[peter_964rs]

A friend of mine has seen my SL and now lusts after one, however as a fertile kinda guy he keeps making babies and so has to also buy people carriers and watch the pennies. He's convinced LPG in an SL is a great idea. I'm deeply, deepy sceptical. I attach the email back and forth argument below for your amusement and welcome any opinions one way or t'other!

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J: Have you priced an LPG conversion? An 500SL with the fuel costs of a medium hatchback would appeal to a miserly old git like me.
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Me: I figure running costs to be low given the expected minuscule depreciation as an offset to higher fuel consumption (which, on longer runs, averages 24mpg). I know that sort of thing turns you on as a sprog-producer and owner of people carriers. So LPG is probably not a good idea because installation+lower resale or installation+LPG removal costs would offset the fuel price advantage……..
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J:I can’t see how LPG would lower resale value? Quite the opposite surely.
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Me: Duh? Big LPG tank? In the boot as the only available spot therefore consuming the boot? Think about it. Also think about who would be likely buyers of an SL and whether they would touch one that had been converted and/or converted back again unless presented at a truly attractive price, ergo more depreciation ergo more offset to counterbalance the lower fuel cost (and lower economy probably exacerbated on a big-engined car) not including expensive (probably) conversion/reconverstion costs.



Let’s kill this if you’re still a fan: go find out how much it’d cost to convert an SL500 (or lesser SL) to LPG, how much fuel you’d expect to spend and make a punt on re-saleability based on a car with almost no boot space left and factor in a (large) depreciation cost.



Then factor in the price of doing nothing and paying more for fuel (of which you will be using less).



I am prepared to be impressed…..
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J: Well the Shogun was about 1600+vat and the 323 £1300+vat. It really depends on the complexity of the engine. The tank can come in a number of forms but one that replaces the spare wheel is most discrete. Even one that sits in the boot will take up say a quarter of the boot. This could be easily be a long narrow tank at the back of the boot that is not seen too well from the outside.



If I was offered two 500 SLs, one that was converted by a government approved agent and one that was not converted then I would choose the LPG one. I wouldn’t expect to pay less for the lpg car. In fact if you have a petrol 4x4 these days it’s almost unsellable unless it has been converted to LPG. I was lucky to get £1400 for my shogun. It cost me £4500 2 years beforehand.



Admittedly the buyer of an SL is different to that of a 4x4. However the ‘green’ pressure from the government is increasing year on year. We are already seeing draconian measures in London against 4x4s. Super high road tax for supercars, etc. I could easily predict the opposite of what you are saying. E.g. a performance car without lpg would be seriously devalued by the cost of owning and using such a car as it gets older.



I’ve no idea what the government has in mind in its efforts to pick on easy pollution targets, e.g. the motorist. But the few schemes that are around tend to favour engines and fuels with low c02 emmisions or from a renewal source such as biodiesel.



On a monetary front it may not make sense for your usage profile however I cover 18-20K miles a year so it would make a big different to mine
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Me: I am going to post this on the Bezworld forum and see what I get!
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Actually I didn't send the last bit, I figured I'd poll for replies and see what I got then present back a "fait accompli". Incidentally, I bought my 1998 SL for £15k with 55k miles on the clock and expect the major depreciation to be done by now hence running costs are effectively low.