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Written by asap
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Wednesday, 26 April 2006 |
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Daniel Hug recently paid $7,000 for a dark blue 1983 Mercedes Benz 300TD turbo diesel station wagon with 147,000 miles on it.
The attraction for the art gallery owner was the car’s specially converted engine that runs on vegetable oil.
“Living a green lifestyle generally has been something that only the wealthy or middle class can do,” said Hug, 37. “I’m not particularly wealthy or anything, but this is accessible.”
Thanks to customers like him, business is brisk at LoveCraft Biofuels — a used car lot crammed with converted Mercedes-Benz diesels on a trendy stretch of Sunset Boulevard. The veggie vehicles have been embraced in car crazy Los Angeles by drivers who have cited concerns about the environment, the skyrocketing price of gasoline and the reliance on Middle East oil as reasons for buying the cars.
The converted cars are designed for 100 percent vegetable oil, but can also run on diesel, biodiesel, transmission oil, motor oil, kerosene and other oils, said Brian Friedman, LoveCraft’s owner. Veggie vehicle enthusiasts typically pay about $2.50 a gallon for vegetable oil at wholesale clubs like Costco or work out deals with restaurants to get leftover cooking oil for free.
Friedman’s business started with ads on Craigslist.org and so far he has sold more than 300 converted vehicles.
“I knew once one person had one, their friend would get one, and their neighbor would get one and it would pick up from there,” Friedman said. “Now it is off the hook, it is insane.”
Demand for the vehicles is soaring, thanks to prices at the pump crossing the $3 threshold, Friedman said. He hears from about between five and 10 prospective buyers a day, plus about 100 other daily callers ranging from journalists to people who are just curious, he said. | Only registered users can write comments.
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