Soupy Sales once challenged the kids who watched his television show to "show me a pink car and I'll show you a pink carnation."

When I was 7 years old watching him getting a pie in the face I wasn't a car guy, and not much has changed since except that as the head of the GreenBiz Intelligence unit I get invited to a number of presentations by automotive companies to discuss another color car -- green.

Over the weekend, my family and I attended the LA Auto Show. The show guide listed 52 "hybrids & alternative fuel vehicles," of which nine were concept cars. With 43 cars to choose from, my wife and kids were going to help me figure out what we buy for our next car (we live in Southern California so, yes, we'll need a next car). But shopping for a green car today isn't easy because, as my family sees it, they're either really expensive or really boring.

In huge letters, the sign over the Mercedes Benz display proclaims "Sustainability" and with six models (none of them concept cars), they certainly had the largest selection. But America won't become a green car nation on the backs of Benz and BMW (the $107,000 BMW Active Hybrid 7 was a big hit with my older son) or even the Fisker Karma (on display next to Rolls Royce, which once again is not offering a fuel efficient hybrid this year).

There were some very nice green exhibits by Toyota and Hyundai. Even Mitsubishi had a touch screen display on a free-standing wall highlighting their green credentials. While watching that Mitsubishi display, I figured out what was wrong with all these companies selling green cars.

On the other side of the island wall was a young kid sitting in front of another display with a steering wheel directly beneath it and foot pedals at the base. He was racing through a city in a simulated game, crashing through gates and nearly smashing into buildings as his parents cheered him on.

That kid was having fun. And that's what seems to be missing in the language of green cars.

Before he retired, I used to get together with Charlie Hughes, the former CEO of Land Rover (he later headed up Mazda) who brought the Land Rover brand over to the states in 1985. According to Hughes, while the vehicles had their early quality challenges, success came by creating a unique experience for the Land Rover customer. So when he showed up one day in a Pontiac Fiero (which never really said English country gentleman to me), I had to ask him what made that car so special. "It's just really fun to drive," he told me.

Those were words I heard earlier last week from Brent Dewar, vice president of Chevrolet Global, when I attended an event to hear about the 2012 launch of the Volt. In the midst of a relatively wonky panel discussion (about electric infrastructure and technology), Dewar interjected that the car was just really fun to drive. Noting that in the past GM execs used to say "there's a little Corvette in every Chevrolet," he now says that the future of General Motors requires that "there's a little Volt in every Chevrolet we make."

That warranted a stop by the Chevrolet display at the auto show and it was old school, with dancers performing a YMCA-like routine praising the electric vehicle.

Whether the Volt can power a company the way Corvette did earlier is yet to be seen (at a minimum they could use a better theme song), but it's clear the Volt represents a high priority for GM. And they understand that an emotional appeal about driving (at least equal to if not greater than the environmental appeal) is the way for hybrids and alternative fuel vehicles to become mainstream. Is there a Volt Corvette in our future?

In addition to being fun to drive, there's another way for the automakers to color us green. Make it cute. The only car we saw all day that required waiting in a line to sit inside was the SMART car. Distributed by Penske, the two-seater has been at sold out capacity the past few years. The only car that was cuter (according to my 9-year-old son) was the unfortunately named i-MiEV from Mitsubishi.

The company, heralding its legacy of being the first automaker to sell an electric vehicle globally, has released the car for sale in Japan with US distribution to begin in 2012. The car delivers 80 to 100 miles per charge and the company claims you can use it as a back-up power generator (we'll leave it to the folks from the Electric Power Research Institute to calculate the practicality of that vision).

But you won't have to wait until 2012 to see what my son called "the smiley face" front end of the i-MiEV. The Best Buy Geek Squad will have the first fleet of them in the U.S. That squad managed to bring back skinny ties and so it's no stretch for them to bring another wave of cute to the world of technology. And they'll probably find it fun to drive.

In deference to Mr. Sales, show me a green car that's fun to drive and cute and I'll show you a green car nation. And not just on St. Patrick's Day.

John Davies is vice president of GreenBiz Intelligence, which provides independent and unbiased research regarding green strategies and business operations. John also leads the GreenBiz Executive Network, a member-based, peer-to-peer learning forum for sustainability professionals.

Image of the i-MiEV courtesy of Mitsubishi.