And the Green Car of the Year Is A Diesel!

[John]

The 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI was named Green Car of the Year Thursday, the first time a diesel has won the award presented each year at the L.A. Auto Show.

This is great news! The Jetta TDI is a fantastic car.

The 41-mpg TDI beat out a pair of hybrids, a sporty clean-diesel sedan, and the trendy little Smart ForTwo, to take top honors because, the judges said, it "epitomizes what the Green Car of the Year is all about."

"It raises the bar significantly in environmental performance," said Ron Cogan, editor of Green Car Journal and GreenCar.com, which has presented the award at the L.A. Auto Show since 2005. "This is all the more impressive when you consider the Jetta TDI is a clean diesel, achieving the kind of fuel efficiency offered by gasoline-electric hybrids but in a more affordable way."

The Jetta got the nod over the Ford Fusion hybrid, the Saturn Vue Two-Mode Hybrid, the BMW 335d diesel and the ForTwo. (More on the nominees here.) The Jetta took top honors, Cogan said, because its 2.0-liter turbodiesel represents the state of the art in clean diesel injection and emissions technology, so the car is clean enough even for California -- no mean feat. It's also a comfortable five-passenger sedan with a list price of $21,990.