A recent Times article highlighted the most and least expensive towns for petrol with drivers in Taunton, Hereford, Northampton, Stevenage and Milton Keynes being the hardest hit.

Perhaps not surprisingly a north/south divide is clearly evident with car owners in Carlisle, Aberdeen, Bradford, Wigan and Sunderland paying the least for their petrol.

Indeed, the difference between the most expensive town at 136.9 pence per litre and the cheapest at 129.7 pence per litre is huge, yet what’s even more significant is when you compare the petrol prices to that of autogas LPG in those areas.

A visit to the Autogas Limited refuelling outlet at Shell Ilminster and you’ll be paying just 71.9 pence per litre – almost half that it would normally cost to fill up with petrol in nearby Taunton, now labelled as the UK’s most expensive petrol town.

However, even in the cheapest area at Carlisle, LPG users can still enjoy massive savings over the petrol driving counterparts. The current price of LPG at Shell Carlisle North is just 69.9, which is still 46 per cent less compared to the least expensive petrol town in the UK.

So the moral of the story is that by filling up with autogas LPG you will enjoy huge fuel cost savings against petrol no matter what part of the UK – whether it’s in the sky-high West Country where petrol users are definitely feeling the pinch at the pump, or further north where cheaper petrol prices are still nowhere near the low cost of LPG.

The even better news is that by converting to autogas LPG you’ll be reducing your impact on the environment, so let the good times roll!

One of the UK’s top mummy bloggers – Susan Mann – has given a big thumbs up to autogas LPG after saving a small fortune in just a week with an LPG powered car.

The highlight of her time with the Skoda Octavia, courtesy of Autogas Limited, was a weekend road trip from Scotland to London to attend Cybher, an influential blogging conference, when she saved more than £80 using autogas LPG compared against filling up with diesel.

However, even when just using the car for the school run she still managed to save £11.50 in fuel costs in just a few days.

After her time with the car, Susan said: “We plan on replacing our car next year and we are seriously considering buying one already converted to run on LPG or getting the conversion done ourselves. For what it costs, we would make the money back in about a year and after that it’s all savings – and big savings at that.”

Typically, users of autogas LPG can save up to 40 per cent annually on their fuel costs.

Paul Oxford, business development manager, Autogas Limited, said: “It’s fantastic to hear that Susan has loved her autogas LPG car and saved almost £100 in fuel costs in just over a week. Her experience is typical of the other 160,000 car owners in the UK who have already converted and are enjoying significant savings at the pump every time they fill up.”

There’s already an established autogas LPG refuelling network across the UK with currently some 1,400 sites.

Meanwhile, Susan concluded: “I have absolutely loved having an LPG converted car. I loved the car, I loved how it drove, I’ve loved the savings we’ve made and I’m sad to see it go.”

To read Susan’s blog about her time with the autogas LPG car, visit www.susankmann.com, while for more information about Autogas Limited, visit www.autogas.ltd.uk.

Most of you will hopefully have been following my trip from just outside Glasgow to London and back last weekend to go to Cybher in an Autogas Limited LPG car using the hashtag #LPGRocks. I was given a loan of an LPG car to try out for the week and this included my trip from where I live to London. I tweeted about our experiences of filling the car for the first time with the gas, to how comfortable it was to how easy it was to find an LP gas fuelling station. I even threw in some pictures of the biggest strawberries, I’ve ever seen! 

So what is an LPG car some of you will ask? Well an LPG car is a car which has been converted to use Liquefied Petroleum Gas, rather than diesel or petrol. I won’t go into the details about this here but you can find out further information on the Autogas website and I will be posting another blog post with more detail on converting, the benefits, etc. soon. Why LPG? Well running a car on LPG works out about 40% cheaper than petrol and in the current economy that can’t be a bad thing.

