1979 Ford Fullsize Passenger Car Grille Nos New Grill (without Marker Lights) on 2040-parts.com

Jaguar hybrid cars due in 2013-14

Jaguar will launch its own hybrid vehicles soon after Land Rover, CAR can confirm. Parent company Jaguar Land Rover is developing battery-assisted hybrid versions for both brands but its strategy puts part-electric Land Rovers first on the launchpad in 2013.Hybrid Jaguars – set to include the XJ and XF, but eventually every model – are therefore likely to be on the market by 2013-2014, using a similar eight-speed ZF hybrid transmission to petrol-electric BMWs.The staggered roll-out of battery Jags and Land Rovers makes sense: heavy 4x4s have come in the firing line from green protestors who label them Chelsea Tractors. Hybrid Land Rovers will trim emissions and – in plug-in hybrid mode – enable even big bulky Range Rovers to drive in zero-emissions mode into central urban areas emitting nothing more unsaintly than an electric whir.So which Jaguars will go hybrid first?It's likely that the largest models such as the XJ will receive the hybrid power packs first; large cars reap the greater benefit and can more easily swallow the additional cost, put at around £10,000 in today's money.JLR's Midlands engineering bases in Whitley and Gaydon now employ 100 engineers in the expanding hybrid powertrain business unit launched 18 months ago.

Ford posts record first-quarter profits

Ford Motor Co. said first-quarter net income increased 15 percent from a year earlier to $1.61 billion, as rising U.S. auto sales pushed North American profits to a record, offsetting deeper losses in Europe.

GM sees no potential buyers for Saab

General Motors has found no interested buyers for Saab, sources familiar with efforts to sell the Swedish brand say. GM put Saab under "strategic review" as part of the long-term viability plan submitted to Congress last month. In a subsequent interview with Automotive News, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said strategic review is "code for we realize they're not working and something needs to be done." GM has not announced a decision to sell the brand, but has quietly shopped it around, the source said.