Nissan PRIMERA 1.8 16V LPG RANGE
The
Nissan Primera Is Now Available With A Manufacturer Warranted LPG Conversion. With Fuel Prices Currently Pegged at Crippling, It Makes A Lot Of Sense. By Andy Enright
The single most depressing aspect of motoring today has to be that moment when you put, say, £20 worth of fuel into your car only to spark up the engine and see the fuel gauge needle crawl reluctantly up to quarter full. Daily Mail style rants about how we, as an oil-producing nation, are charged through the nose for our fuel formulate in your head before you dismiss them. You see, as bad as being ripped off seems, the feeling of getting one over on everyone else more than outweighs it in the opposite direction. In order to achieve this warm feeling of smugness, you will need a mirror in which to practice a nauseatingly self-satisfied expression and a Nissan Primera LPG.
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Liquefied Petroleum Gas LPG) has been the canny motorists way of getting back at the Chancellor for a couple of years now. Significantly cheaper than unleaded petrol, its availability has mushroomed to the point whereby you rarely have to go out of your way to find a filling station with an Autogas pump. Quite what No. 11 Downing Street does with the duty levels in the future is anyones guess, but for the time being at least its a winner every way up.
This particular conversion is a manufacturer warranted job performed on the Primera 1.8-litre SX model. Whereas the standard petrol four door retails at £15,750, the LPG version can be yours for £16,747 when you take into account the 70% rebate you can claim on the conversion through the Governments Powershift scheme. This makes the total list price of the conversion £2,244, but in real terms its £1,047.
Now for the hard economics. How far would you have to drive before you recouped that outlay?
"Although the LPG system is the main attraction, its important not to forget quite what a well rounded package the rest of the Primera 1.8 16v represents"
In certain respects it depends how committed you are to filling your car with LPG. Like most such cars, the Primera LPG retains its conventional 62-litre petrol tank, the 59-litre LPG tank sitting in the boot space in place of the spare wheel. Should you run the car solely on LPG, which retails at 39 pence per litre compared to around 79 pence for unleaded, youll recoup the cost of the conversion within 25,000 miles. This calculation is slightly complicated by the fact that a car running on LPG will only achieve around 80% of the miles per gallon youd get from petrol, but the lower price at the pump more than makes up for this.
The LPG version will also command extra when the times comes to sell it on. Whats an inescapable fact is that £10 of LPG in a Primera will take you 134 miles whereas £10 of unleaded goes 83 miles. That cuts to the chase. Of course, the savings will really rack up if youre one of the unfortunates who are forced to bear Chairman Kens London Congestion Charge.
LPG-powered cars are currently exempt from the charge, although one suspects that should a significant portion of the population jump on the bandwagon, the good Mr. Livingstone could doubtless find a way to bend the rules. The conversion fitted to the Primera is the tried and tested Pharon sequential LPG system that ensures seamless integration with the Primeras engine management system. The work is contracted to LPG specialists MSD Special Vehicle Engineering and its an impressive job.
Unlike some conversions that completely monopolize luggage space, the Primeras conversion is totally discreet. The wheel well location means that drivers are given the option of carrying the spare wheel in the boot or dispensing with it in favour of a tyre repair aerosol. Brim both the LPG and the petrol tank full and you have an effective cruising range of nearly 900miles between fills! Although the LPG fuelling system is the main attraction, its important not to forget quite what a well-rounded package the rest of the Primera 1.8 16v represents.
Styled in Nissans Munich design studio, much of the pen work behind the Primera was done by Stephane Schwarz and hes done a good job. Anything that can make the
Renault Laguna look a little yester tech has to be resolutely forward looking and the Primera certainly doesnt disappoint in this regard, being one of the few cars in the class that dont slavishly ape the
Volkswagen Passat. The 1.8-litre LPG versions we look at here are available in three different body styles a four-door salon, a five-door hatch and a five-door estate.
Counter to current vogue, the hatch and the saloon are designed to look as alike as possible, although with a deeply cleft rear window the hatch is, if anything, even more adventurously styled than the saloon. This SX model features that Primera must-have, the monitor linked to a rear view reversing camera to impress your friends with. It also features a DVD satellite navigation system with traffic information, electric windows all round, leather for your steering wheel, alloy wheels and plenty of clever electronic gadgets. The camera allows for inch-perfect manoeuvres, and makes relying on a bleeping sensor seem like the difference between watching the World Cup final on television and intercepting a Morse coded commentary.
The 1.8-litre engine itself is probably the only part of the Primera make up thats unexceptional. Its certainly up to the class standard but performance is fairly average, the 114bhp power output down on the Mondeo (124bhp) and the Laguna (123bhp). The
Nissan Primera 1.
8 LPG offers a workable get-out clause from spiralling motoring costs. If diesel cars still dont float your boat, the gas-powered Primera offers even cheaper motoring with much the same characteristics as running on unleaded petrol. The best of both worlds? Right now it is.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: Nissan Primera 1.8 LPG range
PRICES: £16,747 - £17,747 (including Powershift rebate) - on the road
CO2 EMISSIONS: 177g/km
INSURANCE GROUP: 7
PERFORMANCE: [saloon] Max Speed 117mph / 0-60mph 11.7s
FUEL CONSUMPTION: [saloon] (Combined) 29.8mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and curtain airbags, ABS, EBD
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Heightmm 4567/1760/1482mm [4dr]
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