Some months back, I purchased a sparingly used Cedia. It's now almost 3 years old and has covered 15,000Kms.
My daily run is high and Cedia was meant for the occasional weekend, outstation trip. The baleno fitted with CNG and the Punto running on diesel were our workhorses.
What changed ?
1-Suddenly, fuel prices increased and now there's news of another increase on the cards. While it hasn't become unaffordable, I now need to find reasons to take the Cedia out since the Punto and the Baleno are so much cheaper to run.
2- My parents now work at the same institute and hence utilize the same car with my driver driving. Distance to work place is about 50 kms to and fro. We do not require more than two cars.
3- My daily drive too is about 50 odd kms however this is probably only for the next year after which I may or may not be in Delhi.
4- The baleno, it's time for her to go. At 1,26,000, she's served us well and we now wish to retire her.
The Baleno ran on a closed loop system installed by Tara Dutt and worked flawlessly with acceleration and top speed almost being the same as petrol. Whatever power loss existed was negligible. I attributed this to the torquey engine and the good installation. The experience taught me that regular maintenance and 7 to 8 kms on Petrol everday can ensure a very very healthy engine. Even at 1.26, the engine sounds fresh!
The cedia too has a very torquey unit and one that would, in my opinion suit CNG. Unfortunately, there are no reviews for the same available. Endorsement too is a issue but I've found two dealers who have kits available which can be endorsed.
1- Rohan Auto, okhla.
Kit available- BRC, both closed loop and sequential. Cost around 30k and 65k respectively. This is the same company that fitted the BRC lpg kits that were a part of the cedia lpg version in 2007/2008.
http://www.rohanauto.com/
2- Bestpints, ggn.
Kit available- Bestpints closed loop and sequential. Cost around the same as above.
What would you guys recommend ?
which kit would work well with this car and which kit is better overall in terms of quality, durability, efficiency and performance ?
Any reason I should not go in for this install ?
I know that many people here would detest this idea however my experience shows that a good kit and one that is installed well takes away very very little from the performance perspective and provides a very cost effective solution. The baleno ran 85k on CNG and made not more than 2 trips to the installer. One for the TAP fitting and two because a connection had come loose. As stated before, the engine is still in great condition and the car NEVER required any extra expense on account of CNG.
Thanks