2009 Denver Auto Show: 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Wins Environmentally Friendly Car of the Year Award

April 1^st the 2009 Denver Auto Show started its engine and roared to life. Just before the opening of the show, the Rocky Mountain Automotive Press (RMAP) held an awards ceremony with representatives from the automotive manufacturers and members of the Press. Allsmallcars.com was right there on the floor to bring you the newest car awards for Car of the Year, Truck of the Year, SUV of the Year and Environmentally Friendly Car of the Year.The 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI won the award for most Environmentally Friendly Car of the Year from RMAP. This wasn't a complete surprise to me (or anyone in the audience I would guess) since Volkswagen has been capturing a lot of "green" awards for the clean diesel Jetta, including the 2009 Green Car of the Year awarded by the Green Car Journal. David Warrilow, Sales Operations Manager for CO, NM and UT, accepted the award on behalf of Volkswagen and thanked the RMAP for recognizing the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. He went on to say, "It is a bit of a conundrum and a paradox that a diesel car is getting all of the environmental car of the year awards." I am sure other manufacturers in the crowd were biting their tongues.With the success of Volkswagen's clean diesel technology, what about hybrids you ask? So far the only confirmed Hybrid will be the 2010 Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid (most likely sharing the Porsche Cayenne platform) that is supposed to achieve 328 hp and tip the meters at 26 mpg. However, there has been some speculation that VW will deliver a 2010 Jetta Hybrid and down the road a Passat Hybrid in 2011, though these reports haven't been confirmed. Other awards were given to Dodge for the 2009 Dodge Challenger RT/SRT8 as RMAP Car of the Year and the 2009 Dodge Ram 1500 as the RMAP Truck of the Year. The RMAP SUV of the Year Award went to Ford for the 2009 Ford Flex.Bottom-line, Volkswagen deserves credit for producing a superior clean diesel product that the public can't seem to get enough of (good luck finding a bunch on a VW lot) and it highlights just how new the "green" technology is in the market. So stay tuned because we are going to see new advancements very quickly and new ways ideas for how to implement "green" technology, for example, the Lightning Hybrids LH4 hydraulic-biodiesel drivetrain announced this year at the 2009 Denver Auto Show.Allsmallcars.com has new and used car information, photos and more. So check us out and leave us a comment, we would love to hear from fellow car enthusiasts.