Statewide Green Car Convoy Shows Its Stuff to Northern Colorado

An estimated 60 people showed up to check out the \

I would like to stop here and explain a little more about this Statewide Green Car Convoy. According to Jackson, the idea was conceived after the success of last year’s Static Green Car Parade at the State Capital before the opening of the 2008 Denver Auto Show. The 2008 Static Green Car parade had about 40 cars from Dealers around the Denver area. To build on this success Tim and other members of the CADA and Metro Denver Auto Dealers Association (MDADA) felt that awareness was key—and what better way to create awareness than to bring the newest “green” vehicles to the people. So that is exactly what they did starting last Thursday with a tour of Western Colorado that included Montrose, Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs, Vail and Frisco.

BMW 335id at the Ft. Collins Green Car Convoy Event

In Ft. Collins the group met up with local participating dealers in a local parking lot and then convoyed over to the Ft. Collins Coloradoan for pictures and an explanation of the vehicles that were taking part. It was a good showing with a wide array of vehicles from participating dealers, most of which stayed with the group all the way to the Longmont stop. They included the 2009 Ford F250 Clean Diesel and Ford F150 E85 pickups, 2009 Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, 2009 GMC Yukon and Sierra Hybrids, 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Clean Diesel, 2009 Toyota Prius, 2010 Kia Soul and 2009 BMW 335id Clean Advanced Diesel. As you can see, the tour had everything from large to small cars.

In addition to the Dealer models, Volkswagen also provided the Volkswagen Touareg 2 TDI Clean Diesel for the Green Car Convoy and Direct Impact provided a Mercury Mariner Hybrid. If you are going to be in the Denver area, you will be able to see to see the Touareg 2 in person at the 2009 Denver Auto Show.

I have to say that the success of the events today was apparent, as the stop in Loveland attracted an estimated crowd of 60 local people that were interested in learning more about green car alternatives, whether it be the very popular Toyota Prius or a larger utility vehicle like the GMC Yukon. One person was looking at the Prius because they drive a 1991 Geo Metro and were looking to buy a new car, but they wanted to make the right choice for the environment.

Jerry Tryjan, from Saturn of Fort Collins, said that he felt that there “was a general lack of knowledge” about hybrids and other green technologies. He said that this event was important because “green and hybrid means different things to different people, so it is important to get the information about these cars out to the public.” The no-pressure informative nature of this Green Car Convoy seemed to give people the comfort of a hands on experience with the vehicles that will likely result in a few more sales and a few less emissions.

Kudos go out to the Dealers that participated in today’s event, including Spradley Barr Ford Lincoln Mercury, TRANSWEST GMC Trucks, Pedersen Toyota and Scion, Saturn of Fort Collins, Co’s BMW Center, Ed Carol Volkswagen, Dellenbach Chevrolet Cadillac, McCaddon Cadillac of Boulder and Stapp Interstate Toyota. They came prepared with informative information packages that explained the new technologies in their respective vehicles and were more than happy to answer any question the public might have.

Stay tuned for more updates on all the small cars that will be making an appearance at the Static Green Car Parade tomorrow at the Denver State Capital.

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