Before I got the car I made sure I watched the refuelling videos and instructions on the Autogas website however it couldn’t have been simpler as I found out. I got the car on Thursday morning from the lovely Ken from Autogas and he explained everything I needed to know. The car was a Skoda Octavia 2013 model. It was a gorgeous blue colour and looked and felt great to sit in. The LPG conversion unit sits in the spare wheel section in the boot of the car. I lifted up the boot floor to have a look. No boot space is lost thankfully as I had a load of stuff to take down to London, especially travelling with a 4 month old baby. Also no need to worry if we got a flat tyre, which we didn’t, but if we had there is a pump and tyre foam so no need for the spare.

On Friday morning we packed up the car, thank goodness for the boot space, we fitted in a huge case and the Stokke Xplory no problem. Got Aria all settled in and off we set on our 416 mile trip to London. It was smooth sailing and a gorgeous day for a drive. I spent my time taking pictures and tweeting while hubby did most of the driving.

We checked out the fuel prices at Abington Services (M74), but we didn’t need to refuel yet. You can see the massive price difference 137.9 for petrol, 144.9 for diesel and just 71.9 per litre for autogas. Of course sunglasses were essential for the drive.

We stopped for some lunch and to feed the baby at Southwaite services and had the biggest strawberries ever.

Just about half way through the journey we stopped at Charnock Richard South Services (M6) for our first fill-up. If you are ever worried about finding a fuel station with an LPG car Autogas LPG have a free sat-nav download app with POI to the fuel stations. Filling up was easy. There is an additional fuel cap to the left of the normal petrol one, it’s round and just comes off like another other fuel cap. You then screw in the nozzle from the LPG hose in and press the button on the fuel pump. Away you go. Fill her up until full. Job done. You can see the pictures below. At £30.36 to fill the car, which gives about 350 miles roughly, I was impressed.

We carried on our journey hitting some traffic jams on the M6 which put us almost 2 hours behind in our journey. A quick change for baby girl and then we reached London. After being travelling for almost 10 hours, including stops, I was glad to arrive at the hotel. The Saturday at Cybher was awesome and you
can read about it here.

On Sunday morning we left early to start heading back home. Another gorgeous day for a drive and the trip home was smooth and no traffic jams. We filled up when we got back to Scotland at the Morrisons’ fuel station in Hamilton. I snapped some of the other prices on the Fuel totem poles for comparison. What a great trip. Exhausting but awesome and the car was a dream.

When we got home we worked out the savings we made using the LPG converted car, compared to our diesel Kia Carens. We drove 820 miles in both directions and used the prices of 134.9 per litre for diesel and 70.9 for the LPG which were the prices of the last filling station we used. The total cost saved was £83.20. It would have been a larger saving if we had a petrol car.

Inside the car there is no difference really, it drives the same as a normal car, sounds the same and everything is really the same. With the exception of an additional fuel gauge is which just to the right of the steering wheel. This lights up with the gas is being used, which it automatically does and lets you know how much is left, etc. As I’ve said filling up is easy, but if you run out of gas for any reason the car will automatically switch over to petrol without you even noticing. Nifty I think.

We had the car for another week to try out with the school run, nursery run and normal everyday life. It was excellent for the school and nursery run. The Skoda Octavia fitted 3 car seats in the back comfortably. This is one Isofix base rear facing car seat, one Isofix front facing car seat and a booster
seat in the middle for my oldest.

The pushchair fitted in the boot, the conversion does not get in the way. The shopping was in there, the footballs for football training, etc. Taking out the baby’s car seat was no problem and driving it in general was absolutely fine. Filling up with autogas LPG wasn’t a problem as the filling station is only 4 miles away in the town where I work, so I’d be there on a regular basis anyway. I did about 110 miles over the course of the week on school runs, nursery runs, trips to clubs, activities, shopping and general out and about. Again I compared the costs of our diesel car. I used the same price per litre as I used for the London trip as the prices hadn’t changed. I saved £11.50 which over the course of a year is a lot of money. Considering some weeks we do a considerable more miles than I did this week, as we drive to and from work, etc.

