Media post: The Green cars of today

When environmentally-friendly pioneers started advocating the preservation of the planet, many of the world’s leading car manufacturers were quick to realise there would soon be a growing market for environmentally-friendly models. Several years later, an ever-increasing environmentally conscious motoring population has the opportunity to buy many of these models at affordable used-car prices. Even better, whether you’re after a supermini, a mid-sized family saloon or a MPV, they all come with the added incentive of low running-costs, whilst drivability and performance are rarely compromised. Such models include the Citroen Airdream+C3, the Toyota Prius and Vauxhall’s Zafira EcoFLEX.

Citroen’s supermini, the Airdream+C3, scores highly on both fuel consumption and CO2 emissions – respectively 74mpg and under 100g/km, which are even more impressive when you consider it boasts a 1.6-litre HDi engine that does 0-60mph in 11.5 seconds and a top speed of 113mph.

The Toyota Prius may have been around a while now but, being a hybrid, it still has that futuristic feel to it. However, with dimensions of 4.46m x 1.75m, and with 445 litres of boot space, this is no supermini. The Prius is a mid-sized saloon yet, by using its combination of a powerful 1.8 engine and electric motors, it still manages a combined fuel cycle economy of 72.4mpg and CO2 emissions of only 89g/km. Incredibly, despite these environmentally-friendly figures, it does 0-60mph in just 10.5 seconds.

With children constantly encouraged to become environmentally aware from an early age, but big-family sized cars being amongst the dearest to run. You can find the Vauxhall ecoFLEX Zafira at carshop which may provide the answer to your running cost issues. This seven-seater may accommodate a 17CDTi engine which can go from 0-60mph in 12.6 seconds and reach 112mph, yet it can still boast environmentally friendly figures that include fuel consumption of 53mpg and emissions of 138/km.

Note: This post was written by Dale Richardson from carshop.