| Motoring Discussion > lpg or sell it. | Miscellaneous |
| Thread Author: - | Replies: 19 |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 00:12
lpg or sell it. - -
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As regulars probably know i packed in driving the car transporters and now have a life again, i can't describe just how good it feels. Anyway, we have less money to burn on fuel and the extremely local job i first got after changing didn't pan out long term. So i travel various distances to work for different companies now. I don't have to decide immediately but trying to plan things a bit, and if someone ever offers me a full time permanent contract again which i doubt then i will judge my car needs accordingly. Right, i still have and love my 14 year old MB 124 coupe, it's in fantastic condition it's a pleasure to own and drive but obviously with a 3.2 24V engine it drinks the stuff and it's still surprisingly rapid which is despite my advancing years addictive, oh and it's covered 79K from new and we are the second owner. Mechanically it's excellent, new shockers springs and wishbones, brakes renewed, fully waxoyled, wiring loom (regular problem on these) replaced, the only thing it might need..touch wood... at some point is the head gasket which may go anytime after 100K. Ok it's not everyone's cup of tea, would anyone else here consider LPGing the car so i can continue to use it for my daily commutes for another 5 or more years, or am i being a bit daft to even consider it...i considerd doing this when we first bought it but had no idea we'd still have it 8 years later. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 00:39
lpg or sell it. - Stuu
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How much does it cost to convert? If you wont get the cost of conversion back, there would be little point. Might make it harder to sell on as people can be suspicious of conversions even if they are good quality. Its such a nice car, id move it on personally. Plenty of more economical but still nice cars about. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 06:40
lpg or sell it. - Iffy
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...and it's still surprisingly rapid which is despite my advancing years addictive... gb, Lpg blunts the performance in a way that using more throttle cannot fully make up for. Given that you enjoy the way the car accelerates, I think you will be very disappointed if you lpg it. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 10:01
lpg or sell it. - Runfer D'Hills
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GB - I think I can relate, a bit anyway, to what you are going through right now. Several years ago, I gave up a highly paid job to set up my own little business. There were times in the early years when we nearly sank without trace. Our attitude to money became acute for quite a while. We went through all the clog dance of looking to offload costs, even to the extent of selling our fairly huge, fairly cranky 200 year old house and buying a new build albeit perfectly acceptable one in which we still live. We sort of regret that, as on reflection we could have made the numbers work in the long term but fear made us take more drastic steps than actually proved to be needed in the end. You clearly have something about you which gives you an edge over others. My advice is to find that "mojo" again. Treat your new circumstances as an opportunity to make things better than they were rather than as the beginning of a period of economic contraction. Time perhaps for a radical change of career ? Is there a way of using your knowledge of your specialised industry to create a service which can be sold ? Can you consider driving a keyboard for a while ? You are a skilled communicator. Can you see an opportunity in training or sales within your field of expertise for example ? As for the car, you say you love it, well you should keep it. I have no idea what mpg it achieves but for the sake of argument lets say it gets 20mpg and assume you will travel 10k in it next year. That will cost about £2750 in fuel. If you changed it at no cost for a vehicle which does 40 mpg that would still be a fuel bill of £1375. In other words the excess cost of fuel on that assumption is £3.77 a day. Not a lot when you look at it like that is it .......? Don't spoil it with lpg. Sort of takes quite a lot of the point of it away really doesn't it ? All the best ! Feel free to ignore all of the above ! Last edited by: Humph D'bout on Sun 25 Jul 10 at 10:03
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 10:11
lpg or sell it. - Bellboy
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Problem is h about absolutely everyone is on a bum squeeze at the moment ive never seen things so tight with people to the extreme so unless you can come up with a very good product where people know they need it before you offer it i dont think right now is a good timer to go off in another direction,my attitude is batten down the hatches see what cost savings can be made and ride out the storm people who have lost their jobs in my family in the last 14 months are an electrician a conveyancer a biochemist a window fitter and soon to be added my wife a pct employee so you see no body is safe from the grim reaper of unemployment |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 09:51
lpg or sell it. - FotheringtonTomas
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| Buy something else that's cheap and reliable (a Kia?), and use your old car only occasionally (on a restricted mileage insurance policy, perhaps?). |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 09:57
lpg or sell it. - Zero
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you need a nice common rail diesel GB, a nice second hand one. Coat, coat! wheres my coat when I need it. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 10:00
