Driver's guide to Going Green - Buying a greener car

Thursday, March 09, 2006
Pick a responsible car
For most of us, ditching the car altogether isn't a viable alternative. So we should try to choose a cleaner car. Focus on a car's emissions (expressed as grams per kilometre of carbon dioxide, or g/km of CO2) and its economy (miles per gallon, or mpg). Low emissions, high economy is the name of the game.

Think about the manufacturing
Try to pick a make of car with a track record for environmental performance. Not all manufacturers are as green as they would like you to think.

Pick a clean-fuel car
Test-drive a hybrid petrol-electric car, or check out Citroen's new C3 Stop & Start. You'd be surprised how good these new technologies are.

Keep your car for long periods
Pull out of the rat-race and don't buy a new car every year. Pick one you'll run for years and years, reducing the environmental cost of manufacturing.