the first time they have heard of the concept, I may as well be telling them its running on dilithium crisals!!

I did a diy conversion to my v8 landrover 10 years ago, it seemed like it was going to catch on in a big way,

[capt jack]

I don't know if LPG is on the up or not, but I have a feeling I know why it might not be the brilliant money-saver it once was. I ran an LPG-converted car for 8 or 9 years and it was a great success. But now I have a diesel. Why?

Well when I had my old V70 converted in 2005 decent lowish-mileage diesel cars, especially autos, were hard to come by second hand. And the diesel technology of the time meant that mpg was not so good, nor was performance.

I bought my V70 with just 50,000 miles and then had the gas conversion done, all for less than a diesel car with 100k would have cost. Plus LPG was 25p a litre, petrol and diesel three times as much at around 75p a litre. So I recouped my costs very quickly.

Also, the technology in my old V70 made the conversion quite easy and very reliable. I think now the technology in newer petrol cars would be far more daunting.

Now, there are plenty of diesels around with really good mpg and performance (my current 175bhp Saab 93 TiD returns 50mpg and has cracking performance). LPG is 70p a litre, a little over half the cost of petrol or diesel.

Even petrol cars are far more economical. I briefly owned a petrol Honda Civic - 140bhp and easily into the high forties mpg-wise.

There's no one key factor, but the higher relative cost of LPG, the increasing complexity of modern cars, the improvements in performance and economy of newer diesels, and the wider availability of decent low-mileage diesels on the second hand market seem to be mitigating against LPG conversions.

LPG worked if you had a big old thirsty petrol car and kept it a long time, but generally speaking most folk tend not to keep a car for the length of time you need to in order to make sense of LPG. Things are I reckon changing a bit now.

There are fewer petrol stations now as the big ones get bigger and the smaller independents close down. And so LPG diminishes.

Jack

[kevoffthetee]

There is a New Morrisons supermarket in Blaydon, T&W being built and a new fuel station is going in aswell. Bewick Mobility (AKA Bewick Autogas) are enquiring about them putting a tank in and if not they are going to get one in themselves