Crapwagon Outtake: Propane And Propane Accessories

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

One of the consequences of Canada’s high gas prices is the prevalence of propane conversions. In the Greater Toronto Area, a fair number of vehicles, typically in fleet use as taxi cabs, airport limos or construction vehicles, get converter to run on propane gas. The conversions are expensive, running approximately $5,000, and if you want to see any return on your investment, you better run the car well into the six-figure range of the odometer.

On the other hand, these cars make some great used car buys. With the conversion already done, you get all of the benefit of filling up for approximately $2.50 per gallon, and the vehicles are typically robust, hard wearing cars like Ford Panthers, full-size pickups and W-Body GM cars.

Amid the million kilometer Town Cars and Caravans (ex airport taxis, no doubt) there is a diamond in the rough. A beige one. For $1,800, there’s a 2000 Grand Marquis with 487,000 km. I’m one of the few dissenters when it comes to Panther Love on this site, but the price is right – both for the car, and for the sub-$50 fillups. Not that I’m considering it or anything. It’s for a friend…

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Spike_in_Brisbane Spike_in_Brisbane on Jun 29, 2013

    Ford Falcons in Oz are available with injected LPG as a factory option. They are slightly more powerful than the petrol version and at last look petrol cost about $1.40 a litre where LPG costs about .62c. Unfortunately, the dropping popularity of large cars have seen all Ford production planned in Australia to cease in 2015. see: http://www.caradvice.com.au/129513/ford-falcon-ecolpi-lpg-review/

  • Neb Neb on Jun 30, 2013

    One disadvantage with propane is if you use these vehicles in extremely cold weather (think -30 C or below) you have to avoid parking garages. The sudden temperature change of going from -30 to +5 can cause the propane to gain pressure so rapidly it activates the propane tank's safety valve, which is not only wasteful but also (duh) dangerous.

    • Danio3834 Danio3834 on Jul 01, 2013

      It's a law in Ontario that you can't park them indoors as well. Propane is heavier than air so it can linger along the ground should a leak occur.

  • Athos Nobile Athos Nobile on Jun 30, 2013

    A LPG conversion goes for around $4K here... or more, depending on the system chosen. Then you have a government rebate of (IIRC) $1K this FY. I ran the math for my car, and the system would pay itself in a bit over 2 years. So no need to run the mega miles. I drive roughly 20K kms a year. The LPG vendors seem to agree with my "simulation". I'd go vapour injection. LPI is overkill for my car and the old style vaporizer systems are rubbish. If I choose the CNG route, I'd lose the government rebate and refueling becomes an "issue"... that can be solved with a compressor at home. I'd be looking at using a cheaper gas and an unknown hit to the electricity bill.

  • Brettc Brettc on Jul 01, 2013

    I worked at a small furniture store chain in Southern Ontario in the late 90s. The delivery van was a 1989 Dodge Ram van that ran only on propane. It wasn't the most powerful van ever (I think it was the 3.9L engine), but it did its job and since that part of Ontario is extremely flat, hills weren't a problem. I had to fill it up once at the cardlock and had no idea what I was doing, but I'm glad I had gloves on when the fill valve got extremely cold even though it was summertime. If only Hank Hill was there to coach me on proper propane vehicle fueling.

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