Monday, October 01, 2012

CNG it will be.

I’ve been toying with, and looking into, the possibility of converting Alphonse over to CNG (compressed natural gas).  CNG runs at between $1.25 and 1.75 a gallon equivalent, making that big boat not only as cost efficient as a 35 MPG car, but also every bit as nice on the environment.   The big drawback is that the conversion could cost up to, and maybe beyond, $6000.


Makes this car as efficient and clean as your Prius.

 

I thought about buying something economical, for that amount of money I could get a decent little car.  But I really like the car I have, except for it’s gas mileage, and it’s in excellent running condition.   So I did a little bit of calculating, (with CNG at $1.50/gal eq, gas at $3.75/gal and assuming I drive it 10,000 miles a year), and figured out that it would take me just under 2 years to get back my $6,000 investment.

So, I’m going to go out and get some quotes and, barring any serious setbacks, I’m going to have a CNG powered 1978 Mercury Marquis.  I will be losing some trunk space to the CNG tank, but I figure if it fits in that VW I can certainly spare the space in my trunk.

2 comments:

carmilevy said...

Coolness! Edmunds test-drove a Honda Civic GX a while back, and many of the blog entries dewalt specifically with the ins and outs of owning and driving a CNG-based vehicle. Very informative!

Here's the link.

Lisa Shafer said...

I had no idea you could do that. I didn't even know what those stickers meant.
Cool.