Toyota is First Green Dealership in Western USA

We already know about the great drives from Toyota -- the best-selling Prius hybrid and the Camry hybrid. Now, Toyota has the first green car dealership in the Western USA, also the first and only LEED-Certified car dealership in Utah.

Mark Miller Toyota in Salt Lake City was designed from the ground up with environmental standards in mind, using construction elements designed to conserve both energy and water, and construction uses lots of local and recycled materials -- including recycled windshield glass pulverized into use as a carpet backing. How's that for ingenuity -- your footsteps are cushioned by smooshed glass.

Some other eco-friendly construction and design elements include --

• A high-performance, high-efficiency heating and cooling system;


• Innovative sun-tracking skylights that make the most of natural daylight and help reduce use of lights inside


• A cool-roof system to lower the overall heat that comes off large buildings


• Landscaping that requires a minimal amount of water


• Low-flow faucets and toilets and waterless urinals to conserve water


• A cistern system to collect and store rainwater and air conditioning
  condensation for irrigation and for washing cars


• High-speed glass service bay doors to reduce heat and cold loss from
  service areas at the same time they provide additional light to the interior


• Recycled materials used in tile, carpeting, wood paneling and cubicles


• A full-service cafe as well as a fuel facility on-site so employees and customers won't
  have to drive to get something to fill their bellies or their tanks.

Another feature of the dealership is a display that shows the building's energy use over the last half hour or so. It's the same kind of energy panel drivers of Toyota hybrid cars know well.

The dealership has applied for and expects to be awarded a Gold LEED certification in the next few weeks. Just so you know -- LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It is a voluntary program designed to promote and validate environmental leadership in the building industry. It's tough to get LEED certification -- there's an extensive application and review process, and you have to re-certify regularly to keep your eco-friendly status. As far as LEED certification is concerned -- you can honestly say (apologies to Kermit) it's not easy being green!

Pat Lobb Toyota in McKinney, Texas was the first dealership to earn LEED certification in 2006. Besides Mark Miller Toyota, five other Toyota dealerships in the country are built and either have received or are in the process of being reviewed for LEED certification. Three additional dealerships seeking LEED certification are under construction with several more in the design and planning stages.

So thank you, Toyota, for making great green drives and great green car dealerships, too.

Toyota Will Build Prius in USA

The most popular cars right now are great drives that are also the most fuel efficient, such as the top-rated Prius, which is so popular that Toyota cannot keep up with demand.

So the company will start building the Prius in the U.S. beginning in 2010, at a brand new factory now under construction in Blue Springs, Mississippi.

A Prius with a Southern accent! Fabulous.

Toyota, by the way, was the first foreign automaker to build a factory in the United States. That was more than 20 years ago. Now, the company has multiple factories and parts plants in the US and more in Canada. It's an investment worth more than $21 Billion, and employs more than 43,000 workers on the assembly line, as well as research and development, design, sales and financial services.

The Camry Hybrid already is built in the US, in Kentucky. Toyota also is switching its plant in Princeton, Indiana, from producing the full-size Tundra pick-up to produce the Highlander mid-size SUV instead. The Tudra will continue to be built at the Toyota factory in San Antonio. The engines for the Tundra and the super-size Sequoia SUV are made in Huntsville, Alabama, and although Toyota is stopping production on those large, gas guzzler models -- until sales pick up again -- the company says those workers will "continue to be provided work", whatever that means.

It's sad and ironic that as Detroit automakers GM, Ford and Chrysler scale back production of vehicles, more Toyota is increasing the number of its vehicles Made in America.

Top Cities for Hybrid Cars

Which cities are the most popular for green, fuel efficient hybrid cars?

According to Cars.com, the top five are all on the West Coast -- San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Sacramento and San Diego.

Those are the cities in which at least 50% of car shoppers already have purchased -- or are considering buying -- a hybrid as their next car.

Cars.com did a market-by-market survey of fifty cities. So if the West Coast is the most green, which part of the USA is the least green? The South.

Houston, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Birmingham and Miami are the bottom five of green car cities -- numbers 46-50.

Shame on you Miami for being bottom of the green barrel! Surely you would move up a few notches if one of the car-makers introduces a hybrid convertible.

Actually, a Prius convertible would be a hot car!

More Top Ten 2008 Hybrids

Just like traditional cars, fuel efficient hybrid cars now come in all shapes and sizes, from small sedans to luxury performance sedans, plus minivans, SUVs and even crossovers. And just like traditional cars, the cost and -- more importantly -- cost savings of hybrids vary widely.

The top three hybrids for 2008, named by the website Cars.com are -- in this order -- Toyota Prius, Saturn Vue Green Line and Honda Civic Hybrid. Here's the rest of the top ten list --

4. Toyota Camry Hybrid
MSRP $25,200
EPA-estimated mileage: 33/34
Not everyone wants a small, less-refined car like the Prius, which makes the Camry Hybrid the one for the masses. It costs one-third more than the base four-cylinder model, but gets significantly better gas mileage, which can pay back that higher buy-in price if you drive a lot.

