New Car ● Best Choices

Our recommendations are based primarily on the premise that independence from foreign fossil fuel based gasoline is the best way to go in your next car purchase. You may have other priorities. We are also not including experimental cars or options which aren't really practical.

There are really only 3 ways to go at this time:

● Cars fueled by natural gas

● Cars fueled by ethanol (E85)

● Hybrids

Hybrids are the easiest choice. There are many of them available and they use gasoline available everywhere. However they are still very dependent on foreign oil due to the gasoline they use. Their engines could be modified, however, to use ethanol in addition to regular gasoline, or converted to use natural gas.

Flex-fuel cars that use ethanol are available from many automakers. Their downside is lack of availability of fueling stations in some areas.

Natural gas cars are the greenest for internal combustion engines, least harmful emissions. The biggest downside is that there aren't many available now to choose from, but you can buy one from Honda. There is also a lack of availability of fueling stations in some areas. Most big cities use natural gas for buses and other vehicles so there are usually enough fueling stations around town.

In terms of independence from foreign oil, we recommend the natural gas or ethanol powered, flex-fuel, vehicles. Your choice between the two would be the availability of fueling stations in your area; and also whether or not the one natural gas car from Honda is suitable for your purposes. Some areas have many ethanol stations and not many natural gas stations. In other areas the reverse is true.

If you can wait for a year or two for your next car purchase, keep your eyes on the soon to be available more affordable all-electric vehicles and the plug-in hybrids as they could become excellent possibilities for you.

Ethanol powered vehicles: Available flex-fuel cars

Hybrid vehicles: Available Hybrid Cars

Natural gas vehicles: Honda Civic GX Video: Jay Leno and Honda Civic GX

Alternative fueling stations in your area: Alternative Fuel Stations

We hope this helps you with your next car buying decision.