I have absolutely loved having an LPG converted car, I loved the car, I loved how it drove, I’ve loved the savings we’ve made and I’m sad to see it go. It was a lot easier to fill up with the gas than I thought, I was very nervous to begin with and I needn’t have been it was no harder than filling up my Kia. I was also worried that living in a town that I might live far away from a fuel station, but there is one just four miles away. Using LPG takes a little more planning when it comes to filling the car, but once you get used to it, it’s fab and the money you save makes it all the better. The children have loved it and so has my husband. We plan on getting a car next year and we are seriously considering buying one already with the conversion or getting the conversion done. For what it costs you can make it back in about a year, depending on your mileage. For all those who chatted to my at Cybher I was raving about the car, I really can’t rate it highly enough. I’ll miss you LPG car and yes LPG does indeed rock.

Do check out Autogas’ website for a lot more information on LPG conversion and the benefits, plus they have a blog which is updated regularly. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook, where they will be happy to answer any of your questions.

If you want to know more about my journey do check out my pictures on instagram, google+, facebook and follow the hashtag LPGrocks on twitter.

If there’s one person who’s probably tested and seen every product or service in the automotive aftermarket sector then surely Greg Whittaker, editor of leading specialist motor trade magazine Aftermarket, must be it.

So the fact that he’s turned his back on petrol and diesel, while also dismissing electric, instead opting for an already converted autogas LPG powered Peugeot 206 GTI 180 is testament indeed to the fuel’s financial and environmental benefits.

But it’s not hard to see why he’s made the switch with autogas LPG currently costing on average just 70.91 pence per litre, about half that of petrol.

And with a gruelling weekly commute of 500 miles, saving about a third on his fuel costs compared to petrol alone can really start to add up.

“My annual mileage is well above the average, much of it spent on motorways, so it was primarily the cost-saving aspect that prompted me to look at LPG, especially with fuel prices constantly making the news.

“So while it’s the first time I’ve owned an autogas LPG powered vehicle, it definitely won’t be the last,” said Greg.

Refuelling is also not an issue as he passes at least four autogas LPG outlets on his way to and from work each day, although that’s little surprise as there are currently some 1,400 autogas LPG refuelling stations across the UK.

“I spend a lot of time motorway driving and the difference in performance when the engine switches from petrol to LPG is unnoticeable,” added Greg.

By converting to LPG, the renowned automotive editor is joining some 160,000 motorists in the UK that are already enjoying massive savings with the ‘greener’ fuel.

Paul Oxford, business development manager, Autogas Limited, said: “It’s fantastic news to hear that Greg, a very well-respected motoring expert who is exposed to so many new technologies, is now driving an autogas LPG powered car.

“It’s also further evidence of the appeal of autogas LPG, no matter whether you’re a motoring authority or simply an everyday car owner with less understanding of what goes on underneath the bonnet.”

For more information about the benefits of autogas LPG and Autogas Limited, visit www.autogas.ltd.uk

Today’s the day – top mummy blogger Susan Mann is now on her way down to London driving an LPG powered car to attend Cybher, a highly respected blogging event.

Starting from her home near Glasgow, she’s behind the wheel of a Skoda Octavia courtesy of Autogas Limited and is using social media to update her army of Facebook and Twitter followers as to how she’s getting on with the cheaper fuel. You can also see pictures of the journey on Instagram.

So far the weather looks like it’s going to be reasonable for the 800 plus mile round trip.

However, there are two things that Susan needn’t have any concerns about on the road trip.

One is finding a place to refuel, as her route will take her past countless autogas LPG refuelling outlets. In fact, there are some 1,400 autogas LPG refuelling places spread across the UK.

Secondly, just like the 160,000 other already converted motorists, she’ll soon discover how much money can be saved when driving with autogas LPG – typically annual fuel savings of up to 40 per cent compared to petrol.

Susan returns from Cybher on Sunday 2^nd June but will then keep the car for another week so she can fully appreciate the advantages of driving with autogas LPG.

There are various ways you can keep up-to-date with how Susan’s getting on:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/susankmann

Instagram: http://instagram.com/susankmann

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susankmann1

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/108078095503578886119/posts

Susan’s blog is: http://www.susankmann.com/

10 years ago, then-London-mayor Ken Livingstone brought in one of the most controversial policies of the decade: the infamous congestion charge.

