Review
Well, it happened to me during my regular fill-up at Taylor Motors, in Star Road, Peterborough. I am now paying 40p a litre for LPG - down from to 43p a litre - and that includes someone filling up for you. So you have old-style service to go with the old-style price. And there is a rumour it could drop further, to 39p a litre. A standard 44 litres of LPG now costs a pocket-friendly ú17.60, down from ú18.92. If you wanted a similar amount of unleaded petrol you could expect to pay ú29.92 at an average 68p a litre.
Going green does bring substantial savings at the fuel pump, but fleet managers should bear in mind the noticeable drop in economy as well, 31mpg compared to 38.7mpg for petrol. Not enough to offset the fuel saving, but something to watch out for should the Government ever turn its mind to revenue building by increasing tax on LPG.
The Mondeo has performed to its best on long journeys, eating up the motorway miles and showing rocketing fuel economy for petrol. If you fill up with LPG and petrol and turn your nose to the horizon, you can travel nearly 800 miles before both tanks run dry, handy for those who hate filling up.
But the more miles you do, the more obvious the lack of filling points for LPG becomes. If you are running low on petrol, just drive around a bit and soon enough you come across a petrol station. Do that with LPG and you will be on the phone to breakdown recovery before you can say 'empty fuel tank'. However, if you have a list of the filling points and their locations, available from the Autogas Installers and Retailers Association, then the problem can be overcome. And when you know how cheap LPG is, searching around for somewhere to fill up doesn't seem like such a burden. Call the Autogas Installers and Retailers Association on 01663 732030 for a copy of its filling station list.
John Maslen
