Journey of a Baby Soul Seed: We want cool cars in this HOT world

I have been contemplating a different vehicle for quite awhile. Right now, I have a very dependable 1998 Volkswagen Jetta GT. I LOVE this car; its safe, heavy, dependable and gets about 600km per 55 liter tank of gas. My only beef is that this car runs on GAS and at some foreseeable point in the future this commodity will either:

a) be so expensive that I cannot afford to drive or
b) the emissions of my car will no longer be allowed (if the government gets its act together!)

So I have been working on a longer term plan but have not yet decided on any particular direction to move yet. Options I'm considering are:

1) buy another VW but a TDI and converting it to SVO (straight veggie oil)
2) buy a Toyota import truck from Japan (they make diesel, light duty vehicles) and covert it to SVO
3) Save up and buy a brand new hybrid vehicle (come on VW, make a hybrid!!!!)

This is such a tough decision to know how to move in the most informed and best-for-the-planet direction. I find myself plagued with many questions:

Do the environmental costs of procuring materials for producing a new, hybrid vehicle outweigh the benefits that this technology contributes to the reduction of green house gases?
Will the costs of shipping over a diesel truck from Japan be balanced by running it on a renewable and "waste" material (i.e. SVO)?
Can I find a VW TDI that fits in my budget and is safe to convert to SVO?
Do I want to deal with also building my own infrastructure for collecting and processing the veggie oil? (As a friend of mine pointed out, "You don't appreciate how much 55 liters is until you have to collect, filter and pump it yourself!)

So many things to consider and I haven't made my way through these questions successfully...yet....so stay posted and until then this is what I have decided to do:

Offset the carbon dioxide emissions of my Jetta using Cool Drive Pass (click to travel to their website). This cost me approximately $50/year based on driving on 15,000km/year. Very reasonable I think!
Burn Fat not Oil by riding my bike as much as possible
Walk if the destination is 30mins or less
Keep searching for answers and start a savings account for whatever direction I decide is best for my values and driving needs.

CoolDrivePass is the outcome of Professor Hadi Dowlatabadi’s (a climate scientist at the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia) ideas for finding cost effective greenhouse gas solutions for his family car. After sharing his ideas with interested colleagues at UBC, they formed the Cool Drive team and created CoolDrivePass.

As listed on the David Suzuki Foundation page on Carbon Neutrality, here are more resources for your perusal!

Carbon offset calculators (and vendors) - Vehicles**

CarbonZero (includes trains & buses)

zerofootprint

cleanairpass

cool drive pass

Climat Mundi (includes motorcycles)

Carbon offset vendors - Gold Standard**

My Climate

Sustainable Travel International

Climate Friendly