Opinion on what it would achieve – indeed on what it was even meant to achieve – was divided from the day it was announced, and nothing’s changed in the intervening years. Here we take a look at the impact of the congestion charge and try to sort the hard facts from the partisan statistics to judge its success – or otherwise:

Predictions

Those of us with long memories may remember the large number of Cassandra’s the charge brought out of the woodwork. Prior to its introduction, opponents claimed it would irreparably damage business in the city centre, while supporters pointed to environmental benefits, improved journey times and hundreds of millions of pounds directed to public services. So what happened? Well, the results make for some interesting reading:

Business

While 2003’s dire warnings of a devastated local economy clearly didn’t come to pass, there was a period early on when businesses were reporting effects far from neutral. In 2004, John Lewis reported a 9% drop in takings it blamed directly on the charge. This followed-on from a BBC report that claimed 79% of retailers were suffering reduced takings. However, a follow-up investigation by the Guardian claimed only 26% were reporting negative effects. Clearly someone’s methodology was off, but it hardly matters now: the 2013 consensus is that the effect of the charge on business was entirely negligible.

Public Transport

One of the centrepiece claims of the charge was the amount of money it would raise for public transport. Initially placed at £180million, the figures were humiliatingly downgraded in 2004 to less than half that figure. In fact, the £68million the charge actually brought in was considered so laughably off-target that many claimed it had conclusively failed. However, in the decade since that first fiasco, TFL has claimed a 45% drop in bus waiting times in the charge zone, perhaps offsetting any fundraising failure.
At the same time, a year-on-year drop of actual car numbers on the road would seem to translate to improved public services – or at least it did until 2007, at which point journey times across the capital flat-lined and have remained static ever since. As far as TFL is concerned, this is an objective triumph: with a 30% reduction in travel times across the board. However, others dispute their figures, claiming the impact on journey times has been almost ‘non-existent’. Until a neutral third party undertakes a long-term analysis, a firm conclusion will probably remain out of reach.

Environment and Health

Finally, we come to the congestion charge’s flagship claim: that it would reduce pollution and help the environment. While a 2008 report by the BBC did note a corresponding (if almost insignificant) increase in life expectancy around the zone as a result of lowered pollution levels, a 2011 study for the Londonist claimed there had been no reduction of pollution whatsoever. The trouble is, such figures never take into account what the pollution levels may have been like without the charge – in other words, lacking a ‘control’ city, we cannot say for certain whether this negligible difference would have translated into massively inflated pollution levels had the charge not been introduced. As such, its impact can only be described as ‘inconclusive’.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the only data available comes from likely-biased sources (TFL and rightwing thinktanks), making a serious conclusion difficult. The best that can probably be said of the charge is that it has achieved one of its stated goals: reducing congestion (to a point), while none of the predicted-negatives ever materialised over the long term. Whether that ranks it as a minor success or an overhyped waste of money depends entirely upon whose looking at the figures.

This is a guest post from Edwin Miles. Community Manager at Car Finance 24/7

However, it’s highly unlikely that any of these drivers owned an autogas LPG powered car as they still only pay on average 71.36 pence per litre and typically save up to 40 per cent on their annual fuel bills compared to petrol alone.

The good news is that it’s never too late to make the switch. In fact, the sooner you convert the quicker you start saving.

So, if you currently own a petrol powered car then you can remove the fuel worry by converting it for LPG as well and join a happy family of some 160,000 car owners in the UK.

In addition to the financial benefits there are also a number of environmental reasons for choosing LPG as it produces less harmful particulates than diesel and petrol which affect local air quality.

Need more convincing? Then take a look at the numerous customer case studies in the news section on this website.

Following on the back of his recent podium finishes in the BTCC, it’s great news to hear that long-time supporter of Autogas Limited, Tom Onslow-Cole has just taken part in a test session for Aston Martin Racing at Snetterton.

