CarReview's Best Car Choices of 2008

Best Hybrid Car: Toyota Camry Hybrid and Honda Civic Hybrid

The 2008 Toyota Camry Hybrid is not your hippy-friend’s hybrid vehicle. The Camry Hybrid is a comfortable cruiser with great fuel economy and plenty of interior features. Toyota considers the Hybrid the top-of-the-line trim for its conventional Camry; therefore, the car comes fully loaded like the Camry XLE. The Camry Hybrid simply does not disappoint.

The 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid garners solid praise for its value, sleek, futuristic redesign and fuel-sipping habits. The Civic Hybrid provides similar qualifications to the popular Toyota Prius while offering the conventional styling of a gas-engine sedan.

Best Hybrid SUV: Lexus RX 400h and Toyota Highlander Hybrid

The Lexus RX 400h offers a rare combination of sport utility performance and Lexus luxury in an environmentally conscious hybrid. It ranks very highly among both luxury midsize SUVs and hybrid SUVs. The 2008 Lexus RX 400h is Lexus’s smallest car-based crossover, and it’s very similar to the RX 350, save for a few styling differences. A very attractive interior design, with rich materials and very comfortable seating for five, distinguishes the RX from more plainly styled rivals. The 2008 Lexus RX 400h offers a familiar, passenger-friendly design that pleases most and offers subtle cues to differentiate it from the RX 350.

The 2008 Toyota Highlander Hybrid, completely redesigned for 2008, is larger than its predecessor and gets an all-new electric-only mode to improve fuel economy. After two years of extensive testing and re-engineering, Toyota has produced a larger, more powerful 2008 Highlander Hybrid. And its complex personalities understand the value of working together, each system quietly supporting the other instead of proclaiming its gas or green individuality. The result is a seven-passenger midsize hybrid SUV that’s more refined and functional than its predecessor and one that Toyota hopes will appeal to a broader range of eco-minded consumers.