Volvo S60, V60, V70 & S80 DRIVe Diesels get Auto ‘box

Volvo DRIVe diesels get automatic gearbox Volvo has announced that they are offering their S60, V60, V70 & S80 DRIVe Diesels with an auto ‘box option, with the same emissions and economy as manual cars. There was a time, not very long ago, when seekers of economical cars had to wear a very hairy shirt to achieve silly mpg. That meant giving up any semblance of comfort, size or luxury in your transport, and an automatic gearbox was a definite no-no.

Land Rover Range-e plug-in diesel hybrid grabs SMMT Award

Land Rover Range-e wins SMMT Award Just like every other car maker in the world, Jaguar Land Rover are flirting with and developing hybrid powerplants to keep the government-targeted economy and CO2 levels in check, even though neither Jaguar or Land Rover are close to actually launching a hybrid. In fact, Jaguar recently said that 4WD was the next ambition for their cars – not hybrids – and we won’t see a hybrid from Land Rover until the next wave of Land Rover models start to hit the road in 2013. And even then, any hybrid powerplant is likely to be well after initial launch.

Mercedes SLS AMG – production begins

The Mercedes SLS AMG has gone in to production in Germany I don’t know why – as Mercedes hadn’t previously announced it – but we guessed that they’d already started to put the Mercedes SLS AMG in to production ready for the first customer cars to start hitting in the Spring. But apparently they’ve only just started. The SLS AMG is due to arrive in Germany at the end of March at a base price of €177,310 and is being produced at the Mercedes factory in Sindelfengen, Germany.