Green Car of the Year finalists announced for L.A. Auto Show

Diesels and hybrids dominate the roster of finalists for the 2010 Green Car of the Year award, which will be presented at the L.A. Auto Show in December.

The Audi A3 TDI, Honda Insight, Mercury Milan Hybrid, Toyota Prius and Volkswagen Golf TDI will be vying for the annual Green Car award, which is sponsored by Green Car Journal magazine. The winner will be announced Dec. 3.

The award's aim is to recognize vehicles available in dealer showrooms -- as opposed to experimental or concept vehicles -- that achieve "environmental leadership in the automotive field."

The winner is ultimately decided by jurors such as Jay Leno, Jean-Michel Cousteau, Carroll Shelby, Matt Petersen of Global Green USA and the Sierra Club's Carl Pope, along with Green Car Journal editors. Last year's winner was the Volkswagen Jetta TDI.

"We're seeing the trend for 'green' cars emerging at all levels, from entry-level cars to luxury models, and even performance cars and SUVs/crossovers," said Ron Cogan, editor and publisher of the Green Car Journal and editor of GreenCar.com.

"Plus, an array of technologies and fuels as well as strategies like lightweighting and reducing rolling resistance are being applied to the challenge. Greater choice provides buyers a personal stake in lessening environmental impact, and that's important."

This year's finalists reflect this diversity. For the first time, an Audi makes the final five with its sporty A3 TDI clean diesel. Volkswagen's new Golf TDI shows an expanding focus on clean diesel technology in the VW lineup. The Insight is a completely new hybrid sedan for Honda, and the 2010 Toyota Prius is a totally redesigned, third-generation version of this popular hybrid model. The Milan Hybrid is Mercury's application of its advanced-hybrid technology in an upscale, mid-size car.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Photo: Volkswagen President Stefan Jacoby is the center of attention after the Jetta TDI was awarded the 2009 Green Car of the Year last November at the L.A. Convention Center. Credit: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times

Ford Fiesta to debut at L.A. Auto Show

Ford will unveil the North American version of its popular Fiesta compact at the L.A. Auto Show in December.

The five-door hatchback won’t look much different from the handful of German-built Fiestas that have been in the hands of a few select U.S. drivers since May. There will be a four-door model just for the North American market.

The Fiesta will be the first of Ford’s next-generation small cars to hit these shores. It’s the No. 2 selling car in Europe, according to Ford, where the current 2010 model debuted to positive reviews last year.

The North American Fiesta will be in showrooms next summer and will carry a 2011 model year designation.

Americans may remember the Fiesta from the Carter years — a three-door hatchback version was sold in the United States from 1978-1980.

Ford designed an innovative marketing campaign around the Fiesta launch that included doling out cars to select drivers who auditioned for the honor by posting short videos on YouTube. The automaker said more than 50,000 people applied.

The L.A. Auto Show is scheduled to run Dec. 4-13 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Top photo: 2010 Ford Fiesta (Photo credit: Ford Motor Co.)

Bottom photo: 1979 Ford Fiesta (Photo credit: .Robert. via Flickr)

Mazda2 to come to North America

Citing a shift in America’s mindset regarding small cars, Mazda has just announced it will bring its subcompact hatchback, the Mazda2, to North America. "As consumers' tastes and attitudes toward small vehicles have changed,” says Mazda North American Operations' president and chief executive, Jim O'Sullivan, “we now believe strongly there is a place in our lineup for a car below our current least-expensive car, the Mazda3.”

Currently, Europe’s Mazda2, known as the Demio in Japan, has a number of small-displacement engine offerings, including a diesel option, and despite being more compact than its successful stable mate, the Mazda3, retains much of the attractive styling and "zoom-zoom" performance for which Mazda's wares are generally known. The five-door hatchback will add to the segment’s growing competition in the States; Volkswagen plans to bring the diminutive Polo to us as a 2011 model; and Fiat should reenter our marketplace with the 500 around the same time.

Mazda’s public announcement may be a little late in the game, but it clearly has been planning this for some time; the U.S.-spec Mazda2 will be unveiled at the L.A. Auto Show this December, where we’ll find out about engine variants, pricing and whether the 2’s redesign includes a new Joker face.

-- Alison Lakin

Alison Lakin is a staff writer at DriverSide.com.

Photo credit: Mazda Motor Europe

L.A. Auto Show's GM buys Westwood-area home for $2.4 million

Not everyone associated with the auto industry needs a bailout. Los Angeles Times staff writer Ann Brenoff reports that Andrew Fuzesi "is the new owner of a Westwood-area home that was on the market for a mere 10 days and sold for above its listing price." Fuzesi is the general manager and co-owner of the L.A. Auto Show, which ran this year from Nov. 21-30.

"The 1927 house had been a three bedroom, one bathroom with just 1,364 square feet," Brenoff adds. "The seller rebuilt the house, making it into a five-bedroom, five-bathroom home with about 4,000 square feet that is contemporary in style. It was listed at $2,395,000 and sold for $2,401,000."

For more information on this and other real estate transactions, check out The Times' Hot Property archive.

—Whitney Friedlander

Photo: Andrew Fuzesi inside the Los Angeles Convention Center while preparing for a past L.A. Auto Show.

Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

Top 10 turkeys of the L.A. Auto Show

The L.A. Auto Show runs through Thanksgiving weekend, which seems appropriate, because there is a lot of turkey on the show’s menu. From Honda’s hydrogen-powered hypercar -- a guess that’s tofurkey, of a sort -- to a huge, steroid infused, poultry-yellow Rolls-Royce that is lacking only a wattle, the show’s collection of large, flightless birds is certainly worth a, um, gander.

I know, I know. You’re stuffed. You’ve loosened your belt, maybe even undone your trousers … ahhh. But perhaps there’s room for one … more … tiny …morsel?

>>Click here for the complete list: Top 10 turkeys of the L.A. Auto Show. After-dinner chit-chat can commence in the comments section.

-- Dan Neil

Photo: Honda's tofurkey, er, FC Sport concept. Credit: Gabriel Bouys / AFP / Getty Images

L.A. Auto Show: The Lexus IS; first rabid, now topless

[Update: read the review of the Lexus IS 250C and 350C here.]

Ah, the cliches of Paris in October. Cool air, warm baguettes, hot espressos.  What better way to enjoy all the niceties of a French automne then driving down the Champs-Elysees … in your Japanese hardtop convertible?

Well, it made sense to Lexus, who chose October’s Paris Auto Show to introduce the world to its new drop-top, the IS 250C and IS 350C. Why it didn’t wait for an auto show in a warmer, more appropriate clime is a little vague. Maybe company officials like France's crepes more than our huevos rancheros. Regardless, we North Americans had to wait another month before Lexus debuted its latest convertible to our continent at the L.A. Auto Show.

L.A. Auto Show: Saab 9X Air BioHybrid Concept

Saab is one of the world’s most charismatic brands and has the potential to be a huge hit for GM in the U.S. It's the four-wheeled delivery system for Euro chic, minimalistic style, green consciousness, all that good stuff.

It’s just too bad that the Trollhattan, Sweden-based firm is being starved of development dollars -– or krona –- and is actually on the block due to GM’s current cash worries. It doesn't help that Saab sales are down 31% for the first 10 months of 2008.

As a Saab fan, I feel the loss most keenly when I look at the Saab 9X Air BioHybrid Concept, the glitzy show-car version of a B-platform Saab 9-1 (Around the size of a BMW 1-series). The BioHybrid powertrain -– that is, a dual-mode gas-electric with flex-fuel capacity –- is already in GM’s pipeline. But the likelihood that the 9-1 will get built is small, and the possibility that it might include this gorgeous, hard-to-build canopy top is slim-to-none. But ooftah, is that cool.

-- Dan Neil

L.A. Auto Show: Honda Insight -- a cheaper shade of green

From the dawn of the hybrid age –- figure 2003, when the second-generation Toyota Prius appeared –- naysayers played the “hybrid premium” parlor game: Comparing the difference between the price of a hybrid vehicle and a conventionally powered model and calculating how long before you would recoup in fuel savings what you laid out for the fancy hybrid powertrain.

The coming-soon Honda Insight puts an end to all that. Priced perhaps “significantly below” a Civic Hybrid ($23,550) says a company spokesman, the Insight pretty much zeroes out the hybrid premium and returns combined fuel economy of about 45 mpg. Honda calls it a five-door – sure, whatever – and no, you’re eyes do not deceive you. It looks a lot like a Prius.

Also borrowed from the Toyota was the notion of a real-time feedback mechanism that encourages drivers to drive more efficiently. Honda’s Eco Assist instrument display glows a warm, chlorophyll-like green when drivers are driving efficiently. But during hard acceleration and braking (less efficient) the instrument backlight changes to blue. How sad.

-- Dan Neil

L.A. Auto Show: Seinfeld’s Porsche and Dan’s Seinfeld

I confess, I have never watched a single full episode of "Seinfeld," and the snippets here and there I have seen left me in stony, un-amused silence. It’s just one of those things. I’m sure there are people who don’t think “The Simpsons” are funny. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Jerry Seinfeld himself, however, has my admiration as a serious car guy. In April, for example, the comedian was bashing around the Hamptons in his lovely ’67 Fiat BTM coupe when the brakes failed. Seinfeld was obliged to go for the ripcord – the handbrake – and rolled the car. He emerged from the accident shaken but unhurt. Cool.

For the intro of the 2009 Porsche Boxster and Cayman at the L.A. Auto Show, Seinfeld lent his beautiful blue-white 550 Spyder, seen below the jump. I was thus inspired to do my Seinfeld impersonation. Very sorry.

-- Dan Neil

L.A. Auto Show: Hyundai Genesis coupe -- Mo' muscle, less cash

If you want to buy a 300-horsepower, rear-wheel-drive performance car in the mid-$20,000 range today, you basically have one choice, the Ford Mustang GT (a V-8 equipped Dodge Challenger hovers near $30,000).

That's all going to change in the next few months, starting in February when the 300-horsepower Chevy Camaro arrives with a sticker price of $22,995. By spring, Hyundai expects to have its Genesis coupe on the market, with the 310-horsepower version expected to be priced somewhere around $25,000.

Examples of the upcoming models are on hand at the show.

The refreshed Mustang GT, which should be priced near its current $27,000 base, looks like it's in for one tough drag race. Its power is up to 315 horses, from 300 for the previous generation, and it should weigh in at under 3,400 pounds.  Ford has retuned its suspension, but there's no independent rear suspension. Live-axle set-ups like Ford's generally compromise ride and handling.