2010 Mercury Milan Hybrid
2010 Honda Insight
2010 Toyota Prius
2010 VW Golf TDI
Audi A3 TDI
Celebrating its 5th year at the Los Angeles Auto Show will be the "Green Car of the Year" award. The finalists in the competition whittled down from a field of a couple of dozen cars comes down to those listed here.
I have driven both the Prius and the Milan Hybrids and loved them both. Am anxious to spend some time in the remaining three at the auto show. I would suspect based on what I have read the Honda Insight will be a similar experience to the Prius. I anticipate that both the A3 and Golf will have similar driving experiences as the both tend towards the sportier side of the small car segment. Not a bad thing is that they are direct relations to the VW Jetta TDI that won last year and blew me away with the progress made with diesels in the last few years.
On to my predictions. The Prius brought some nifty new things to the table IE solar roof panels that no one else has done. Yet. The Honda Insight looks like a Prius in shape that was simply badge engineered, 'cept what I have read is that they actually made a better Prius in terms of build quality and driving experience. I don't see either of them pulling off the Green Car of the year as they really aren't a quantum leap in their segment.
Both the Audi and Golf are new iterations with a sporty twist of last years winners. Since it is essentially the same drive train in a new skin I don't think they have a strong a chance at winning this year. If they brought something like a diesel hybrid to to the party I think that would have made people take notice at the MPG that combo could produce.
My prediction on the winner, the Mercury Milan Hybrid. I've spent extensive time in the Ford version of the car as well as an extended test drive in the Milan Hybrid. The driving experience is very refined what one would expect in the "near luxury mid-size" segment. What you get is really good mileage (41mpg city) without having to change your driving style to that of a "hyper miler" to get the mileage. You simply drive it. By putting the second generation Hybrid system into the Milan, Mercury got itself the only hybrid in that "near luxury segment" and it did so without having a shape that "screams out I'm a hybrid owner" to everyone else on the road.
Aside from the "hybrid badging" one wouldn't know it was a hybrid. The Milan got a complete new structure (stiffer yielding phenomenal leaps in ride and handling as well as NVH control) and it shows up in the driving experience of the Milan Hybrid as well as the rest of the line up. With its sister car the more mainstream Fusion Hybrid being part of the Car of the Year line up I think the Milan just may pull off a win in Green Car of the Year for the 2010 model year.
If I'm wrong, I'll eat my press pass.
(Photos courtesy of the LA Auto Show)
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