Cayenne Turbo and LPG

I bought a Cayenne S on a 53 plate in November, was originally looking at X5 3.0d, test drove the Cayenne and that was that!

Where I live everyman and his dog has a RRS or Black X5, so the Cayenne was a little bit different and I loved the performance, space, equipment and even like the looks of black with tan interior, paid 22k for my car with 50k miles, every extra on it including air sus etc, plus warranty.

Had mine converted by GreenFuel company, they put me in touch with a highly recommended converter in Worsley, he did a great job of fitting a 70 Litre tank in the spare wheel well and lifted the boot floor only about an inch (no big deal), the guage for the tank is in the cup holder cupboard near centre arm rest etc, very neat, you wouldn't notice it is converted as the filler is in the black plastic of the off side rear bumper.

When you turn the engine over it runs on petrol automatically until the engine is slightly warm then seamslesly switches to LPG, well i am b*uggered if i can tell any difference in the performance, engine pick up feels exactly the same and smoothness is unchanged, all i know is that i am paying 45-55 pence per litre and with the conversion costing 2.5k all in i will get my money back based on 12k miles within a year, also the dealer said that a car with a conversion is also a 1k premium!

If i had gone x5 3.0d route i would probably achieve 28-32 mpg at best, with the LPG Cayenne i am already getting the equivilant of 35 mpg due to the fuel price difference, and i get the roar of the V8 and 350bhp!

The conversion is warrantied by the converters and they say they have worked on many big V8 engine cars with no problems!

Best of both worlds in imho.

My converter chap said you only loose about 10% of the fuel comsumption with LPG over petrol, will be doing at least 12k but more like 20k miles per annum and am deifinetely keeping it for 3 years plus as i have spent too much money on changing cars every 3 months etc.

As well as the long term cost benefits of LPG conversion other factors were that with unleaded i just couldn't get my head round putting 20 quid in the car and the fuel light still being on, now a full tank is 30 quid!

Car is warrantied and insured with conversion in mind too.

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It costs £3364 to do 12,000 miles at 17 mpg (@ 1.05p/litre). On LPG this cost should roughly halve (you use 20-25% more LPG than petrol for the same distance), so saving will be around £1700 a year.

Still, paying for the conversion within 2 years is great (although it's only after that when you start saving money) if you're keeping the car for at least 3 years - not many people do with Cayennes though. I don't think it'll be worth any more with the conversion and will make it less saleable to some people (due to reduced space or giving a buyer the impression the owner has been very careful with his money, has he scrimped on maintaining it?). You may also run into warranty problems with Porsche.

The conversion argument stacks up better for higher annual mileages, at 12k pa personally I don't think I'd bother.

BTW, an X5 3.0d is unlikely to do as much as 28-32mpg (hence I'd have the V8 every time).

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LPG storage for heating is in tanks which have the feed off the top - the heaters use the gas. LPG for car fuel is drawn from the bottom of the tank in liquid form - so a completely different storage tank is required.
You cant get around the fuel duty between the two types of tank - unless you have both tanks and a friendly tanker driver!
It is cheaper to buy in bulk although there is a rental charge for the tank so you need to use a lot to make it worthwhile.

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I tried to get my 2004 Porsche Cayenne turbo converted to LPG at greenfuel company in Bath cos i am fed up of only getting 11mpg!!!! They said they done a few cayenne S and after 8 days they gave up stating not enough room under bonnet/wheel arches due to the 2 turbos/intercoolers!!

Porsche GB also advises not to convert stating the car is designed to run on Super unleded or unleaded only due to the massive performance!

I think its ok to convert other less performance cars but only time will tell if engine wear occures!

I guess if we want to buy cars with massive performance that 4 years ago were £77k but now only 20K we still have to pay through the nose for petrol/maintanence. The lesson is buying the car is the easy bit, running it is another matter!

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www.tassoautogas.co.uk
Give the above guy's a call. They are in West London and run a converted Cayenne. They did my RR a several months ago and I am very happy. I was advised to run on petrol for a few miles after every tank of LPG. Conversion was under 2k which was well worth it.
If your worried about LPG not lubricating the internals you can get a lubricant injector which they will happily fit for you.
For me was a nobraininer, cheaper fuel, cheaper running costs, lower tax, free congestion charge,no noticable power difference.

All the best - Fulla.

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