lpg or sell it. - Iffy
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...you need a nice common rail diesel GB, a nice second hand one... But don't buy one that's too old - it might not have a DPF or a DMF. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 10:04
lpg or sell it. - Bellboy
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I would agree with FT till he ruined it and used that "kia " name get a user for piling the miles on like a fiesta mk5 and keep your lovely merc for weekends |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 10:16
lpg or sell it. - FotheringtonTomas
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>> I would agree with FT till he ruined it and used that "kia " name Sorry! >> get a user for piling the miles on like a fiesta mk5 and keep your >> lovely merc for weekends Using it as a fair-weather car will also mean it keeps better, and you will have a better time using it too - no rail 'issin down on it, or ice, or salt, etc. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 10:06
lpg or sell it. - Old Navy
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>> Coat, coat! wheres my coat when I need it. >> Too late I have locked you in ! My 6 month old (when I bought it) 2.0 tdci Focus had a brilliant engine, smooth, powerful, and economical if not driven like a nutter. It did not have a DPF, and the DMF survived 80,000 miles as did everything else, including the common rail system. That was a good motor, the KIA has a lot to live up to, but does not have a DPF or a DMF. Last edited by: Old Navy on Sun 25 Jul 10 at 10:09
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 10:07
lpg or sell it. - corax
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Very nice car for high days and holidays GB, but a daily commuter, well, I don't know how financially comfortable you are, but you strike me as a very sensible person and you're obviously thinking about the high fuel consumption, so I take it you'd rather not be on first name terms with your local petrol station (even if you can afford it):-) I thought you had a diesel Hi Lux, is this not being used instead? An LPG conversion is going to cost at least £2000 for a good, reliable system. If you're planning on keeping the car, I would just use it for weekends as a classic and get something more economical for daily use (Kia C'eed perhaps?). If you don't have the space to park the car during the week, maybe you will have to sell it, but these cars are definitely going to be worth good money in the future (I saw a Mk1 Ford Escort RS Turbo in a classic car mag yesterday for £25,000!), so it would be nice to keep it and fettle it. I love those coupes, they have real road presence, and I would understand if you did not want to go down the selling route, as the car is obviously you. Thats the trouble with classics like these, common sense doesn't come into it! |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 10:45
lpg or sell it. - Mike Hannon
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Don't spoil it with lpg. I saw an ad the other day for a 6 litre XJS on lpg. What a disastrous move - and reflected in the give-away price. If it's not practical to hang on to the Merc as it is, bite the bullet, let it go to someone who will appreciate it and start again when the circumstances are right. And don't take too much notice of anyone who says it will be a valuable classic in future. Big Merc coupes since the '70s 116 series have never made a lot of money - I had a very nice '76 116 280CE that was worth much more in pleasure than it was in cash, and '80s 123 CEs don't fetch a lot although they are nice too. Keeping an old car long enough and in good enough condition to see it rise in value is an expensive business. Mk 1 Escorts are today's fad among people who couldn't afford a sporty one 30 years ago, but what would you have had to spend on one to make it worth 25k now? Classic car magazines, with one or two notable exceptions, are nothing but a vehicle for dealers to talk up prices to the gullible public. Good luck with the decision anyway. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 11:10
lpg or sell it. - Fenlander
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I looked after a MB190E that first belonged to my Dad and then two more friends so I knew the car well. The second friend used it for a 15,000ml/yr commute so without mentioning it to me turned up one day with it LPG'd. Of course fuel cost is just one issue.... that didn't stop all the other Mercedes priced things go wrong (suspension bushes, clutch, brake discs/pads ball joints, broken spring etc). He went to an installer of repute some 35 miles from his home. It did have several issues over the two years he ran it on LPG (like eating plugs and the head gasket failing) plus other running problems. Every time the installer insisted it was a tuning issue unrelated to LPG so the car would come to me and I'd not find anything. So he would have to make the very time consuming 70ml round trip to let the gas guy have a look. Add to that the huge tank in the boot and fact the the car looked fiddled with under the bonnet with the extra kit..... not a great experience. He did break even after two years but immediately sold it. Why not use the Hi-Lux for your commute? |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 11:35
lpg or sell it. - -
