GCR Best Car to Buy

  • 2018 Hyundai Ioniq

    The 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, a plug-in version of the much-lauded new minivan, won our Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018 award because it brings a partially zero-emission vehicle into an entirely new market segment. The Pacifica is our favorite among minivans, though we'll be curious to drive the redesigned Toyota Sienna expected soon. After the $7,500 federal income-tax credit—assuming it survives—the plug-in hybrid Pacifica is essentially competitive on price with its gasoline-only counterpart, but delivers 32 mpg combined against the gas version's 22 mpg combined...

  • 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid
    Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018: Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid plug-in minivan

    In 2011, Green Car Reports launched an award for the new car, or family of cars, that represented the best green vehicle introduced for the model year. The Nissan Leaf won that year because it was the sole affordable battery-electric vehicle on the market. Over the next seven years, more than two...

  • 2017 Tesla Model 3 in Tesla assembly plant parking lot, Fremont, CA, November 2017
    Which car would you pick as Best Car To Buy 2018? Poll results

    As we do every year at this time, our editors have gotten together, analyzed and discussed and argued, and come up with what we think is the Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018. We covered our process in a series of articles, including one that lays out the qualifications and rules. To be...

  • 2018 Hyundai Ioniq
    Finalist for Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018: Hyundai Ioniq

    Hyundai is known in the auto industry as an aggressive and very capable competitor, and the world's largest makers watch it closely and take it very seriously. The company didn't introduce its first hybrid car in the U.S. until 2011 and, frankly, that year's hybrid Sonata sedan wasn't very good...

  • 2018 Nissan Leaf
    Finalist for Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018: Nissan Leaf

    If any electric car aside from the Tesla Model 3 can be called "long-awaited," it would be the redesigned 2018 Nissan Leaf. First thought to arrive as a 2016 model, it was widely assumed to be a 2017 to go head-to-head with the 238-mile Chevrolet Bolt EV launched last December. In the event, the...

  • Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy
    Which car would you pick as Best Car To Buy 2018? Take our Twitter poll

    In early October, when we announced our three finalists for the Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018 award, they represented a diverse set of approaches to making cars greener. They included a plug-in hybrid minivan (the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid), a range of powertrains—hybrid...

  • 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid

    If ever a green family vehicle had a rocky launch, it would be the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. Only two months after deliveries of the eagerly awaited plug-in hybrid seven-seat minivan began in April, sales were halted for several when a potentially faulty diode was identified. In June, 1,368 Pacifica Hybrid minivans in the U.S. and a further 309 in Canada were recalled to replace the part. DON'T MISS: 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid sales have resumed after recall That's all in the past now, and the 2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid is back on sale, with a handful of updates over the 2017 version...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius V station wagon, Half Moon Bay, CA, May 2011
    Seven years of Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy winners

    As we head into final deliberations for the Best Car To Buy 2018 award, it's worth looking back over our first seven years of winners. The list of seven different models or lineups gives a sense of just how far green cars have come—and how fast they've evolved since 2011. Our first award that...

  • 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid
    Which green cars didn't make the list for Best Car To Buy 2018?

    After the usual intense discussions and debates, we announced our three finalists for the Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2018 award earlier this week. The Tesla Model 3 was not among them, because we have to drive a car in order to evaluate it as a finalist—and Tesla declined to provide us...

  • Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy
    One of these 3 vehicles will be Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2018

    Fans of green cars have spent much of the past year eagerly waiting for a pair of electric cars to be revealed to the public and then to go on sale. By far the most attention and hype has been focused on the Tesla Model 3, the Silicon Valley carmaker's lower-priced and much higher-volume vehicle...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, road test, California coastline, Sep 2016
    Chevrolet Bolt EV: Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2017

    Each year, Green Car Reports chooses a new car, or a family of cars, as the best green car introduced in that model year. In 2011, our very first award, we picked the first-ever modern electric car to be sold in high volumes. Six years later, we've picked the spiritual successor to that car, one...

  • 2013 Tesla Model S owned by David Noland, Catskill Mountains, NY, Oct 2015
    Past Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy winners: the recap

    On Monday, Green Car Reports will name its 2017 Best Car To Buy. It will be the seventh time we've given the award, and it's worth looking back to see how far green cars have progressed in those seven years. We were lucky to start the award in 2011, the year two remarkable cars arrived on global...

