What's it worth?

[Dippydog]

Personally if the car suits your needs and you like it[apart from fuel consumption]I'd lpg it.Swapping to something else which you may not like as much is a gamble as far as reliability is concerned and as has been said elsewhere buying a second car brings extra cost not only of purchase price but road tax[or whatever they call it these days]insurance etc.etc.

[AllHailKingVolvo]

My second car is a little '04 Micra four-door with the 1.5dCi lump. I bought for beans it from a dealer who had it in as a PX, it came with a new cambelt and MOT and has been faultless. Averages an astonishing 70mpg, goes like a rocket and handles like a go-kart, costs me £3 a month tax and £18 a month insurance...it's almost free!

I'm a musician by trade and do lots of miles a year, the Micra does a lot of the long distance stuff (surprisingly comfortable and smooth on the motorway) and has cut my fuel bills massively, plus it means I can use my Volvo(s) for pleasure and local/regional use rather than putting a ton of miles on them slogging up and down the country, other than when I feel like it that is.

I'd keep the S90 and enjoy it, either LPG it or grab a little frugal pocket rocket like mine for cheap miles and enjoy the Volvo when you want to.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by AllHailKingVolvo

My second car is a little '04 Micra four-door with the 1.5dCi lump. I bought for beans it from a dealer who had it in as a PX, it came with a new cambelt and MOT and has been faultless. Averages an astonishing 70mpg, goes like a rocket and handles like a go-kart, costs me £3 a month tax and £18 a month insurance...it's almost free!

I'm a musician by trade and do lots of miles a year, the Micra does a lot of the long distance stuff (surprisingly comfortable and smooth on the motorway) and has cut my fuel bills massively, plus it means I can use my Volvo(s) for pleasure and local/regional use rather than putting a ton of miles on them slogging up and down the country, other than when I feel like it that is.

I'd keep the S90 and enjoy it, either LPG it or grab a little frugal pocket rocket like mine for cheap miles and enjoy the Volvo when you want to.

Look out for the diesel price hikes Phil!

The 1.5dCi is a Renault diseasel lump if memory serves.

The Micra = Corsa = Clio from about 2000-2018 ish when Vauxhall cars were sold to FCA and Vauxhall vans to PSA and those two have, i believe, now merged so we have a Franco-Italiano conglomorate owning :

Peugeot
Citroen
Fiat
Jeep/Chrysler
Lancia
Alfa Romeo???
Maserati
Vauxhall cars
Vauxhall vans

plus maybe a few others i may have missed!

[AllHailKingVolvo]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Look out for the diesel price hikes Phil!

The 1.5dCi is a Renault diseasel lump if memory serves.

The Micra = Corsa = Clio from about 2000-2018 ish when Vauxhall cars were sold to FCA and Vauxhall vans to PSA and those two have, i believe, now merged so we have a Franco-Italiano conglomorate owning :

Peugeot
Citroen
Fiat
Jeep/Chrysler
Lancia
Alfa Romeo???
Maserati
Vauxhall cars
Vauxhall vans

plus maybe a few others i may have missed!

Yes I shall be mindful of the diseasel prices going up...my thoughts on the Micra are that even if I run it for another three months and then bung it in the sea, it has paid for itself and was a fun car to own. In the long term, I plan to go LPG on my 940 and use that as my main car, as I know it's highly likely to outlive the Micra by some margin!!

[derek vivian]

I read with interest that one can convert to lpg. Anyone care to explain what is involved and how much it would cost to have done? Where does one 'fill up' with lpg? I haven't noticed lpg pumps at the petrol stations. My car is a V90 (1997) and I do less that 5,000 miles per year now I am retired! Derek

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by derek vivian

I read with interest that one can convert to lpg. Anyone care to explain what is involved and how much it would cost to have done? Where does one 'fill up' with lpg? I haven't noticed lpg pumps at the petrol stations. My car is a V90 (1997) and I do less that 5,000 miles per year now I am retired! Derek

If you have a look on this and type your location into the search box on the page Derek, it should bring up places near you with prices (usually up to date) of LPG, as far as i can see at the moment, your nearest is the Texaco station at Kingswood but they were expensive on 6/11/2019 at 76p/L - however my internet is incredibly slow at the moment thanks to the weather and ancient underground cables that are effected badly by the damp!

https://www.filllpg.co.uk/index.php?page=lpg.php

In short, the conversion consists of an additional tank, usually either a "donut" tank that lives where the spare wheel does or a "torpedo" tank often mounted behind the rear seats. In a saloon, this isn't too much of a problem but absolutely ruins estate cars!

