2009: Green Car of the Year is … a Diesel

Filed under: Cars and Transportation

After much deliberating and careful consideration, the 2009 Green Car of the Year has been announced. And the winner is, drum roll please … the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. VW’s smooth riding, diesel-sipping, emissions-filtering sedan edged out worthy competitors like the Ford Fusion Hybrid and — the cult favorite — the Smart Fortwo. Critics are heralding the win as proof that clean diesel is a real and viable alternative to gas powered hybrids.

Of course, this news doesn’t come as any great surprise to me, since I had the pleasure of test driving the impressive green machine last September. Reasons to love the Jetta — and there are a few: it gets 30city/41hwy or 38city/44hwy depending on who’s word you take, it’s equipped with a post-combustion filter that removes 95% of sooty emissions, and it costs less and/or gets better mileage than the Malibu, Altima, and Civic hybrids.

Oh yeah, and you don’t give up that characteristic Jetta performance — the TDI has definitely got some zip.

No matter whether you’re a fan of diesel technology or not, you have to admit that this year’s winner is a lot less controversial than last year’s — the Chevy Tahoe 2-mode hybrid.

2009: Green Car of the Year is … a Diesel originally appeared on Green Daily on Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:30:00 EST 0. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

Read | Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Read the entire Green Daily post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GreenDaily/~3/5-a0PiSiROY/

---