These days, we’re paying a lot of attention to celebrity preferences. Who’s on what diet? Who is wearing what? How is everyone’s love life? And the classic American status symbol, who’s driving what?
 
Now the standards have changed a little. What was once hugely popular is now almost taboo, and what used to be considered fringe is going mainstream. Gargantuan gas guzzlers are no longer in style—now, going green is. But that doesn’t mean that style, quality or even size have to be sacrificed. We can have our cake and eat it too.
 
Just ask Neil Young. The 63 year old rock star wanted to keep his cars big but make sure his impact on the environment and fuel bill were small.
 
It started about a year ago when he decided to take a Lincoln Continental the length of Gustave the giant man-eating crocodile and make it a guiltless ride.
 
Young saw Jonathan Goodwin, an expert at converting cars to more fuel efficient and eco-friendly sources of power, on MTV’s “Pimp My Ride.” He wanted his ride redone, too, but he wasn’t looking for a newly upholstered interior and a new flashy paint job. Neil Young wanted the mechanics of his car reworked.
 
Enter LincVolt Technology, a company founded by the two that develops and implements ways of converting gas-guzzlers to green machines. The company’s aim is to “show that you can run a car…at 100 miles per gallon or more,” he explained in a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle.
 
His 1959 Lincoln Mark IV is now a natural gas hybrid.  It has an electric motor instead of its old combustion engine and a compressed natural gas (CNG) rotary engine that takes over when the batteries need to be charged. It has 500 horsepower, can go up to 160 mph and has a range of 80-100 miles running just on electricity.  It’s more than just a car lover’s dream or a green pipe dream. It’s actually quite practical.
 
With the help of a consumer appliance, a CNG powered vehicles tank can be filled at home. "We want to eliminate roadside refueling and take distribution out of the loop," Young explained in a recent conversation with CNet. The energy generated by the car could be used to power several houses, he added. “It’ll make your meter run backwards.”
 
Young isn’t the only star who has turned to CNG for a viable, readily available alternative. 
 
Notorious for his love of cars and robust collection, Jay Leno recently purchased a Honda Civic GX. 

“Natural gas is one of my favorites. Why throw away 130 years of internal combustion technology?” he mulled in an interview with GreenCar.com’s Ron Cogan.
 
“[I]n the everyday world we know how to fix an internal combustion engine. We know when it’s about to wear out, we know how to change the oil, we know all of that. Why not just change the fuel source?”
 
Let’s hope more car purchasers’ and policymakers’ garages start to look like Mr. Leno’s and Mr. Young’s.