Japanese automakers may have beaten their American counterparts to the market with environmentally-friendly hybrid technology, but the Americans are catching up. Motor Trend reports, "In July Ford sold 2089 more hybrids than Honda and 240 more in September." That puts Ford behind only Toyota in hybrid sales for the last two months. The two are almost neck and neck for the year, with Honda outselling Ford by nearly 4,000 - but Ford closing the gap by more than 2,000 cars in July alone.

Toyota still has a sizeable lead in the hybrid race, but may be losing momentum. Autoblog notes, "Toyota sold 144,351 hybrid vehicles in the first nine months of 2009" -- 110,000 more than any other automaker, but the number "actually represents a 28-percent drop from the previous year."

General Motors is a distant fourth, with just "12,556 total hybrids so far this year." But the company has invested heavily in its upcoming Chevy Volt , which may start to tilt the balance next year. So while Americans may still perceive the imports as "greener," that impression may be changing.

If you're in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year's best cars as well as this month's best car deals.