The big brouhaha coming out of this week’s North American Auto Show in Detroit was all of the green concept cars that automotive companies had unveiled. There was the Saturn VUE Plug-In car–with its green exterior, natch (see photo at right, courtesy of GM Corp.) Chrysler showed off its Dodge Zeo, a fully electric car. And the granddaddy hybrid-car company, Toyota, talked up its new plug-in Prius.

Of course, many of these cars are merely “concepts” because automotive companies believe that there isn’t enough market share to justify large-scale production. (Um, what about the fact that Toyota Prius sales were up nearly 94 percent in 2007 when Edmunds.com says that overall car sales are down? I’d call that market share, wouldn’t you?) Some cars, though, are near-future realities, such as the possible 2010 production start of the Saturn VUE Green Line hybrid electric vehicles.

We own a regular Saturn VUE, with its less-than-stellar 25 mpg rating on the highway. When we were in the market for a new car this past summer, we considered the hybrid VUE–along with the hybrid Toyota Highlander–but just couldn’t justify the cost. A regular VUE starts at just above $21,000. The Green Line Hybrid VUE is almost $4,000 more.

As you may know car companies charge more for hybrid vehicles, because they are more expensive to produce–or so they say. This may be true for now but remember when computers first came out? They were mega expensive because the technology was new. Given that notion and how computers prices have plummeted over time, shouldn’t hybrid cards become more affordable as the technology becomes more commonplace?

Truthfully, if car companies really want to attract average Jane car buyers like me, who want to do right by the environment by adding a hybrid to their carpooling fleet, then why aren’t they working to make production more cost-efficient and the cars themselves more affordable?

In the real world I would love to be driving my kids to and from soccer practice in a hybrid. However, until we’re out of the carpooling years (when we need seating for seven) and saving for college years, we simply can’t afford to spend $4,000 more for a car like the hybrid VUE.

The best I can do is to figure out ways to make my non-hybrid car as energy efficient and eco-friendly as possible. Some ways I do this–and you can to–include:

* Not warming up the car or leaving it idling.
A cold car, such as one that has been sitting overnight, produces more bad-for-the-earth emissions when it first starts up. So while you might like to use that auto start remote on your key chain to make your car toasty and warm for your morning drive, grab a hat and gloves instead, and don’t leave your car idling.

* Practice hypermiling whenever possible.
This crazy term hypermiling is all about getting the most gas mileage out of each tank of gas by changing how your drive, brake and park. One excellent hypermiling tip is always to pull through a parking spot so that you’re facing outwards to leave. If you park the traditional way, where you have to back out to drive away, you’re using twice as much gas to get in and out of a parking spot. However, if you pull in nose first–and then pull all the way through–you can drive right out when you’re done with your errands, thus saving you gas.

* Be efficient with how your organize your errands.
Everyone knows that cars get their worst gas mileage with around-town driving, what with stopping and starting at traffic lights, or driving from parking lot to parking lot to go to the stores. You can save gas–and the environment–if you plan ahead for how you do your errands. For example, my chiropractor’s office is in the same shopping center as the UPS Store, the pharmacy and the grocery store. So whenever I need to ship a package, pick up a prescription or grab something for that night’s dinner, I try to piggyback all of those errands into one trip to the chiropractor. I leave my car in its original parking space, and walk to the various stores I need to visit. This is also a great way to sneak extra exercise into my daily routine.

* Walk whenever possible.
And speaking of exercise, if you can figure out a way to walk places that you would normally drive to, do it and leave the car at home. At least twice a week, I’ll walk to the bank to make a deposit, and I make it a part of my morning walk with my dog. Oftentimes, I’ll stop off at the post office, too. Once a month, I add “pay the mortgage” to my walking to-do list, since the bank that holds our mortgage is on the way home from the post office. For a Type A person like me, this notion of multitasking–exercise and errands all wrapped up in one–makes me so happy. The fact that I’m also helping the environment and saving money on gas doesn’t hurt my outlook either.

If you’ve got creative ways to make your non-hybrid cards more eco-friendly, I’d love to hear them.