Have a look at an lpg car. I have a Honda CRV that's been converted to lpg. Still starts on petrol and you can switch over to petrol if your lpg gets low. Costs me 61p per litre. I loved my diesel Lucida but the cost of fuel was ridiculous, it was fantastic for loading all dogs and camping stuff in and still room for more. The Honda isn't as big inside as my Lucida, on the flip side it cost me £23 to fill up on Saturday!!!

We have an x-trail but it's an oldish one - 03 plate. I do really love it. Lots of space, but it doesn't "look" particularly big, iyswim? I can fit in a couple of bales of hay and a couple of bales of easibed in the boot. The only downside, is the wheel arches do come into the boot quite a bit. It does have a plastic interior in the boot, which is fab as I can just brush the hay out.

MPG - average about 32 but, I do have to get up a big hill most days, and it doesn't like that very much. Motorway driving, and we get late 30s. As I said, it's an oldish one, so newer ones will be better, I would have thought.

It's pretty good off-road, although not perfect. Does what I need it to do, ground clearance isn't fantastic, but again, it's got me over moor tracks without too many problems.

Helen

I would avoid LPG like the plague to be honest. My work van (Citroen Dispatch) is and while it never hauls anything heavy-my average MPG is 21.3 which is terrible. Because my company fuel card is BP i struggle to find places which sell gas so i can sometimes drive 20 miles out of my way to get it and there are not that many places which will service them either.

Its also lacking on mid range power too.Low down power is fine so round towns and cities its nippy,but soon as you're out on dualcarriage ways etc its very flat and overtaking is hard work.Because the gas tank sits in the spare wheel cradle its far too small and im looking at 200 miles from a full tank which isnt enough as i do more than that a day.This is driving at normal speed-some of the other guys who are wannabe F1 drivers get considerably less!!!

I'd stick to diesel personally.If you keep a diesel below 2500rpm their MPG goes right up.

Its a shame about the company fuel card, because lpg is sold at special lpg stations dotted everywhere if you know where to look, and are easily found by googling them in your area. The fuel tank on mine doesn't have a big range either, you have to balance the weight of the bigger tank alongside the weight of the extra fuel, I am told I will be OK to put a 90 litre tank in mine as opposed to the 50litre I have at the moment. As you have a fuel card anyway it will be easy to keep your petrol tank topped up and switch to that if it runs low and you are nowhere near a BP station that sells lpg. The majority of us don't have fuel cards though and once you know where to go it is an easy process to fill up when necessary, and at 61p a litre is a very cheap option to those of us paying for our own fuel.
Was doing a trip on the motorway a couple of weeks ago and I think virtually every services sold lpg, something which wasn't happening even 2 years ago, yes it is dearer at the services, but then so is diesel and unleaded as well.
I am dead against the putting of the tank in the spare wheel cradle, and was looking at cars where they were underslung as I think it is a far better and safer idea, no way would I want to have a major blow out and not have a spare, I am fortunate in that the car I eventually went for had the spare on the back door, so no worries about lack of spare wheel, or lack of boot space by a gas tank taking up the room inside

Our entire fleet (300+) is LPG and they are having many problems.Some of the older (3 years old) vehicles engines are prematurely wearing out due to LPG having no lubricant in the fuel.While others just wont run on gas even when the company who converted them make repairs.

Availability is the biggest problem though.I have to cover a huge area like Cambs,Northants,Herts,Beds,Essex,Bucks,Suffolk, Norfolk and sometimes have to go into all of these in one go! So having to balance work with best route,fuel availability and times i have to be at sites can sometimes take ingenious planning.

When i had my old van (a Vauxhall Vivaro) i had no problems because it was diesel and i could do 500 miles minimum on a full tank and could get that anywhere,but it causes me a problem now being LPG.

Cheers everyone.

Hmmmmm I'm confused though - what exactly is the point in the hybrid technology if it isn't more fuel efficient that a diesel engine?

I'm not sure what it is for, but I have a canister of something under my bonnet that is not allowed to run out, I assumed that was some sort of lubricant.
My son has run his jeep on lpg for years, it was 30 odd pence a litre when he started using it, and not had any problems at all, he was the one that urged me to change over when I was looking or another car anyway. He does the servicing etc for me, so doubt if he would be wanting to take on a load of trouble plus ear bashing from his mum.
Are you on the motorways a lot with the area you cover, because all the services are stocking it, no idea if they are BP though!!!

Top Gear did a feature on hybrid cars a while ago and gave them a good going over re efficiency/longevity. See if you can find it on youtube, it was surprisingly factual for Top Gear!

If I remember rightly the bottom line was "don't touch them with a bargepole"! I think it was something to do with the batteries not lasting very long and costing a fortune to replace?

I've just got a Skoda Yeti Greenline, only had it 2 weeks but the fuel economy is looking pretty good (50mpg on short trips and not driving economically). There's plenty of room in the boot for the dogs, but not much else! That said you can do all sorts of fandangled things with the rear seats (slide them forward, fold them forward or remove them) so that could make a difference. I've also driven works poolcar, a Qashqai, which was very nice also. Boot was a decent size etc.

I agree with murf really, new diesel technology will be the way to go for fuel efficiency. Doesn't have to be an estate though, my Dad has a Mondeo hatchback and the boot is fooking huge! He easily fits both of my dogs and both of his dogs in the boot with room to spare!

Ah cool thanks for that! Hmmmm looks like a diesel estate is going to be the way to go (I do really want decent boot space!)

If you get a diesel, you could also get it chipped, I had my Honda CRV done and I get 50-57 mpg doing a mixture of motorway and country roads. You may not get that much on yours as I only have one dog in the back, and weight does make a difference.