Best Car to Buy 2012

  • 2012 Toyota Prius V station wagon, Half Moon Bay, CA, May 2011

    The late-night arguments are over, the statistical comparisons and product specs are put away, and we've made our choice. The GreenCarReports Best Car To Buy Award for 2012 goes to a pair of cars: the 2012 Toyota Prius V wagon and the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid. The two new 2012 entries together make up two-thirds of an expanded Prius hybrid range that we feel offers the best way for new-car buyers with a variety of different vehicle needs to drive green. 2012 Prius V wagon Judging from the regular stream of e-mails asking us when someone will make a hybrid minivan or wagon, Toyota...

  • 2012 Volkswagen Passat
    2012 Volkswagen Passat TDI: GreenCarReports Best Car To Buy 2012 Nominee

    Hybrids and, more recently, plug-in cars seem to have gotten all the green ink lately, leaving fans of fuel-sipping clean diesels out in the cold. Four makers sell diesel passenger vehicles in the U.S. for 2012: Audi and BMW joined longtime stalwarts Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen a few years back...

  • 2012 Toyota Prius V station wagon, Half Moon Bay, CA, May 2011
    2012 Toyota Prius V & Plug-In: Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2012 Nominees

    Ask pretty much any car buyer about green cars or hybrids and, chances are, that person will likely mention the Toyota Prius sooner or later. Until this year, though, the Prius has been a single model: a subcompact four-door sedan from 2000 through 2003, and then two generations of mid-size...

  • 2012 Mitsubishi i  -  First Drive, U.S.-spec MiEV
    2012 Mitsubishi 'i': Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2012 Nominee

    Last year, the only volume battery electric car on sale in the U.S. was the Nissan Leaf. But for 2012, there's a new electric vehicle in town: the 2012 Mitsubishi 'i'. The egg-shaped minicar is Mitsubishi's first plug-in offering, but it's actually been around longer than the Leaf, with tens of...

  • 2012 Honda Civic Hybrid, road test, Spring 2011
    2012 Honda Civic Hybrid: Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2012 Nominee

    Though always overshadowed by the more distinctive Toyota Prius, the hybrid model of the Honda Civic compact sedan has been a longstanding competitor in the field of high-mileage hybrid cars. First launched as a 2003 model, the Honda Civic Hybrid has been entirely redesigned for the 2012 model...

  • 2012 Fiat 500 live photos. Photo by Joe Nuxoll.
    2012 Fiat 500: Green Car Reports Best Car To Buy 2012 Nominee

    GreenCarReports nominates 2012 Fiat 500 as one of the six contenders for its Best Car To Buy 2012 award, given to the car or cars that provide the best and most practical alternatives for car buyers who want to drive green.

  • 2012 Infiniti M35h

    It took awhile to arrive, after previews starting in the middle of 2010, but now the 2012 Infiniti M35h is on sale at dealers all over the country. It's Infiniti's first hybrid vehicle, the first car from the Nissan-Infiniti stable to use the company's own internally developed full hybrid system, and the fastest full hybrid on the market. Its 0-to-62-mph time of 5.5 seconds only barely squeaks by the now-discontinued BMW ActiveHybrid X6, which logged 5.5 seconds for 0 to 60 mph. But nonetheless, it appears to be the current record holder. Whether the idea of a "performance hybrid" will take...

  • Best Car To Buy?
    Green Car Reports To Name '2012 Best Car To Buy' Next Week

    'Tis the season for 'car of the year' awards, and we're right there with the rest of the media. Next Monday, we'll announce the winner of our second annual Green Car Reports "Best Car to Buy" Award winner for the 2012 model year. At the same time, our sister sites--MotorAuthority and...

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