So 2009 is the year for a new car! Or you just love seeing what the car companies are up to. Either way, you're in the right place. Along with safety, fabulous styling and, of course, price, a car's impact on the environment is something most people care about. Since our choice of transportation is second only to our home's energy use in terms of carbon dioxide emissions (which cause that nasty global warming thing) a new car is a great way to cut your footprint if you have to drive (and driving less is the number one best way to cut the carbon).

But every car company tells you theirs is the greenest model EVER! (Likely story.) So how are you supposed to know what's what?
Maybe you've already consulted Greenopia’s Automaker Guide, which breaks it down in terms of which car companies do the best job overall for the planet.

But with the Green Car Guide, we've gotten down to nitty-gritty, looking at the most efficient vehicles that meet our minimum criteria and selecting the best of the best (the good news is that they come in all kinds of price points and styles). Take a look.

How We Did It:
We have collected data for all of the vehicles readily available in the US and applied our own criteria and then did a bunch of math in order to determine which vehicles are the greenest:
 -fuel efficiency (simply how many miles to the gallon the vehicle gets). 
-which cars were the cleanest burning in both greenhouse gas and smog forming pollutant emissions (we consulted the EPA’s SmartWay vehicle emissions database) 
-the automaker’s environmental record.  We weighted whether they have a green fleet or if they use some green materials in the production of their cars.


Surprises:
There are numerous hybrids on the market that are not as green as the automakers would lead you to believe. Just being a hybrid does not mean a green vehicle.  In fact, coming out of the gate, the hybrid has a larger environmental production burden associated with it (largely because of its battery).  The hybrid only becomes greener once it is driven, where it makes up ground with superior mileage and emissions.  Toyota estimates that it takes about 12,000 miles before a hybrid and a similar traditional engine car ‘break even’ environmentally (the hybrid is greener from that point on).  But, as you can imagine, this breakeven point won’t take place if the hybrid doesn’t get great mileage or if it doesn’t burn cleanly. 

Two pleasant surprises were the performances of Audi and Mazda.  Both did relatively well in our automaker guide, but they both had a statistically large number of cars that met at least our minimum criteria.

Greenest Cars on the Market:
-Toyota Prius
-Honda Civic Hybrid
-Jetta Clean Diesel

All 3 had incredibly high gas mileage and burned cleanly to boot.

We hope you find this guide useful and recommend it to anyone who is shopping for a new car.  Here at Greenopia we are always trying to bring you high quality content that is useful for you to eat, shop, and live green. 

Are there ratings you would like to see on our site? (Or just say Hi!) Contact us here.

Photo of Jetta Clean Diesel by Flickr user MeganPru.