Hey, all you people that read this site to learn what car to buy: the Green Car Journal says that your 2009 green car of the year is the Volkswagen Jetta TDI. Treehugger gives us a report:

The 2009 Jetta TDI is a quiet-running, diesel-powered car. It beat out hybrids and mini-cars to take the title. The Jetta uses a technology called “clean diesel” which actually lives up its name pretty well. It has a very clean tailpipe, and an EPA estimated 41 mpg highway fuel economy.

Also, it’s a Jetta, which means that you can drive it and it makes you trendy and hip, automatically.

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General Motors stock fell below $3 per share at the close of trading yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. The price was the lowest the stock had sold for in 65 years, pushed down by the economic crisis, record low consumer confidence and the inability to access credit for auto loans amongst those rare few who do want to buy a car.

The flailing American auto industry is in such dire shape it has prompted calls from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to hold a special lame duck session of Congress in order to address the needs of the troubled sector and provide it with emergency aid, as the Big 3 Automakers join the seemingly neverending line of American companies jockeying for a Government bailout.

Letting the Auto Manufacturers fail would unquestionably cause tremendous harm to the future economic prospects of the United States. However a “cash and carry”, “take the money and run” corporate gimme is not an option either. If the American taxpayer is going to fund the failing of the Big Three auto manufacturers, an ownership interest as well as major concessions by the companies will have to be part of the deal. Chief amongst these concessions should be a contract, signed by all companies to drastically improve their fuel efficiency standards and focus on alternative energy vehicles, chiefly electric cars. This is a historic opportunity to change the way Detroit operates that we cannot miss.

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Lexus is trying to make the luxury car even more luxuriouserish by going hybrid, according to treehugger.com and Reuters news.   The managing officer of Toyota, which owns Lexus, “intends to introduce hybrid versions of its Lexus luxury vehicles as early as possible,” says the news report.   He went on to say that the firm is “considering making the Lexus lineup hybrid-only.”

This is certainly great news for the future of green cars, if Lexus follows through.   But what really caught my eye when looking into this story was this quote from treehugger:

The cause of this change of strategy is probably higher fuel costs (even if they went down a bit lately) and, especially, the fact that the global sales of Lexus fell 9% on the year to 310,000 in the January-August period.

That obviously makes sense, but did Lexus really sell only 310,000 cars in half a year?  I think I saw 310,000 Lexus ads in that timeframe.   Literally.   And I mean that in the Joe Biden sense of the word, which of course means not literally at all.

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If you’ve ever ridden in a hybrid car, I’m sure you’ve noticed the peculiar silence when the engine starts, and the way it simply “rolls” onto the road ” but are hybrids too quiet for their own good? Some pedestrians, and particularly blind pedestrians, say that they are.

Jana Littrel, who is blind, had her foot run over by a Toyota Prius while walking through a bank parking lot in the East Bay town of Albany a year ago. Although she managed to avoid injury, Jana says the incident has put her on edge. So far, no deaths or serious injuries have been attributed to hybrids. Still, The National Federation for the Blind is currently working toward getting hybrid automobile manufacturers to install a “noise emitting device” so that blind pedestrians, as well as joggers, children, animals, and cyclists can be made aware of the oncoming vehicle.

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by Kerry Trueman

Iconic rocker Neil Young, always on the cutting edge, is more electrifying than ever these days–he’s converting his 1959 Lincoln Continental into an ultra efficient hybrid electric car. When the transformation’s complete, he’ll drive his “Linc-Volt” from Wichita, where the operation’s taking place, to Detroit, and, he hopes, onto America’s radar.

Young’s documenting his alternative auto odyssey for a film, “Linc-Volt,” that he plans to release in 2008. By turning his two and a half ton, 19-foot-long vintage gas-guzzler into a 100-mile-a-gallon hybrid, Young hopes to demonstrate the feasibility of hybrid-powered cars. Long may he run!