New Dacia Sandero with dual LPG / Petrol engine. Any cons I should know about?

JackieChang

The Dacia Sandero comes with an LPG tank built into it. You can switch between petrol and LPG at the click of a button. The dealer was explaining it like it was the best thing since sliced bread. However I haven't the foggiest about LPG.

I know LPG is quite cheap although it gives you fewer miles per gallon. There's a filling station near my house which is good.

Do I need LPG though? 90% of my driving is city driving.

Any catches? Could it affect resale value? Is it an extra headache to worry about if things go wrong? Plz help a noob.

colm_mcm

Only think I’d look at when buying a used Dacia is the price of a new one. Asking prices on used ones are high relative to new ones, and the brand new Sandero is a huge leap forward from the old one.

nothing to worry about on the LPG front really, it’s not gonna negatively impact resale, and you don’t even have to use it if you’re not bothered.

brokenangel

Salesman telling you it’s best thing since sliced bread 🤣 sorry I work in sales and we spin any story to sell something

What advantage is LPG supposed to provide? Lower cost per mile?

JackieChang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119141739#Comment_119141739

I'm actually looking at a new Sandero. Took it for a test drive today actually - pretty nice. Nice looking inside and out too.

The second hand market is gone to shyte, really bad choices there.

Atlantic Dawn

Check with your insurer, some may not want to cover a car with LPG, even when originally installed from the factory.

Also I assume the tank is either taking up the space where a spare wheel would go or taking up space in the boot, ask to see the tank.

colm_mcm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119141761#Comment_119141761

In that case there’s no downside.

one thing to note is the new Sandero is very wide, it’s the same width as a current model Mondeo believe it or not. I’d see that as a huge plus

Eggs For Dinner

I have one. The LPG is much cheaper to run. The dual fuel gives a huge range on account of 2 tanks. Downside is there are not many garages selling LPG. I'm lucky to have one down the road. Insurance is not an issue. Only thing I don't like about the car is the wind noise on the motorway. Not the most aerodynamic car

mikeecho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119141921#Comment_119141921

What sort of range do you get from a full tank of petrol, and how much from a full tank of LPG, if you did a brim to empty on both tanks?

Eggs For Dinner

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119142202#Comment_119142202

My wife uses it more than me, but it's over 600kms

JackieChang

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119141921#Comment_119141921

What about servicing and general maintenance? Is it more expensive due to the two fuel systems? Basically more stuff to go wrong.

The only extra hardware really is the donut tank where the spare wheel would be and an extra set of injectors. LPG's been around long enough and is component-ised enough that it's pretty foolproof and reliable now.

LPG is weakest around town. I do 90% of my driving in stop/start traffic and average 9.something L/100km on LPG generally. 120 on the motorway is 6-7L/100km. Longer runs at 70-80km/h I've had it as low as 4L/100km. At a euro a litre the slight efficiency loss to petrol is more than made up for.

You need some petrol to start the car, if I'm always on LPG then 5L of petrol will last a few months. No need to put more than a tenner in at a time.

Couple of months ago I had to do a cross-country trip on petrol. It nearly killed me. 🤣

If you have LPG handy then the running costs are cheaper than if you were charging an electric vehicle on the public network. :D

There's really nothing to go wrong. Filling with LPG the first few times is a bit of a faff but well worth it IMO (get a 17 spanner, otherwise you might have to ask a real man to remove the adaptor for you :P). Just don't get too excited 50km after filling up if the meter hasn't moved, the 2nd half goes faster. 😅

Just after I got the car I was at a wedding and a few of the lads were checking it out, look under the bonnet etc. Every single one who got into the car reacted "This is... grand!". There was an older Sandero as well and there's a big difference. Comfort-wise it doesn't quite match my old Focus but 2 hours without a break is still fine. Anyone I've had as passengers (company cars, love their big German saloons) loved it. 2 of them then did their best to get the ladies in their lives into new Dacias when they were then looking. 🤣

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119141761#Comment_119141761

The main "issues" with LPG is the lack of retail outlets selling it, some counties might only have a single outlet, or none even, but if you live near one, then this might not be an issue.

