This week, Shed makes the case for LPG conversions in a country never totally sold on the idea...
The heating and hot water in Shed's house both run on LPG. Well, he thinks they do anyway. It's hard for him to be totally sure about that because the last time Mrs Shed let him turn either of them on was Millennium Night, 31 December 1999. 'It's too expensive,' she used to bellow whenever she caught him nudging the thermostat above the 14 degree mark while pointing in the other direction at an imaginary squirrel.
Crucially, LPG was somewhat cheaper than petrol. When this bifuel Volvo was new in 2003, LPG was 40p a litre, so not that different to now, whereas petrol was only 68p, which is a lot different to the 150p or so that a litre of that costs today.
These V40s were built in Holland rather than Sweden. The '2.0' V40s were actually 1.9s because the capacity of the light-pressure turbo engine was 1,948cc. Our shed failed its MOT just before Christmas, but evidently the owner told the garage to sort out all sixteen of the major defects and advisories on the test list because it now has a lillywhite ticket taking it to the end of December.