5. Lexus RX 400h
MSRP: $41,280
EPA-estimated mileage: 27/24
This luxury model SUV costs just 10 percent more than its gas-only sibling, the RX 350. Combined with a 50 percent city mileage improvement and 4 percent highway bump, it's a value alternative to the gas-only model. With optional AWD, the RX 400h (26/24 mpg) is an even better deal, with mileage improvements of 53 percent and 9 percent compared to the all-wheel-drive RX 350.

6. Toyota Highlander Hybrid
MSRP: $33,700
EPA-estimated mileage: 27/25
The Highlander Hybrid comes only with AWD. The most efficient gas Highlander has FWD. In comparison, the hybrid costs 23 percent more but delivers 50 percent better city mileage, but only a 4 percent highway improvement. If you want AWD, however, the hybrid costs only 17 percent more than the gas-only model and boasts 59 and 9 percent higher mileage in city and highway driving, respectively.

7. Ford Escape Hybrid (pictured above)
MSRP: $26,505
EPA-estimated mileage: 34/30
The Escape Hybrid's comparitively low rank in the top ten is surprising, given its impressive mileage, but it's hard to overcome the fact that it costs 40 percent more than the base, four-cylinder Escape. So, even with its 55 percent city and 7 percent highway mileage improvement, it's hard to pay back the gas savings. If you compare it to the thirstier V-6, however, this hybrid would be higher on the list.

8. Chevrolet Tahoe 2 Mode Hybrid
MSRP: $49,590
EPA-estimated mileage: 21/22
Does a full-size truck defeat the purpose of a hybrid, or do people who who want or need a large SUV have an even greater need than the rest of us to save money at the gas pump? The Tahoe Hybrid is tough enough to tow a boat, and gets a stunning 50 percent increase in city mileage and 16 percent bump on the highway. It comes in eighth not because of its size, but because of its added cost: 43 percent more than the lowest-priced gas-only Tahoe.

9. Saturn Aura Green Line
MSRP: $22,140
EPA-estimated mileage: 24/32
This hybrid delivers modest mileage improvements over the four-cylinder Aura - 9 percent in the city and 7 percent on the highway - but its price premium is a mere 12 percent.

10. Lexus GS 450h
MSRP: $54,900
EPA-estimated mileage: 22/25
This luxury comes in last because its cost increase outweighs the gains it gets in mileage. There's a 24 percent premium between it and its gas-only siblingthe GS 350, for a 16 percent city mileage improvement -- and a 7 percent decrease in fuel efficiency in highway driving. No, that is not a typo -- Cars.com says the hybrid Lexus GS 450h guzzles more gas on the highway than its gas-only sibling. Hard to believe.

So, check the numbers carefully when choosing which 2008 hybrid to buy or lease. That includes price, fuel efficiency and tax credits.

Top Ten Hybrids for 2008

Hybrids are hot. It's as simple as that.

Which ones are the best? Cars.com has just published its list of top ten hybrids for 2008. No surprise -- the Toyota Prius tops the list for fuel efficiency and value for price.

So let's take a look at the two others in the top three:

The number two hybrid on the market is the Saturn Vue Green Line, pictured here.

Cars.com says the current Vue Green Line costs just 14 percent more than the gas-only version, but the hybrid gets much better mileage -- 32 percent better in the city and 23 percent better on the highway. What's more, the hybrid costs less than the gas-only V-6 Vue, whose mileage it roughly doubles. Right now Vue is the only hybrid SUV that does not offer all-wheel drive, but this will change with the 2009 model.
MSRP: $24,170
EPA-estimated mileage: (mpg city/highway) 25/32


Hot hybrid number three is the Honda Civic Hybrid. Cars.com says that even though it costs half-again as much as the base Civic is 51 percent, its city and highway mileage are 54 percent and 32 percent higher, respectively, than that already-efficient model. And that makes the payoff quite high. It happens to be an excellent car, too.
MSRP: $22,600
EPA-estimated mileage: (mpg city/highway) 40/45

So now back to the Number one hybrid -- the Toyota Prius, simply the most efficient and most affordable hybrid on the market. After seven years on the market, the Prius is still the best hybrid for people who just plain want to burn less gas and hope to save money in the long run, says Cars.com. The Prius was designed from scratch as a hybrid -- as compared with other hybrid models adapted from their gas-only siblings -- the Prius maximizes interior space. For example, there's a roomy cargo hatch instead of the bite-size trunks most hybrids have -- including luxury cousin Lexus 450h, which I test drove recently.
MSRP: $21,100
EPA-estimated mileage (mpg city/highway) 48/45

The rest of the top ten hybrid list in a future posting.