The annual study by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has released its findings for the "greenest" and "meanest" vehicles. The "greenest" vehicles in the United States tend to be low volume, possibly electric and small, while those deemed the "meanest" to the environment are popular, gas guzzling sport utility vehicles, an energy policy research group said on Tuesday.

The "meanest", or most damaging to the environment, among 2000 model vehicles included popular monster SUVs like GM's Chevy Suburban, equipped with a 6 liter, 8 cylinder engine, or Ford Motor Co.'s new Excursion, with a 5.4 liter, 8 cylinder engine, the nonprofit group said.

The group also listed the best gasoline-powered vehicles by segment. Among those cited were the Toyota Echo (compacts), GM's Saturn LS (mid-sized cars), Toyota Avalon (large cars), Dodge Caravan (minivans), Toyota Tacoma (compact pickups), Ford F-150 (full-size pickups), Toyota RAV4 (small SUVs) and DaimlerChrysler's Jeep Cherokee (medium SUVs).

Consumers can access the information at the American Council's Web site at www.greenercars.com.

You can check out the whole story at http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000215/bi0.html

In other news, InvoiceDealers.com, a leading developer of new-car comparison shopping technology, released the most popular vehicles of 1999 according to its Comparison Shopping Popularity Index. In each vehicle category, ratings were based on a weighted formula reflecting the popularity of specific models across the InvoiceDealers.com shopping system. Not surprisingly, both the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Jeep Cherokee were ranked in the top ten SUVs:

    SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES      1. Jeep Grand Cherokee          7.96      2. Nissan Xterra                7.71      3. Toyota 4Runner               7.10      4. Dodge Durango                5.78      5. Chevrolet Suburban           4.31      6. Ford Expedition              4.04      7. Ford Explorer                3.88      8. Chevrolet Tahoe              3.52      9. Jeep Cherokee                3.15      10. Honda CR-V                  2.24  

(the number next to the vehicle is the "index score")

Finally, Car & Truck News is reporting that the next-generation Cherokee, code-named "KJ", will debut at the 70th annual Geneva International Automobile Show (March 2-12, 2000). We haven't been able to confirm this, so stay tuned for further updates...