Not too long ago, Misty and I bought a dual fuel car.  It runs on both regular gasoline as well as Compressed Natural Gas.  Besides already needing a second vehicle, we were primarily interested in it for the amount we would save driving around.  I mean it only costs $0.639 per gallon everywhere in Utah!  That's AWESOME!

There are currently (April 29, 2008) about 18 public CNG stations in Utah.  I've mapped them all out with several details on each of them HERE.

We wanted a dual fuel vehicle for our first CNG car, and looked around online and found several out of state.  We primarily searched out of state because Utah allows you to take a $3000 state tax refund off a CNG car spread out up to 5 years.  Most places out of state we looked at were willing to ship them in to UT for you for about $300-$400.  Also there were several places willing to take a current vehicle and upgrade them to CNG for a couple thousand dollars...mostly for big vehicles like trucks, but supposedly conversions have some part of the engine that wears out a lot faster because CNG burns at a higher temp and some part of the vehicle needs to be replaced more often from what I hear.

While we were looking, my brother in law got a dual fuel car in at the dealership he worked at, and so we decided to get the one he had.  It was a 2001 Chevy Cavalier with about 54,000 miles on it and cost us about $5,500.  If you consider the $3000 tax credit we get, it's actually only costing us about $2,500.

The CNG tank is only a 6 gallon equivalent, with a PSI of 3600 and takes up about half of the trunk space in the small car.  CNG vs regular gas MPG are basically the same.  Unfortunately, most stations in UT only pump between 2500-3000 PSI though, so we rarely get the whole 6 Gallon usage out of it.  One time the Park City station did pump higher than our PSI rating, and when we took the pump off the tank, it started hissing Natural gas back out the tank until it was at the proper 3600 PSI.  It was scary at first, but at least we know what happens when you over fill a CNG tank.  Nothing drastic.

A Newspaper article recently came out about a new CNG station opening in Brigham City, and how Utah has more CNG stations per capita than anywhere else.  Supposedly there were so many people calling dealerships asking if they had CNG cars that some made contracts with places to do conversions for those who want them.  I've started to see lots more CNG vehicles at the stations more and more since we've had our car.  Tons of people talk to us about them too, asking for pointers on how to get them, etc.  Newbies are always really excited about getting their new cars and talk to other CNG owners at the pumps, etc.  It's kind of funny.  CNG is really picking up in Utah.

The Natural Gas price savings more than pays for our car loan on the new vehicle every month.  It's kind of stunning to see how having TWO CARS, even one with a monthly loan payment on it, is STILL CHEAPER than having ONE regular gasoline car for us.  We've decided that we'll probably eventually sell off our Lumina and get a CNG or dual fuel Truck or van.

I haven't looked into it much, but supposedly you can also get a little CNG converter to hook up to your house gas line so you can fill up at home instead of having to drive to a CNG station.  If I knew I was going to be living somewhere for a few years, I'd be tempted to install one just for the convenience.  You can fill it up over night or whenever, and have it come straight out of your Monthly utility bill for even cheaper.

Anyway, it's nice to be getting gas 5-6 times cheaper, and have a second car with a loan for cheaper than we were paying for a single regular gas car that was already paid off.  Of course we travel between Logan-Kaysville at least a couple times a month, and Misty drives around doing parking enforcement up here for a few hours at night, so I guess we do drive quite a bit too.

Feel free to ask questions.

I will update my blog entries here on myspace, MSN Spaces, etc with new developments on Utah CNG (map updates, exact to call to see if VIN eligible for tax rebate, etc) for those I notice are finding my posts through searching the net.