As in any market, here are no hard and fast rules but you can be certain that your vehicle will sell more quickly than one that has not been converted. If you have owned your car or van for a while and enjoyed the savings then consider the original conversion costs as largely covered and use the advantage of an LPG conversion to sell it more quickly.

The Motoring public are not familiar enough with LPG as yet, and it'll be a while before converted vehicles are attracting a price premium, but it'll happen. Another shortage of Petrol and Diesel will probably send the price of a converted vehicle much higher.

Go LPG's opinion is that in one or two year's time LPG converted vehicles will be snapped up quickly and unconverted ones will be quite hard to sell, probably forcing their owners to have the job done in order to move them on. As for Diesels, well, your guess is a good as ours!

How may we make best use of this information?

Let's look at all ages of vehicle and the likely effect of an LPG conversion on their secondhand value it two years time ;

1. A brand new vehicle (2001 registered)

Public and motor trade knowledge of the benefits of LPG (reduced wear and erosion, price advantage and less environmental damage) should be heightened by this time and that should effectively increase the value of a converted vehicle above that of its Petrol or Diesel counterparts.

2. A five year old vehicle (1998 registered)

These should suffer far less loss of value due to depreciation. In some cases, (depending on model desirablity etc.) they will command a significantly higher price than unconverted vehicles, possibly adding enough to the 'book' value to repay the owner the original conversion cost and then some.

3. Vehicles 10 yrs old (1993)

Similar to the both the above. Buyers will begin to learn that LPG powered vehicles suffer less wear and internal corrosion. You'll be selling yours while others stay unsold.......

4. Classics......

Although current exhaust emission legislation is pretty lenient when applied to older vehicles, (they are 'allowed' to produce much more pollution than a modern car) don't think for a minute that this will continue. One day pressure to reduce pollution will be so great that Governments will be forced to review their position. One way to avoid restrictive or punitive measures placed on the use of older vehicles will be to convert to LPG and reduce the harmful emissions.

5. All ages of vehicle

Ignoring any possible improvement or 'pegging' of future secondhand values, in two years time you will have;

Saved a considerable amount of money on fuel costs, reducing or offsetting the effect of depreciation on your vehicle's value

Enjoyed reduced maintenance costs

Polluted the environment much less

May have been driving the only type of private transport that is allowed into inner city areas

And maybe driven past long fuel queues smiling........!