2009 Green Car of the Year finalists

Green Car Journal, a magazine and website whose publisher, Ron Cogan, made waves at last year's Los Angeles Auto Show by awarding the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid, left, its influential Green Car of the Year award, has announced this year's finalists. The vehicles fall into at least one of three categories: compact, clean diesel or hybrid. Each has soaring MPG estimates.

To choose the contenders, Green Car Journal sought vehicles that "exhibit characteristics that substantially raise the bar in environmental performance and were in production by Jan. 1 of the award year." Nine jurors -- including "The Tonight Show's" Jay Leno, automobile icon Carroll Shelby and Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club -- will choose a winner and announce it at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Here we take a look at the finalists and see what Times automotive critic Dan Neil and others in the auto press have to say about each.

--Times Staff Reports

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(General Motors)