It's always interesting when non-automotive people decide to create a list of top cars in some category. In this case, the business and financial writers over at Forbes decided to pick ten technologically advanced green cars. Some of the selections - the Honda FCX Clarity and the Chevy Volt - seem obvious. The inclusion of four diesel vehicles among the ten is also an interesting choice. However, there are some some strange choices. Why is the Chrysler Aspen hybrid included instead of the Chevy Tahoe, considering that the latter is already in production. Although the new Lincoln MKS and the Hyundai Elantra Touring may be fine cars, there is nothing particularly exceptional about either one. Even the EcoBoost GTDI V-6 coming to the Lincoln in 2009 is not new technology, although Ford is trying to make it mainstream. The Elantra has nothing that any number of other cars already on the market also have. What cars would you include on the list and which would you drop?

[Source: Forbes]

Click on the FCX Clarity for a high-res gallery

What you see pictured above is the world's first fuel cell-powered car designed from the ground up expressly for that purpose with series production in mind. It's not converted from any existing vehicle like the Chevy Equinox, Toyota Highland and Ford Focus that you can find elsewhere on this site. The Honda FCX Clarity takes the layout and design themes first seen in two years ago in the FCX concept to completion. As we reported earlier this week, the FCX Clarity will be available for lease to retail customers beginning in the summer of 2008.

In the days following the world premiere of the FCX Clarity at the LA Auto Show, Honda invited a select group of journalists to drive a pair of pre-production examples in Santa Monica. As pre-production samples, these two cars are essentially hand built but using production tooling. Some reports have the value of these cars as much as $10,000,000 which may or may not be accurate for the current stage of development, but read on after the break to find out what happens when bloggers take to the PCH and Malibu Canyon in Honda's latest creations.

All photos ©2007 Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.