Z4 Lpg?

S

speed12

Member
As I am searching for a Z4 at the moment, I noticed a 3.0 for sale with an LPG conversion, the pictures seemed to show that there was still some boot space left, which is surprising.

Has anyone on here bothered with such a conversion? does the weight of the conversion dent performance do you think? according to the advert he gets about 200 miles for £20 which is as good as my current Vw diesel.

I have been limiting myself to trade sellers because of the part exchange element, however at the moment, as Z4's seem to be in such high demand I may consider trying to get a small bank loan and buying private. looking around at bank loans, the typical apr is 8% which is not much higher than some finance deals, especially on a figure of £5-7K.

Regards
 
I bought mine privatley, small loan for half, rest I had saved. Makese sense as my monthly payment is small and shout anything bad happen I can easily sell the car and cover the loan etc.

As for LPG I wouldnt touch it personally, I'm sure its fine just not sure Id want it. My 3.0i is currently showing average of 31.3mpg, but that is with some motorway miles. Generally its pretty good on fuel I feel, and with the mileage I do I really don't worry about it at all.
 
LPG - don't see any reason why not, even in a "sports car" such as a Z4. IIRC, running on LPG results in slightly less bhp being generated however, so not ideally suited to performance cars. But evo magazine recently bought a BMW 7-series Alpine version, converted it to LPG, and ran it with no problems. Might be worth searching their site for info.

What sort of premium is the seller asking for over a non-LPG converted Z4? A conversion costs around £1.5-2k I think...

But, as shabba says, economy on the 3.0i is pretty good. My previous car was an Ibiza Cupra TDI (1.9 158bhp VAG TDI PD unit) and returned 44mpg vs the 31 I'm getting in my 3.0i Z4 for the same driving. Taking into account the price difference between petrol and diesel, it's not costing too much more.
 
THe one I have seen is an 04 3.0SE, standard spec I think. Its done about 40K.

His asking price is £11,450 so one could probably get it for £11K, which is not really much more than other Z's at this current time.

I'm running a Vw PD TDI, mapped to 170bhp, im getting about 50mpg and do about 18K a year, so unfortunately mpg is a concern for me, which is why I will probably have the Z for weekends and get a little Yaris for the work run and shopping trips.
 
That price is OK given the LPG conversion, not much more (if any) that a standard Z4 3.0i of that age.

Yep, I think doing 18k a year wouldn't be the most financially viable in a 3.0i petrol-powered Z4...
 
:?

am I missing something with LPG? From what I have read yes the fuel is cheaper but you get around half the mileage so dont the costs even out pretty much?

yours confused :?
 
I run one of my Jeeps on LPG and there's a lot of misconceptions about it. It's an excellent fuel and is way cheaper (<50p/litre). If you know where to look and buy it can be even cheaper, 40p at my local bus depot (In rural areas all sorts of strange places sell it, even direct from Calor depots.)
There is a slight drop in performance but you'd hardly notice it and a slight increase in use, however that's hard to tell as the gauges on LPG tanks are inaccurate to say the least. 95% of the time you'd never know you were using it other than the total running cost is only just over half. Factor in it's clean, oil needs less changing, engine runs smoother and it's a great idea.

It's best use is on really high mileage vehicles where conversion costs are swallowed or big engines (my Jeep is a 5.7 V8 )

On a Zed 4 - well I've seen several converted but frankly the dynamics of it are all wrong:
The boot is small so with a tank nothing much left
It weighs more so reduces performace, That same weight above the back axle afffecting handling too.
On a big 4x4 or family car/taxi it would increase the value, on a Zed I'd actually expect it to be the same or less (smaller market)

Just my 2p worth
 
They actually sold Morgans in the US with LPG conversion to meet US/California standards and could not make it work. Sports car with LPG not so special.
 
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