March 25th, 2010

By Clint Williams
Green Right Now

The 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI is a taut, tidy example of Teutonic car making. And the clean burning, turbo-charged diesel engine delivers impressive fuel economy that reduces your carbon footprint while still delivering plenty of what we like to call smiles per gallon.

VW Golf TDI 4-door

The Golf – once known as the Rabbit – has been redesigned for 2010 and sports a new front end design that includes a wider, double-bar grille. The look is sleeker, a bit more elegant, but it still looks like a Golf.

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October 1st, 2009

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

Los Angeles’ program to reduce trucking pollution is working faster than planned, but it has come under attack by the trucking industry.

Today, the city celebrates the one-year anniversary of the Clean Truck Program (CTP), which has taken more than 2,000 polluting trucks off the road and helped placed more than 5,500 clean vehicles into service. The changes mean that ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are now two years ahead of schedule in their master plan to reduce shipping truck emissions by 80 percent. The two ports have collaborated to reduce air pollution from both trucks and ships using the hubs.

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July 10th, 2009

From Green Right Now Reports

A survey of eco-friendly vehicles released today from IntelliChoice.com shows that most 2009 hybrid and clean diesel cars, trucks and SUVs deliver a lower cost of ownership compared to standard versions of the same vehicles.

The 2009 IntelliChoice.com Hybrid and Diesel Car survey examined the value of all 2009 model year hybrids and vehicles with clean diesel engines. The company evaluated the major factors that determine a vehicle’s cost of ownership over a five year period or 70,000 miles, including fuel, maintenance and repair, retained value, insurance costs and taxes and fees.

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April 9th, 2009

Photo: Audi

From Green Right Now Reports

Audi today said the 2009 Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel, its first clean diesel vehicle for the U.S. market, will arrive in U.S. dealerships later this month priced at $50,900.

Audi says the TDI technology, no 20 years old, is the world’s cleanest diesel system. The technology meets emissions regulations in all 50 U.S. states, the company says. That includes the California ULEV II (Ultra-Low Emissions Vehicle) standards that also apply to conventional gasoline vehicles and represent one of the world’s most rigorous motor vehicle emission requirements.

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January 5th, 2009

By Clint Williams
Green Right Now

An expectation met is rare enough. An expectation surpassed is a culturally appropriate winter solstice celebration miracle.

So imagine my surprise and delight when reading the miles per gallon readout on the trip computer of the 2009 Jetta TDI during a recent holiday drive over the river and through the woods. The display reads: 43.7 mpg. That’s significantly above the Environmental Protection Agency estimate of 40 mpg in highway driving.

And we weren’t doing any of that 55 mph, coast-down-hills, hyper-miler sort of driving. We were zipping along at 70 mph or so, singing loudly along with the Christmas tunes provided by the satellite radio.

That sort of fuel economy apparently isn’t a fluke. Volkswagen hired a third party, automotive evaluation company AMCI, to test the real-world fuel economy of the Jetta TDI and found it performed 24 percent better than EPA estimates, getting 38 mpg in the city and 44 mpg on the highway.

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November 10th, 2008

By Clint Williams

Don’t be fooled. Gasoline prices won’t be bumping around $2 a gallon for long. Driving a car with good fuel economy still makes sense. Higher mpg means lower operating costs for the household budget and fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

Happily, car shoppers today have a myriad of options among fuel frugal 2009 cars. You can find something getting 30 mpg or better on the highway at nearly every dealer lot. In some cases, you’ll have to settle for a trim line with a smaller engine and manual transmission to hit the 30 mpg mark.

Here are 30 with 30 mpg:

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