acptulsa can you tell when a jetta is a diesel, how about a liberty? I can’t

And yet, MoparOrNoCar, I fear that either biofuel, hydrogen or electric (generated by something other than fossil fuel) will have to win out in the end. Hydrogen and electric are pretty similar, really, in that hydrogen is created by mixing water and electricity. They have the advantage (if no fossil fuels are harmed in the generation of the power) of being carbon-free; biofuels have the advantage of sucking up CO2 in the process of their creation (provided we aren’t talking about whale oil, which is technically a biofuel).
I have real doubts about how far electric cars will progress; the last 105 years sure hasn’t gotten them far. Hybrids are, in fact, nothing but electrics with band-aids that address (only) their worst problems by burning fossil fuels; aside from their complexity (and weight), they aren’t really a solution for that reason.
So, unless we can figure out how to safely transport hydrogen (and remember–its problems are the same as CNG’s drawbacks) it looks like scraping lard from the valve seats might wind up being the price we pay for our fun.
I know biodiesel cuts down that awful sulpher smell and turbochargers actually provide a modicum of power to go with the torque, but has anyone created a diesel that doesn’t make that godawful clattering noise yet?

–Hybrid: I have reservations about Hybrids due to their nigh Rube Goldbergian complexity, I am concerned about long term druability and maintenance costs
–Biodiesel: I don’t think that there are enough deep friers in circulation to support biodiesel beyond the scope of a curiosity, also I wouldn’t want to tear down my engine every year or so to scrape a bunch of lard off of the pistons.
–Plug-in electric: Batteries and electric motors are heavy. It takes a while to charge any battery, especially one storing enough energy to propel an automobile. I don’t want to have to schedule my life around the charge time on my car’s battery. Imagine how much that replacement battery would cost. Also, the overwhelming majority of electricity in the US is produced by burning coal, so instead of burning gasoline - lets burn more coal!
–Ethanol Flex Fuel: Don’t like fuel prices now, just wait until they start to effect your food costs. Also, can you say soil errosion?
–Fuel Cell: H2 does not occur naturally on earth in large quantities. On earth, it is NOT an energy source, merely an energy carrier. It’s like saying ” boy, it will all turn around once they can make that copper wire economy technically feasable”. Beyond that, storing and transporting H2 is quite problematic and those platinum catalysts in the fuel cells aren’t cheap and are prone to be denatured by the tiniest impurities. I could go on and on. The Bottom line - a pipe dream.
–Compressed Natural Gas: Of all of these options, this seems to be the most viable alternative fuel. The problem, do we really want Bubba Q. Public responsible for the operation and maintenance of vehicles powered by a compressed explosive gas? Also considering the costs, the benefit is marginal at best.
–Anything That Goes Fast: Going fast is good, right now, the best way to do that is with gasoline. We need to address the real issue. It’s not the fuel, its how inefficiently we use it. We’ve known about all of these ‘alternative fuels’ for as long as we’ve known about gasoline, yet gasoline won out because it’s easy to burn, handle, store and transport and it has a much higher volumetric energy density than any of these other fuels.

When is Dodge going to make for us an SRT8 Dakota?

Anything that goes fast

diesel option for pass cars and trucks, 20 to 30 percent better fuel economy than comparable vehicles with gasoline engines. longer term a plug in hybrid.

Ethanol for pass. cars. The power potential is great and the technology shift is not as drastic

diesel or a diesel hybrid (by definition turbo diesels are fast)
BTW, I don’t see a poll on the right side.

Any of the above, as long as they go fast. ‘Green’ doesn’t necessarily have to be boring. Look at how fast the Tesla electric car goes, or the electric KillaCycle - a dragstrip time of 8.168@155.78 mph!

Anything That Goes Fast