The second issue is that the LPG tank takes the place where the spare tire is, so if you want a spare tire you need to put it in the boot.

But if the two "issues" outlined above are not an impediment for you, then you can save a lot of money with LPG, and you car has a bigger range than the non-LPG version, since you can fill and use both tanks for a long journey, but you will "hate" running on petrol.

Someone mentioned on a UK forum, that the Channel tunnel does not allow LPG cars, but i am not sure/don't care about that personally.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119143068#Comment_119143068

Ok but is it cheaper to charging at home on night rate?

JackieChang

I mostly do city driving. Start stop driving at a snails pace. Ive read that lpg is not suitable for this or less efficient. Any truth to that?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119143381#Comment_119143381

No but walking is cheaper again. It was a throwaway point to show that it's a huge reduction in running costs. Plus the car only weighs one tonne and comes with 15 inch wheels, tyres will be half the cost again. :P

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119143415#Comment_119143415

No truth to it. The efficiency loss seems to be greater in stop-start than on long runs but nowhere close to closing the gap. Costs me €34-35 to fill the LPG tank and I generally will get 400km of stop-start over 3 weeks out of that.

brokenangel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119143754#Comment_119143754

It was just a question as you made the comparison.

It doesn't matter what car I have I buy high efficiency tires and high traction. I can never understand how someone spends probably 20k on a car and then stick on 4 cheap tires onto the car. They are the only thing keeping you on the road.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119143887#Comment_119143887

I don't buy cheap tyres either but when my dad has to replace wide 18-inch tyres I always wince at the cost. :P

CiniO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119143381#Comment_119143381

It surely isn't.

Price of LPG seem to vary a lot between stations.

Possibly you could get it at 80c a litre in one place, and €1.50 in the other.

It's reasonable to assume that your fuel consumption will increase by about 20% on LPG compared to petrol.

Also add about 5% of your fuel consumed for cold starts on petrol.

Assuming f.e. normal fuel consumption at around 7 l/100km running on petrol that gives about €14 per 100km at current €2 per litre price.

When on LPG I would assume you'll use about 8.5 l of LPG per 100km + about 0.35 l of petrol.

So if you can get LPG at €0.80 per litre, then your cost per 100km will be about €7.50 (saving of €6.50 compared to running on petrol)

But if your nearest station offers LPG at €1.50 per litre, then it's going to be about €13.50 so hardly any savings compared to running on petrol.

CiniO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119143415#Comment_119143415

Probably only reason for LPG being less efficient in city driving, would be that if you often do short distance driving then you often have to start your car from cold, and run on petrol before it warms up.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119143207#Comment_119143207

Does the the petrol Sandero even come with a spare wheel? Most cars don’t nowadays

goochy

It used to be that car would only change over to lpg after only about a km

Ginger83

OP my father has a new Stepway bi fuel and is very happy with it after having two Logans.

We got the lpg explained and even though a local town has lpg he hasn't bothered with it.

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119143415#Comment_119143415

If you are planning to buy a new Dacia LPG car, they have temporarally dropped the LPG options accross europe for the Jogger and Duster models, it only remain on the Sandero. And there will be "delays" on those LPG models they still support.

goldie03uk

I’ve owned Mr lpg sandero for the last 2 years now I go to the local lpg and pay .89 c per ltr and get around 400 km on the tank if you drive on the motorway a lot you will get a lot more out of it , I run my car on lpg all the time I recon I’ve spent around €30 on petrol in the 2 yrs of owning it once it’s ran cold and on lpg it usually stays on lpg when you get back in from wherever you’ve been even a couple of hrs pass and it goes straight onto lpg the spare tyre is always covered with insurance (breakdown) I wouldn’t like to be paying €1.70 petrol all the time or diesel for that matter and I’ve never had any trouble with it upto now