A fill line is then run to the LPG filler and another feed line to the engine bay where it enters what is known as a reducer. This is a coolant heated device to turn the liquid LPG into a gas which is then pressure regulated to about 1.0-1.4 bar (~15-20psi) and fed to a new injection rail where gas injectors feed it into the inlet manifold.

There is an LPG ECU mounted and connected to various electrical points and takes its basic signals from the original petrol injection injector signals.

The system is fully automatic in practice, you fill up with LPG and petrol (2 separate fillers) and then just drive as normal. The engine will always start on petrol and then when it reaches a certain temperature, switches automatically to gas operation. At that point the petrol injectors are switched off and the gas injectors are active. As they take the basic signals from the petrol injectors and process them through the LPG ECU, there is no change in servicing or tuning specifications.

In short, it's an alternative fuel source that is cheaper to use.

I would guess your course of action would be to have a new system fitted although you can do it yourself at home (requires the use of a laptop and preferably a co-driver during setting up) and generally a new, fitted, 4-cylinder system would be in the region of about £1000 all in.

If you're doing 5000 miles a year at let's say 25mpg, that's 200 gallons. That's £1200 at todays prices, roughly. Using LPG you'll save about half that amount so about £600/year.
Therefore, allowing for any error in calculations, the payback time would be in the region of 18 months and then you'd be saving about £600/year at todays prices.
This is just an example, use your own figures to work out a more accurate figure.

If you plan on touring abroad, you can get LPG over there as well but often you need a fill adaptor as some of the nozzles are different to the UK spec fillers.

When i had my Jeep (4.0 Cherokee) i was getting 24mpg on LPG and when i took the price difference into consideration, that was equivalent to running a petrol car at about 55mpg so it became my "weapon of choice" for any long distance stuff.

I'm in the process of converting my 760 at the moment but progress has stalled due to the weather and a couple of other reasons.

[derek vivian]

Thanks for all that info Dave. I will be considering it but not immediately! As with cars that rely on electric charges can one get a map yet showing where lpg can be obtained? A book of maps covering Europe would be good, but sounds like too early to expect it in the shops!
Most grateful for all your help and just to say my engine continues to be running smooth and quite after using Carlube ATF-U on your suggestion. Derek

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by derek vivian

Thanks for all that info Dave. I will be considering it but not immediately! As with cars that rely on electric charges can one get a map yet showing where lpg can be obtained? A book of maps covering Europe would be good, but sounds like too early to expect it in the shops!
Most grateful for all your help and just to say my engine continues to be running smooth and quite after using Carlube ATF-U on your suggestion. Derek

The link in my post takes you to a map where you can find LPG stations Derek. If you have a smart phone with Google maps on it, not only can you download the Fill LPG app but it will find your nearest station that sells LPG and navigate the way there for you.

Fairly sure that there are still more LPG stations than EV charging stations, might be wrong of course but given your location, i would strongly suggest converting to LPG and getting it on the LPG register as you should (as long as they don't change the rules again) then be exempt from the Constipation - errr - Congestion Charge and also the ULEZ charges - doble check this though in case they have changed the rules!

Glad to hear the ATF-U is still doing its stuff!

[capt jack]

LPG can be a great move.

I had a 1997 V70 converted in 2005 and went on to do 250,000 trouble-free LPG miles over nine years.

I never had any issues with the conversion, nor any difficulty in finding LPG garages.

Plus most of those miles were charged to my employers at the HMRC official rate of 45p. Which meant that I was quids in.

I once calculated that my LPG V70 actually generated more income than I spent on buying, running and maintaining the car.

Of course it was a Volvo and thus capable of mega-miles!

Jack

[derek vivian]

I wonder if this subject would be a good one for an article in Volvo Driver magazine? I now have have the Fill LPG app on my smartphone in readiness. But I shall have to save up first so I can have the conversion done professionally ( I have done the maths and can see it will pay fir itself fairly quickly depending how many miles driving I can do). Unless the Government will allow me a grant!!!
Thanks all round guys for an interesting something to look forward to if I don't ever want to part with my V90. Derek