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Tests & Reports
From HERALD SUN
Friday, November 4, 2005
Five cars...
one 400km route...
what's the cost?
GRAHAM SMITH compares the cost and savings of alternative fuels
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With fuel prices climbing higher and higher, and with no sign they will come down again any time soon, perhaps it’s a good time to consider your driving future.
There’s no question that we have enjoyed relatively cheap petrol for many years, far cheaper than European drivers shell out for their fuel, but with the recent price increases that gap has been closed.
While we might see a softening of petrol prices in the short term there is very little chance the price will come down in the long term. It’s a question of world-wide supply and demand and with strong ongoing demand from emerging economies like China the situation isn’t likely to change.
That doesn’t mean we can’t do anything about it. In the short term there are many things that can be done to cut our fuel bills, like increasing tyre pressures, ensuring our cars are in good running condition, and removing roof racks for instance, but while they will have a positive impact much more fundamental changes to our driving lives are needed to dramatically cut our running costs.
With that in mind we decided to consider some alternative vehicle choices that might save us some money at the pump.
Most will involve some lifestyle decisions, some won’t, but they’re the things that have to be taken into consideration if your priority is to reduce your fuel consumption.
To establish a baseline we’ve used the average six cylinder family sedan, either Falcon or Commodore, and looked at what can be achieved by switching to other cars.
For comparison purposes we drove each car on a test loop that took in some city crawl as well as some country and highway driving. The loop was 400 km in length, of which 40 per cent was city driving, the rest out of town.
In each case we carefully measured the fuel used for the trip which we then calculated the cost of the trip for comparison purposes.
The cars we chose represented four different ways you could cut your fuel costs, those being to downsize to a smaller car, switch to a diesel, or petrol-electric hybrid, and finally to convert to LPG.
CONVERT TO LPG
The first and perhaps most obvious if you’re driving around in a Falcon or Commodore is to convert it to run on LPG so we tested a current Ford Territory to see what can be achieved by having a dual-fuel system installed.
Ford doesn’t offer an LPG option on either the Falcon or Territory, their offering is the dedicated E-gas engine in the BA Falcon.
While that’s an option if you’re shopping for a car it’s of little use if you’re driving around in a Falcon or Territory and want to switch, so we took the chance to test a new Territory fitted with an Italian Tartarini dual-fuel system by Victorian Autogas Supplies.
The two-wheel drive Territory wagon we drove was the first converted by the company as they strive to develop similar systems to meet the demand from owners desperate to convert. It is available through VAS approved installers, along with the similar system they have already developed for the BA Falcon.
The Tartarini system is a state-of-the-art sequential vapour-injection system that’s fully integrated into the vehicle in such a way it’s hard to pick it’s been fitted after the car left the production line.
LPG is delivered to the engine through gas injectors fitted to the intake manifold close to the existing fuel injectors, so there’s almost no chance of a backfire of the sort that occurs regularly with the old air valve systems.
All starts are done on petrol which further reduces the chance of a backfire, it then switches automatically to LPG once the engine is warmed up. The switch from petrol to LPG is imperceptible, you wouldn’t know that it’s happened from the way the engine runs, only a light on the dash-mounted switch lets you know it has changed from one fuel to the other.
There was no perceptible loss of idle quality, performance or drivability when running on LPG, and the VAS people say you only lose about two to three kilowatts at the rear wheels on LPG compared to petrol.
Should you run out of LPG the system automatically switches back to petrol, again with no loss of performance while it’s making the switch.
On the test loop we consumed 52.4 litres of LPG which gave us an average
fuel consumption of 13.36 L/100 km, and with LPG priced at 38.9 cents per litre the trip cost us $20.38.
On petrol the same vehicle consumed 12.4 L/100 km so with regular unleaded priced at 124.7 cents per litre on the same day the cost of doing the same trip on petrol would have cost $61.85.
Using LPG on our test loop resulted in a saving of $41.47 which equates to $103.67 per 1000 kilometres driven. At that rate the installation cost of $3200 would be recouped in a little less than 31,000 km, or around 18 months if you’re an average motorist. After that the average motorist would save $2073 per year.
DOWNSIZING TO A SMALLER CAR
Perhaps the simplest way of cutting fuel costs is to dump your six cylinder Falcon or Commodore and move to a smaller four cylinder model. The move makes lifestyle changes necessary, but with sales of small cars booming it seems there are plenty of Australians prepared to do just that.
For the purpose of our test we chose a current Holden Astra hatch with a 1.8-litre four cylinder engine and five-speed manual transmission. A big step admittedly, but not out of the question.
Today’s small car is a far cry from the poverty pack models of yesteryear when small cars came with few, if any, frills and sluggish performance.
Driving a small car now doesn’t make you a second class citizen as it once did. The Astra is well equipped, nicely styled, well built and very comfortable. It also lacks little in performance, and if you could live with the smaller package it’s worth considering if you’re serious about cutting your running costs.
When put through its paces on our test loop the Astra sipped 26.8 litres of unleaded at the rate of 6.7 L/100 km. With unleaded priced at 124.7 cents per litre our test trip cost $34.91, and that equates to a saving of $67.35 per 1000 km driven. On average that means a saving of around $1010 per year.
The other benefit of downsizing is that you are generally moving to a less expensive model, and in this case, moving from our typical six cylinder family sedan to an Astra priced at $21,990, we would be saving a whopping $12,010 on our purchase.
FUELLING THE FUTURE
Hybrids give us a look at what motoring might be years into the future and the good thing is that they’re here right now in the form of Honda’s Civic Hybrid and Toyota’s Prius.
For the purpose of our test we chose the Toyota and put it through its paces on our test loop.
The Hybrid concept combines a normal petrol engine – in the case of the Prius it’s a 1.5-litre double overhead camshaft four cylinder unit putting out 57 kW and 115 Nm – with an electric motor.
For all intents and purposes the Prius is a normal five-door hatch with comfortable accommodation for a family of five. On the road it’s quiet, smooth and offers good performance.
The Prius is at its best in city city traffic and the car’s trip computer was regularly showing fuel consumption of around 4.0 L/100 km compared to 5.0-plus L/100 km when running at higher speeds on the highway.
Overall we were able to achieve an average of 4.1 L/100 km over the test distance. The Prius consumed 16.5 litres of unleaded priced at 124.7 cents per litre which comes to a cost of $20.57.
Switching from our typical $34,000 six cylinder family sedan to a Prius comes at a cost penalty of $2500. An average motorist would recoup that in 25,000 or about 15 months, after which they would save $2064 per year.
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