Green Vehicles: More Mileage, Less Allure

I WALKED INTO this year's New York International Auto Show thinking what a difference a year makes. Last year I came looking for performance and found plenty of powerful all-wheel-drive options. I'm driving one now — an Infiniti M — and I love everything about it except for the mileage: 17 per gallon in the city, 20 on the highway. This year, with a recession looming and even Toyota's (TOY) sales faltering, I was a man with a single, all-consuming mission: fuel economy.

Naturally, this is a reflection of soaring fuel prices. As I write, oil prices just hit $114 a barrel, a new all-time record, and last weekend I paid $3.50 a gallon at the pump. Prices were high a year ago, too, but I was still under the delusion that was a temporary spike. We're now well into year three of $3-plus-a-gallon gas, and the faltering economy makes the high prices seem even worse.

But the quest for fuel economy is about much more than saving money. It's about conservation, the environment and "going green." I don't know about you, but I'm being treated like a pariah by friends and family because my car barely gets 20 miles to the gallon. I was somewhat taken aback when I heard a Hillary Clinton supporter in Ohio describe Obama voters as "latte-sipping, Prius-driving" elitists. These days I'd say that's quite a compliment, so long as the latte is skim.

So at this year's New York event — always a huge showcase for new models and concept cars — I resolutely ignored the Corvettes just inside the entrance and went straight to Toyota. There it was, off to the side, surrounded by admirers, the new automotive status symbol: the 45-miles-to-the-gallon-in-the-city, 48-on-the-highway Prius. The odd cigar shape of the car stands out, even in the mostly dull available colors. This one was silver. Inside I sat enveloped by drab synthetic upholstery and plastic dashboard trim that brought to mind the "veal gray" modular office furniture Tom Wolfe described in A Man in Full. My spirits sank.

I wondered: Is this part of the green image, this bland, no-frills interior meant to suggest you've put every penny to work saving fuel? Would a touch of genuine leather be deemed cruelty to animals? This seemed to be a consistent theme among the high-mileage hybrids: the Toyota Camry (33 city, 34 highway), the Honda (HMC) Civic (40/45). Each one was cheesier than the next, and all featured gray plastic.

For a car enthusiast like me, the quest for a safe, fun, stylish vehicle that could also meet the green standard was not going to be easy.

The carmakers certainly aren't making it any easier. Despite the flashy exhibits of green prototypes and all the lip service paid to fuel conservation, it was surprisingly hard to find the actual fuel-economy ratings for most cars. Even at Lexus, which boasts a number of high-end hybrids, the mileage was posted in lettering so small you nearly needed a magnifying glass. Most models had none visible, and I had to ask. Fuel economy and high gas prices seem to be the last things the automakers want shoppers to be thinking about.

There's also a fair amount of sleight-of-hand going on in green marketing. General Motors (GM) was touting its Chevy Tahoe hybrid for winning a designation as "Green Car Journal's" Green Car of the Year, awarded by a panel of unnamed "environmental and auto industry leaders." The actual mileage stats were nowhere in evidence, and no wonder. As I learned from a visit to www.fueleconomy.gov, a web site run by the Department of Energy, the hulking SUV gets 20 mpg city, 20 mpg highway. That's green only in comparison with the regular Tahoe, which gets 14 and 19.