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Thanks for taking the time chaps, all appreciated no one thinks it would be a good idea and seeing your thoughts i am now decided against. Stu, CX is right on the cost roughly £2400, fair comment about spoiling the car and it is a good example of the model. Iffi, I suppose i was living in the fantasy world of using LPG for normal cruising and switching to petrol for pressing on, it's the effortless non attention seeking performance that makes the car so pleasurable, and undoubtably causes most of it's fuel burning, it isn't ridiculously quick on paper but in practice on the road it leaves other vehicles standing if i want to overtake or indeed pull out sharply from a junction for example without wheelspin or drama. Hump, think you might have me confused with someone else.;), though i'm flattered by your post, i lack confidence though it's always been a problem, i could do a lot more just not sure what. Take the point about costs but if i do change for an economy car it will be for something that does at least 50mpg and around £35 or less VED. BB, i'm much of the same mind about battening down the hatches, at least with my job i know i can do it reasonably competently not as that seems to be in many companies requirements at the moment, they seem happy to employ idiots who though cheap work out expensive through damage and neglect. FT, we used to run 3 cars and the costs get too heavy. I would like to keep the MB for pleasure but MB 124's do not fare well stood, they like to be driven, luckily we have the room but it's probably a non starter for us, i have to find the whole purchase of another car then insurance on a third policy again. Zero with Iffi aiding and abetting, the concerns over a used comon rail Diesel are quite real, there's so many clowns trying to run their cars on Mazola or filling them up with petrol that i'm unsure, though a well kept older Diesel might be worth a punt. If i go new and Diesel then Navy's Ceed discovery of no DPF/DMF sounds like music to my lugs, i'll find out if i30 is the same. Corax, I can afford to run it without too much struggle touch wood, i have a distrust/dislike of all recent govt's of all creeds who have and will continue to throw our money around like confetti, indeed the new crew seem to want to continue to throw it at other countries or wars quicker than the last lot of clowns, whilst cutting back on spending in our own country. Part of thoughts were even if i don't make a profit as it were out of the conversion and only broke even in my running costs then i would have given £2K to joe bloggs ltd gas converters and not given that extra £2K in fuel tax to our chancellor to give to China. The Hilux is more economical and i do use it for certain jobs especially one particular one where i have to drive over about 30 of the square type 3 across traffic calmer, i don;t think they do car tyres any good over time having quite sharp edges. It's swmbo's baby really though. Mike, you've confirmed what the others have said about ruining the car and you are right, though in terms of size the 124 coupe is a small car, about the size of a modern medium hatchback. Will give much thought to this, again many thanks for your thoughts gentlemen. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 11:45
lpg or sell it. - -
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Fenlander, our posts crossed, yes the thought of running probs did cross my mind. Sorry got to go, all of sudden work has come up...double bubble..... |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 12:01
lpg or sell it. - corax
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>>I would like to keep the MB for pleasure but MB 124's do not fare well stood, they like to be driven Very true, as do other cars. >> in terms of size the 124 coupe is a small car, about the size of a modern medium hatchback Yes, it amazes me how small my BMW E36 looks parked next to something like a new Focus, you can really see how cars have grown. Good luck with the decision making, I'm sure you'll let us know the outcome. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 13:37
lpg or sell it. - Bagpuss
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>> Yes, it amazes me how small my BMW E36 looks parked next to something like >> a new Focus, you can really see how cars have grown. Yes, I recently parallel parked my W124 coupe between 2 Mondeos - it looked tiny. GB, there are LPG conversions out there that allow you to completely remove the installation and restore the car back to original, I've seen them advertised in classic car mags in Germany so I assume they're sold in the UK. Only ballache is having to open the boot to fill up the tank rather than having a filler mounted on the outside of the car. I personally wouldn't go down that route. As you say it is the off the mark acceleration, throttle response and willingness to rev that are a key part of making a 6 cylinder W124 so pleasant to drive. I used mine as my daily driver until I changed jobs and got a company hack. Now it's just used for days out, driving on holiday and just simply driving for the hell of it. I've thought about selling it because it's more than surplus to requirements, but I know I'd miss it if I did. It does drink the jungle juice though. |
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New Sun 25 Jul 10 16:40
lpg or sell it. - Runfer D'Hills
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>> >> Hump, think you might have me confused with someone else No I don't think I do. You underestimate your communication skills in particular. You might be surprised how you could use that particular asset. You often show great empathy with others in your posts. One of the key abilities of a good sales person or presenter of training for example is the ability to see things from the perspective of another person. You clearly have a huge wealth of industry specific, specialised knowledge. I would urge you to consider using those two valuable factors to your advantage. Anyway , I'll butt out now ....... Good luck, whatever you decide. :-) |
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New Mon 26 Jul 10 11:33
lpg or sell it. - Cliff Pope
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| LPG doesn't blunt performance if done properly. Talk to someone with experience of converting that particular car. |
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