Honda's development of hybrid power systems has been highly persuasive in this conversion.

It has made a convincing case and illustrated that driving one doesn't mark you out as someone swanking about their green credentials.

The Civic Hybrid I tested looked like any other Civic. Naturally, it didn't have the speed and agility of a Civic R. Neither did it hold up traffic as a dawdler. The most obvious thing – and not that obvious – was an inability to increase the boot space by dropping the back seats because space for the electric motor's battery would not allow it.

Honda and Toyota have both been experimenting with hybrid systems and both have come up with different ways of building something that fits with people's lifestyles and avoids any likely inconvenience.

The Civic Hybrid has a 1.4-litre petrol engine and an electric motor that automatically cuts in when the petrol unit cuts off at speeds below 20mph.

Energy generated through braking when the car is decelerating charges the battery. You don't have to plug it in anywhere. Just re-fuel with petrol.

The transition between petrol and electric power is barely discernable and is primarily intended to reduce emissions and heavy fuel consumption in city traffic.

It will get you through central London without a congestion charge, otherwise it drives and rides just like a conventional Civic, which is pretty good. Build quality is also what you would expect from Honda.

The standard CVT automatic transmission offers drive, sport and low options. Flooring the accelerator can be noisy, especially if you take the 'sport' option to counteract a degree of sluggishness in getting a 1.4-litre engine to shift a Civic's weight to 70mph.

Top speed is 115mph and 0-62mph takes 12.1 seconds.

Honda say that the total of petrol and electric power delivers the equivalent of 1.6-litre performance (115PS) while sipping fuel like a 1.1-litre (61.4mpg). Emissions are spectacularly low at 109 g/km. This four-door saloon comes in two trims, ES and EX, the latter with leather. Air con, alloys and cruise control are standard. EX also adds a Bluetooth hands free telephone system and sat nav.

The Civic Hybrid represents a vast amount of Honda's advanced technology that's constantly being refined. A lot of clever things are happening as you drive it, but the beauty is, you don't have to worry about them because this is an entirely practical car.

The company has sold more than 2,000 hybrid vehicles in Europe, most of them in the UK, and more than 130,000 world-wide. At £16,600 for the ES version and £19,300 for the EX, the Civic Hybrid isn't a cheap compact saloon. Insurance group is 7.

Even environmentally concerned drivers, which is slowly becoming all of us, might like to consider buying a comparable diesel for several thousand pounds less and simply driving with a lighter right foot.

What do you think?

How important for you is fuel efficiency and having an environmentally friendly car?

Would you consider buying a hybrid car or stick to an economical diesel vehicle?

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below and taking part in our online poll to the right of this article.