Michigan wllz

I had friend of a friend contact me about recommendations for a new vehicle, something that will be green (not the color, but the movement).

“My main objective is to get something that is “green” (environmentally, not the color) and will be reliable and good for long trips,” Jason told me in an e-mail.

Want some input on your next car purchase? E-mail me at laviolette.autoscribe@yahoo.com

He said that although he wanted to go “green,” he is concerned about the long-term ecological effects of batteries. He also wants something stylish, but doesn’t want a car that looks like a spaceship. Getting out of a 1989 Jeep Wrangler, he has also read that diesels get great mileage, but the emissions are not clean.

OK, so he mentions long trips, which means hybrids are out. Hybrids don’t improve highway fuel mileage much because they use regenerative braking to charge the batteries. Because you rarely touch the brake on long trips, hybrids aren’t very useful. If you do a lot of city driving where you stop at a lot of traffic lights, hybrids make more sense.

Since 2007, diesels have been required to meet the same EPA regulations as cars with gas engines. Today’s diesels are clean, but many are expensive. That being said, Volkswagen all but gives buyers its clean-diesel technology for free. Seriously, an uplevel Jetta SEL starts at $22,965 with a standard 2.5-liter gas engine and an automatic transmission. A Jetta TDI starts at $22,270 and comes with a 2.0-liter turbodiesel. Yes, the standard transmission is a six-speed manual, so an diesel Jetta with the optional automated manual would be a little more than the gas engine version, but not by much. Also, VW has entry-level gas Jettas that are cheaper than the TDI, but do not have the features of the higher trim levels.

I regularly hear about Jetta TDI owners getting better than 50 mpg, even though the highway rating is 41 mpg. That would put in par with the best hybrids.

But you don’t have to buy a diesel of hybrid to be green. There are other choices, such as the Honda Fit, that get good gas mileage and cost significantly less than those high-tech rides. American entries in this field are pretty much limited to the dowdy Chevrolet Aveo — which is actually built in South Korea — but Ford and GM will both enter this market with sharp new models within the next year.