RV Fuel Issues & Prices - Post 'Em Here!

LindsayRichards wrote:
What is the range on your wife's Honda? If I am not mistaken, that one is not a conversion and is spark ignited isn't it? Have you considered getting an compressor for your home for CNG (if you have it at your home)?

Thanks,

The Honda is a factory built CNG car with a range of about 220 miles, ours is a 2002 so we only have a few more years before the tanks expire and need to be replaced (which effectively totals the car based on tank replacement costs). We seriously considered a Phill compressor for pumping natural gas at home, but I'm not convinced of the whole CNG car thing, personally. They are much more complicated than gasoline (due to the high pressures involved), ridiculously expensive to repair, fuel filters need to be replaced annually at the cost of $100 (and that's doing it myself). These are of course mostly issues of volume (similar to the EV industry), but the fact is no one but Honda even builds a factory CNG car, and I don't see it progressing anytime soon. I just don't see CNG in my future, the only reason we have it is for the carpool lane access (cheap fuel is a bonus). The alternative for carpool lane access is a Volt or plug in Prius, they cost north of $30k. We bought the Civic 5 or so years ago for $8k (it was a previous gas company vehicle sold at auction).

From a cost point of view, it costs about $7k to install CNG at home. My pencil on napkin analysis did not show any payback period, so it would be strictly for convenience. And as it is, there are 5 CNG stations on my wife's commute, including one about 2 miles from where she works, so it's not a big deal. It would be nice to have a home option for the weekends, but we have enough cars (too many, some would argue...) that we don't need to drive the Civic on weekends at all.