It was the first time that he’s driven a V12 Vantage GT3 for the works team as it prepares its five Vantage GT3′s for the world’s most famous endurance race – the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Tom, who had never been in a GT car before, was invited to the test session by Aston Martin Racing team principal Jon Gaw who he met earlier this year and despite it being his first outing, he more than exceeded the team’s high expectations.

Also at the test session were customer teams such as Beechdean AMR who were able to take advantage of the full factory support and works drivers.

Paul Oxford, business development manager, Autogas Limited, said: “Our congratulations go to Tom who’s recently been achieving some great results in the BTCC and is also in demand as a test driver by one of the world’s leading endurance racing teams. The future’s looking very bright for this talented racer.”

Away from the race track, Tom drives an autogas LPG powered Rover 25 and is sponsored by Autogas Limited for the 2013 BTCC season.

If you’re a fan of the British Touring Car Championship or more specifically Tom, keep an eye on the Autogas Limited Facebook and Twitter feeds as through the year they’ll be competitions for VIP tickets to various rounds of the 2013 season.

The lucky winners will get chance to meet the drivers, walk the grid before one of the feature car races, get to experience first-hand and up close the inner workings of the team with a tour of the garage and enjoy VIP hospitality within the teams exclusive area.

Susan Mann, one of the UK’s top mummy bloggers, will be driving an LPG powered car courtesy of Autogas Limited as she travels down from Glasgow to London to attend the Cybher conference, a hugely influential blogging event.

Along the way Susan will be posting updates of the trip down on Twitter, post pictures on Instagram and her blog’s Facebook page.  And if her experience is the same as the 160,000 other motorists using the cheaper fuel, then it will show that it’s ‘child’s play’ driving an autogas LPG powered car. In fact, no different to a petrol or diesel model, except for the much lower price enjoyed when filling up at the pump.

Autogas Limited loves it when newcomers experience for themselves the many benefits of using autogas LPG, whether it’s because of the lower cost compared to petrol or diesel, or because they want to reduce their impact on the planet.

It’s even better news when it happens to be one of the most important mummy bloggers in the country with countless on-line followers!

Susan will be heading down to London in an autogas LPG powered Skoda Octavia over the weekend of Friday 31^st May to Sunday 2^nd June.

There will be various ways you can keep up-to-date with how Susan’s getting on:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/susankmann
Instagram: http://instagram.com/susankmann
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susankmann1
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/108078095503578886119/posts
Susan’s blog is: http://www.susankmann.com/

If you want to speak to those with their hands on the levers of power then where better than the House of Commons?

So this is exactly where a delegation from Autogas Limited, Calor Gas and UKLPG, recently met with the great and the good at a reception to brief MP’s and Peers on how our European driving counterparts are benefitting from lower motoring fuel costs.

Why are some of our European cousins paying much less at the pump? Because on the Continent more than a dozen vehicle manufacturers currently offer autogas LPG powered variants direct from their showrooms.

How many you might ask are offered here in the UK? The answer is NONE!

Why? Because there is no long-term assurance from the Government to the reduced fuel duty rate and so little appetite from car manufacturers to offer their already developed LPG models for the UK market.

In fact, at present the lower fuel duty commitment is only guaranteed until 2015 and in today’s fast-moving world that goes by in the blink of an eye. Whereas on mainland Europe many Government’s, Germany being a shining light, have given much longer assurances.

And it’s not like the fuel isn’t tried, tested and extremely popular in the UK. The autogas LPG industry has done its bit and ploughed funds into developing an established refuelling network which currently stands at some 1,400 sites, with autogas LPG being enjoyed by 160,000 UK motorists.

Furthermore, it’s not as if any additional funds are being asked for from the Treasury, unlike the £37m funding package it has just announced to help create an electric charge points infrastructure!

So while the last Budget was a missed opportunity to give a lifeline to the UK’s beleaguered car drivers, fingers crossed that next time the Chancellor will see the light and give a minimum five year commitment to hold the differential at its current rate.