Roush F-150 LPI 2008

2008 Roush F-150 LPI

The name Roush is commonly associated with tire-frying Mustangs and NASCAR wrastlin’, but the Roush umbrella also includes engineering services and alternative-fuel vehicles. The Roush F-150 LPI burns the same stuff that torches wienies on your bottle-fed Weber. If you don’t drive forklifts, city buses, or fleet vehicles for a living, you might be surprised to learn that propane is the third most commonly used vehicle fuel in the United States after gasoline and diesel, filling stations are not rare, and you can pick up accessories from Hank Hill.

You order your propane pickup from the same network of Ford dealerships that carry Roush’s high-performance offerings. The base LPI package, soon to be released, will include a unique 20-gallon fuel tank mounted in place of the underbed spare tire. An extended-range version with a 50-gallon, bed-mounted tank is available now for $10,500 (plus the cost of an F-150, of course). To those who argue they can do it themselves for less, remember the F-150 LPI comes with the same three-year/36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty as its gasoline-burning equivalent, involves no bloody knuckles, and is eligible for large federal and state tax credits.

The price of propane at the pump varies much more than that of gasoline or natural gas, but it tends to be about 60 to 70 cents a gallon cheaper than gasoline. If you buy in bulk, it gets much cheaper. Come tax time, the feds will give you a tax credit of 50 cents per gallon; if you travel 12,000 miles a year, that’s about $500. You get a $2500 federal credit simply for buying an LPI F-150, and other credits vary by state; Utah, for example, gives $3000. Yep, you read that right: The average Utah buyer would get back $6000 in the first year.