  • 2017 Toyota Prius Prime Premium

    The 2017 Toyota Prius Prime is a far, far better plug-in hybrid than its predecessor. It defaults to electric-only operation, it has 25 miles of EPA-rated electric range, and in electric operation, it is by far the most energy-efficient vehicle you can buy this year in the U.S. And when it reverts to running as a standard hybrid car, it's rated at 54 mpg combined. DON'T MISS: At 133 MPGe, Toyota Prius Prime wallops BMW i3 on energy efficiency All those qualities together make it an obvious nominee for our Green Car Reports 2017 Best Car To Buy award. We also measure the likely market impact...

  • 2016 Tesla Model X
    Green Car Reports' 2017 Best Car To Buy nominee: Tesla Model X

    Pretty much any Tesla electric car is bound to start a conversation. The low, tiny 2008 Roadster, the sleek and Jaguar-esque 2012 Model S sedan, or the company's latest car, the 2016 Model X crossover utility vehicle. But as we experienced first-hand, the Model X has the most attention-getting...

  • 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, road test, California coastline, Sep 2016
    Green Car Reports 2017 Best Car To Buy nominee: Chevy Bolt EV

    The announcement of the Chevrolet Bolt concept car came like a thunderclap at the 2015 Detroit Auto Show. After unveiling the 2016 Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid, General Motors CEO Mary Barra rolled out a bright orange five-door hatchback electric car. It would have 200 or more miles of range, she...

  • 2017 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid, Ioniq Electric, and Ioniq Plug-In
    Which green cars didn't make the cut for Best Car To Buy award?

    We have a slim field of only three new green cars this year competing for the Green Car Reports 2017 Best Car To Buy award. They are the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV, the 2016 Tesla Model X, and the 2017 Toyota Prius Prime. There's a much longer list of new vehicles that didn't make the cut this year;...

  • Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy
    One of these 3 cars will be Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2017

    The past year has been one of anticipation among green-car advocates, who've spent many months waiting for certain vehicles to emerge into production. At the start of the year, it was the Tesla Model X luxury electric utility vehicle, built in very low numbers for several months at the end of 2015...

  • 2016 Chevrolet Volt, Catskill Mountains, NY, Dec 2015
    2016 Chevrolet Volt: Gas Mileage Review

    By now, it's hardly a secret that we're big fans of the redesigned second-generation Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid. We gave it our Best Car To Buy 2016 award, and we've written that it's better in pretty much every way than the innovative first-generation Volt. Last month, we were able to spend four...

  • 2016 Chevrolet Volt, first drive in California, July 2015

    Every year, Green Car Reports picks a new car or model line that we feel is the best green car for that new model year. This year, we picked a car that's the all-new version of one that was revolutionary when it was introduced several years ago. The latest version improves on it in pretty much every dimension. This year, the Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2016 is the Chevrolet Volt. DON'T MISS: 2016 Chevrolet Volt First Drive: Plug-In Hybrid Home Run The second generation of the Chevy Volt stays true to the original, and radical, concept of a range-extended electric car. But it also fixes...

  • 2016 Toyota Prius - first drive, Laguna Niguel, CA, Nov 2015
    Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Toyota Prius

    The Toyota Prius hybrid occupies a special niche in automotive history. It's the world's best-known and best-selling hybrid car, and it's the halo vehicle for one of the world's three largest automakers. This year, there's an all-new 2016 Prius, and it's quite a different car from its predecessors...

  • 2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid  -  First Drive, May 2015
    Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid And Plug-In Hybrid

    Hyundai is widely viewed as one of the most aggressive car companies in the world. In global industry terms, it's relatively young, having designed and sold its first car only in 1975. But the South Korean company has ambitious plans, including many on the green-car front; it wants to have the...

  • 2016 Honda Civic Sedan (Touring)
    Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Honda Civic

    It's important to understand how important a car the Honda Civic compact sedan is in the U.S. market. Between the Civic sedan and its coupe sibling, Honda sells more than 300,000 of them a year--or roughly 20 times this year's sales of the Chevy Volt. The Civic nameplate is more than 40 years old...

  • 2016 Chevrolet Volt
    Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Chevrolet Volt

    The first Chevrolet Volt range-extended electric car won all sorts of awards in 2011, the year it was introduced. But it didn't win that year's Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy award, because we deemed the world's first mass-priced high-volume battery-electric car more significant. That car, the...

  • 2016 Audi A3 e-Tron Sportback, San Francisco Bay Area, Oct 2015
    Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy Nominee: 2016 Audi A3 e-Tron

    We were impressed by our first drive of the U.S.-spec 2016 Audi A3 e-Tron Sportback, enough so that it's the first of five nominees for our Green Car Reports 2016 Best Car To Buy award. The compact hatchback is powered by a 150-horsepower 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine combined with a...

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