My Miata: A sunny day, a bright red MX-5 with a retractable hardtop. Heaven! (Jim Motavalli photo)

Can a "green" car also be fun? Definitely so. Consider the word "hybrid" does not add any magic properties. Cars that get 30-mpg are created equal, hybrid or not.

Here's my top five list of green (or greenish) cars that are also affordable and fun to drive. Being a convertible helps:

Honorable mention should go to the Saturn Sky/Pontiac Solstice twins, but both their divisions are dying.

I was lucky enough to spend some time recently with my number one pick, the Mazda MX-5 Miata, and have my first encounter with its retractable hardtop.

It must have looked pretty crazy: A couple of jokers in a freezing church parking lot, grinning wildly as the top went up and down on a bright red Mazda MX-5 retractable. But how else to demonstrate the properties of the folding metal hardtop that ups the fun quotient of the Miata, which debuted in 1989 and, in 2000, became the bestselling two-seat convertible (ie, sports car) in history? More than half a million had been sold worldwide by that point, swamping the Miata's spiritual role model, the Lotus Elan. And why not? The Miata is an Elan that actually worked.

I love Edmunds.com's description of the void that Mazda filled with the Miata. "MG had sold its last decrepit MGB in 1980," it said. "No tears were shed when Triumph gave up and pulled out in ‘81. The last Fiat 124 Spider was sold to some fearless (or ignorant or deluded) soul in ‘85 as a ‘Pininfarina Azzurra.' Really, the only four-cylinder, front-engine classic two-seat roadster for sale in the U.S. at that time was the Alfa Romeo Spider Veloce, which was essentially just the 1966 Duetto with ugly bumpers. Any manufacturer with perception and bravery could have fed the world's appetite for an affordable true sports car. But it was Mazda that did it."