Chicago—April 9, 2008—Going green is all the rage, so it's not surprising that searches for hybrid vehicles on Cars.com are at an all-time high. In fact, a recent Cars.com survey showed that 59% of car shoppers have purchased or would consider purchasing a hybrid as their next car.

So which cities are the greenest when it comes to car shopping? According to the Cars.com Green Index, a ranking of hybrid vehicle searches by market, West Coast shoppers show the greatest interest in going green. San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Sacramento and San Diego make up the top five. In each of these markets, hybrids account for more than 3 percent of new car searches on Cars.com. While West Coast cities seem to embrace hybrid vehicles more than their counterparts in the Midwest and on the East Coast, cities in the South lag behind most major cities in the country, with Houston, Oklahoma City, Memphis, Birmingham and Miami rounding out the bottom five.

"Gas prices definitely play a role in hybrid interest, because West Coast cities traditionally have higher gas prices on average than the rest of the country," said Cars.com editor in chief Patrick Olsen. "The Cars.com Green Index also shows that interest is high in markets that are traditionally concerned with environmental issues, such as Denver and Minneapolis, and those plagued by traffic and congestion, such as Washington, D.C., and Boston."

Cars.com Green Index:
The Cars.com Green Index monitors hybrid vehicle interest in the 50 largest markets in the country. Rankings are calculated based on the number of hybrid searches in a market as a percentage of all new-car searches in the market.

About Cars.com

Cars.com is the leading destination for online car shoppers, offering credible, easy-to-understand information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. With comprehensive pricing information, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and a large selection of new- and used-car inventory, Cars.com puts millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions.

Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC, which is owned by leading media companies, including Belo (NYSE: BLC), Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).