Refill your car using your home’s natural-gas line

Have you considered buying a car that you could refill at home using your natural gas connection? The Honda Civic GX uses CNG (compressed natural gas) and can be refilled at home using a device called “Phill” from FuelMaker that uses your natural gas connection. The savings are about 50% over regular gasoline when refilled at home. The downside? The car priced at $24,590, costs considerably more than the similarly equiped gasoline model price ($16,000). It’s the hybrid dillema all over again. Would you be able to recoup the premium when compared to the savings over gasoline? The “Phill” itself costs over $4500 with installation. The answer is “maybe yes”, over a long period, considering the $4000 tax credit that you get for purchasing a 2006 or 2007 model from a dealer. You get an additional $1000 tax credit for purchasing the “Phill”. The tax credit is a worthwhile incentive because it reduces your total tax burden by that amount. For example, if you owe $10,000 in taxes for this year, your total tax bill would be reduced to about $5,000 because of the credits.

The Civic GX comes equipped with a standard 1.8-liter, 113-horsepower and provides a mileage of 28 mpg in the city and 39 mpg on the highway. The tank capacity is about 8 gasoline gallon equivalent and the range on a full tank is between 200-300 miles. Oil change are only required around 10,000 miles and tune-ups only after 100,000 miles. So you have some additional savings on oil changes and tune-ups when compared to a gasoline car. Since there are no carbon deposits, the engine could potentially last several hundred thousand miles. Infact, there are several older models of this car on the market that you could snap for a bargain. The car was initially introduced as a fleet purchase for companies or government agencies since 1998 and has undergone a few design changes since.

If you are the type of person that is not into changing cars often, commutes shorter distances and believes in saving our environment, then this just might be the car for you!