Technical (Punto Mk II) Scored lowest MPG at Spritmonitor.de (LPG converted)

[LeoAchaicus]

I am using the Spritmonitor iphone app to keep track of my refuels. Recently, I visited their website and checked the LPG-converted MK II Punto fuel efficiency, and it seems that my Punto scored the lowest MPG in there:

https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/over...styear_e=2004&power_s=39&power_e=49&gearing=1

5,89 Litres/100KM (LPG)

Since this forum is chiefly British, the above translates to exactly 47.959 MPG UK (LPG).

It costs me 18 Euros to do a distance of 432 km commuting to work and back which is abt 410 km highway and 22 km city. The price of LPG is abt 76 euro cents. By comparison, regular unleaded fuel costs 1.55 euros per litre.

Please note that I drive using hypermiling techniques which can be found here:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/EM-hypermiling-driving-tips-ecodriving.php

The techniques I use the most are DWB (drive-without-brakes), coasting, engine off when waiting at traffic lights, Constant Throttle Position Cruising, Pulse & Glide (sometimes), A/C cycling.

Due to time constraints, I cannot drive as slow as I'd like to, and when I'm on the highway I drive at a speed of between 90-100 km/h. Obviously, driving slower would be more efficient.

As far as modding is concerned, here's what I did:

a. I fold both mirrors when on the highway. To compensate, I bought an extra large center mirror which I installed over the vanilla mini-sized Fiat one as well as an internal mirror which I installed on the port side (driver side - sticks on glass) for increased port side visibility.

b. I removed the spare tire from the trunk to reduce the vehicle's weight. Also removed any non-necessary items from the vehicle except those required by law (e.g. fire extinguisher, first aid kit).

c. I set the pressure of all four tyres to 2.20 bars ( Fiat Punto manual recommends stern tyre pressure to be 1.90 bars when unloaded but ofc this hurts fuel economy so I just set the pressure to 2.20 for better efficiency). I check tyre pressure every 15 days, and I even bought a dedicated machine to do that which I wholeheartedly recommend:

[ame]https://www.amazon.com/Decker-ASI300-Station-Performance-Inflator/dp/B000IE0YIQ[/ame]

(I hate cheap low quality Chinese stuff)
=========================================================

The only regret I have is that I paid a metric **** tonne of money to buy and install the LPG kit. I also made the stupid mistake of buying the most expensive LPG kit in the market (BRC Sequent Plug And Drive) for my Mk II Punto. The kit cost me a little less than what the car sells used here in Greece. (Used car sells for around 2k euros, kit cost me 1k)

Here's the costs:

LPG kit purchase and installation: 930 euros
LPG "registration/certification" with the System/State: 80 euros

I could have just bought a cheaper STAG (Polish) LPG kit and be done with it. Big mistake. Now it's gonna take me longer to get even.

This is a car I have owned since it was new (Sep 2002), it has got a low mileage (88k KM now) and furthermore it is in perfect condition with no rust as it was stored inside a garage for most of its life and didn't spend too much time outdoors (except when I had to go out ofc). Otherwise I don't know if such a conversion would be worth it on Puntos of similar age with around 160k KM under their belt minimum.

I intend to keep this car for another 10 years. Hopefully EU law won't force me to retire it earlier than planned.

 

[LeoAchaicus]

I've just realized I ought to have stated "lowest consumption" (thus highest mpg compared to other LPG converted Puntos) in thread's heading as well as OP. Can't seem to edit the OP.

 

[AndyRKett]

I've just realized I ought to have stated "lowest consumption" (thus highest mpg compared to other LPG converted Puntos) in thread's heading as well as OP. Can't seem to edit the OP.

I’d be interested to know the price difference between petrol diesel, and LPG where you are.

 

[LeoAchaicus]

I’d be interested to know the price difference between petrol diesel, and LPG where you are.

Unleaded 95=1.55-1.65 Euros/litre, LPG=0.71-0.86 Euros/litre, Diesel- 1.19-1.34 Euros/litre.

Prices on the Greek islands can be up to 20% greater than the above prices, which are prices found in the capital (Athens).

AFAIK fuel prices here are more expensive than the UK due to absolutely insane over-taxation.

 

[AndyRKett]

Unleaded 95=1.55-1.65 Euros/litre, LPG=0.71-0.86 Euros/litre, Diesel- 1.19-1.34 Euros/litre.

Prices on the Greek islands can be up to 20% greater than the above prices, which are prices found in the capital (Athens).

AFAIK fuel prices here are more expensive than the UK due to absolutely insane over-taxation.

Current diesel prices are roughly the same, though at the upper end of your scale, I don’t buy petrol, but suspect ours is cheaper, very few stations here sell LPG but usually about 70p a litre.

My diesel punto (1.3 multijet) used to average 62.5mpg months after month for years, I wonder how the economy would compare with your LPG findings.

 

[LeoAchaicus]

Well, let's see:

You averaged 62.5 MPG UK (4.52 ltrs/100KM) so every 1000 km you required 45.2 ltrs Diesel, right?

I average 5.89 ltrs/100KM LPG, so I require 58.9 ltrs LPG every 1000 KM.

If you pay 1.32 euros per litre of Diesel you require 59.66 euros per 1000 KM.
If I paid 76 euro cents per litre of LPG I would require 44,76 euros per 1000 KM.

LPG comes out on top.

 

[nitramtpr]

Pretty good figures, LPG isn't as efficient as petrol but you'd only be getting 5-10% better economy but paying over twice the price for the petrol. An expensive kit indeed, should be transferable to another car though, no?

My old 2006 MK2B gets about 42.5 MPG which if I've worked it out right is 6.68 ltrs/km. And that is fairly economical driving, I do some hypermiling like coasting but don't do the no braking or turning off at traffic lights.

 

[LeoAchaicus]

Yeah, the thing is, like I said in the OP, my figures are averages for a distance of 432km which is mostly highway (very, very efficient) driving. Your figures I am guessing are for city-cycle driving which makes them excellent too.

My LPG kit is made by BRC and it is called "Plug And Drive MY10", it is a latest generation kit, and it was supposed to offer great fuel economy. It is also capable of working with CNG, so when CNG comes down to my hometown in Southern Greece, I could switch over to CNG which only requires me installing the special gas bottles required for CNG.

Yes, it is transferable to other modern superminis such as Mitsubishi Space Star (Mirage), Fiat Panda/500 and Suzuki Celerio.

 

[AndyRKett]

Well, let's see:

You averaged 62.5 MPG UK (4.52 ltrs/100KM) so every 1000 km you required 45.2 ltrs Diesel, right?

I average 5.89 ltrs/100KM LPG, so I require 58.9 ltrs LPG every 1000 KM.

If you pay 1.32 euros per litre of Diesel you require 59.66 euros per 1000 KM.
If I paid 76 euro cents per litre of LPG I would require 44,76 euros per 1000 KM.

LPG comes out on top.

But... my figures are without hypermile driving.

Also with the petrol and LPG kit you usually have to in on petrol to get the engine temp up before switching to gas, you have the additional costs of the LPG kit and added complexity under the bonnet.

I’m not trying to win and battles, just interested in drawing a comparison.

 

[SB1500]

Why don’t we get LPG as a factory option in the UK? [emoji848]

 

[AndyRKett]

Why don’t we get LPG as a factory option in the UK? [emoji848]

For all the reasons I listed above. Some manufacturers dabbled with pre installed lpg kit but it wasn’t a big selling point and cost a lot of money so they soon binned the option

 

[flisko]

that ecomodder page, some funny stuff