In the meantime, we live in the real world and most of us have to keep driving. This guide is about navigating a vast sea of vehicle choices to find the cleanest and safest vehicles currently available that meet your needs.

What we consumers want—the homes, cars, clothes and other material goods we are drawn to—isn't always entirely rational. That's why there's a whole multi-billion-dollar advertising and marketing industry that uses an array of emotional techniques to influence our choices.

In 2001, the automotive industry spent $14.5 billion on advertising trying to influence your vehicle choices. This guide is designed to arm you with recent and emerging information about vehicles that will help you become as informed as you want to be; an informed consumer is in a better position to resist the manipulative tugs of the automobile industry marketing and make rational choices. No other purchasing decision has a bigger potential impact on the environment; a careful, wise decisionmaking process is critical.

Let's start with a few guiding principles:

The vehicle you choose must meet your needs. If you really need a large vehicle, that's fine. Work from that premise, and don't be embarrassed about it. We don't think it's practical to ask people to make major sacrifices that make their daily transportation awkward and uncomfortable.

The vehicle you choose must be as safe as possible. No one should be asked to choose between concern for the environment and their personal safety, and this is no longer necessary. The "fuel-efficient = small and unsafe" is an auto industry myth. Many large SUVs and pickups, for example, are among the most unsafe vehicles on the road, and some small cars are among the safest. We recommend looking at NHTSA crash test data on specific models, available in the Consumer Reports annual car issue (published in April of each year) and at www.nhtsa.gov.

The vehicle you choose must not pose an unreasonable risk to those you share the road with. No matter where you live, there are other vehicles, as well as bicycles, pedestrians and other users on the roads. We question the morality of the "WE COLLIDE, YOU DIE" mentality that rationalizes driving vehicles that are highly lethal to others. Who's really feeling safer? Who actually is safer? Not the jerk wearing this bumper sticker. The government's apathy in allowing millions of aggressive, incompatible vehicles on the roads with the rest of us is a lousy public policy we hope will someday change. In the meantime, we can all help by resisting the temptation to buy armored personnel carriers.

Our recommended approach: The next three pages describe our recommended approach to purchasing your new family vehicle.
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Go to page 2: Analyze your vehicle needs