If you drive trucks for a living, you may not have the choice of what engine you drive professionally, unless you drive your own, of course. But of course, you’re not in the truck all the time, and the kind of car you choose for family life depends on personal choice, what your partner and kids think, etc….

More and more people are now choosing to buy family cars that are also low emission cars as well as having great fuel economy. Of course, the cheaper they are to run, the better for your wallet, but the more you can reduce emissions caused by your personal transportation, than all the better for the planet.

Up until recently, the most likely cars to produce lower emissions would be hybrids and electric vehicles. In the UK, the Honda Insight offers a great 64.2mpg with carbon dioxide emissions of only 101g/km. But in the last couple of years, hybrid cars have begun to be equalled by, and even bettered by, conventional cars – and more often than not they’re diesel-fuelled.

Take the Ford Focus as an example. The 1.6 TDCi Econetic Start/Stop can achieve 74.2 mpg and with carbon dioxide emissions of just 94g/km. Similarly the Kia Rio – a supermini rather than a real family car – can offer 88.3mpg.

It depends where your main focus lies when choosing a car, but there are few people that wouldn’t rank good fuel economy statistics highly, especially given the continual rises in the world’s oil prices. Of course, there are other factors that people look for in a car – comfort for the driver and their passengers, the amount of space for cargo, the flexibility of the seating arrangements, not to mention the want or need for decent driving performance.

For anyone looking for a new family car, they need to decide where their priorities lie, and then start their research accordingly.