Valterra A01-2000vp Gravity/city Water Hatch - White on 2040-parts.com

2012 Jaguar Range UK Debut at Motorexpo 2011

2012 Jaguar Range - every one a gem You’d have to have been living in a cave for the last couple of years not to know that Jaguar’s cars are now back at the top of the heap, and the 2012 Jaguar Range is probably the strongest line-up from Jaguar in a couple of generations. Regular readers will already have seen all the tweaks and additions to the Jaguar XF, Jaguar XJ and Jaguar XK for 2012 here over the last few months, but there’ll be the chance to see the updates in the flesh from this weekend at Motorexpo at Canary Wharf. The 2012 Jaguar XF – which debuted at New York in April – gets to look more like the concept on which it was based, the Jaguar C-XF Concept, which is a sure sign of the growing confidence at Jaguar.

Hyundai integrates Smartphones in to their cars

Hyundai is harnessing the power of the Smartphone to make in-car information and driver settings integrate seamlessly. For those of us old enough to remember the first mobile phones – and the first home PCs – the realisation that we’re all walking round now with Smartphones that have more processing power than it took to put a man on the moon is almost mind boggling. Sadly, most of us use just a fraction of the capabilities of our phones, but the fact we have all that clever tech tucked in our trouser pockets gives car makers the opportunity to harness it to provide more functionality for their cars.

MINI Countryman Cooper & Paceman Cooper get ALL4 4WD

The MINI Countryman Cooper (pictured) & Paceman Cooper get ALL4 4WD We always find it astonishing that car makers ‘ration’ the availability of four wheel drive platforms in their cars, usually citing a ‘lack of demand’. But that lack of demand is usually predicated on the lack of supply, and increasing the supply of 4WD cars would see more sold, especially after a series of harsh winters where many motorists struggled to keep their cars in a straight line. So the decision by BMW to extend the availability of their ALL4 4WD setup to a wider range of MINIs is welcome, with the petrol Countryman Cooper and Paceman Cooper now getting the ALL4 option too.