With the current financial crisis, there are some great deals on new and used cars available.

If you are thinking of buying a new car, you may wish to consider buying a greener vehicle and helping the environment and your wallet at the same time.

According to the Australian Govt website "The Green Vehicle Guide", the top 20 new green vehicles are as follows:

1. smart fortwo
2. Toyota Prius
3. Fiat 500
4. Fiat Punto
5. Toyota Yaris
6. Citroen C3
7. Fiat Ritmo
8. Audi A3
9. Honda Civic
10. Peugeot 207
11. Audi A4
12. Hyundai i30
13. Toyota Corolla
14. Mercedes-Benz A200
15. Mercedes-Benz B200
16. Honda Civic Hybrid
17. Lotus Elise
18. Mercedes-Benz C200K
19. Kia Cerato
20. Lexus GS450H

The Govt suggest you "Make a smarter choice By choosing a greener vehicle, you can make a real difference."

The Green Vehicle Guide helps you by rating new Australian vehicles based on greenhouse and air pollution emissions. The rating is calculated using data provided by manufacturers from testing the vehicle against Australian standards.

They also recommend that you check the Fuel consumption label (see image above) when you purchase a new vehicle, so you can check out the fuel efficiency. Basically, the lower the number, the better the vehicle is.

When buying a used or older vehicle you can check the Fuel Consumption Guide on the Govt's environment website.

• The Fuel Consumption Guide Database provides comparative data on the fuel consumption of many vehicles sold in Australia between 1986 and 2003 .
• The database includes passenger cars and four-wheel drives, and light commercial vehicles up to 2.7 tonnes gross vehicle mass.

All in all, there are sound reasons to consider going green with your next car, so you can save money over time and help the world we all live in too.