Four Seasons 75481 Radiator Fan Motor/assembly-engine Cooling Fan Assembly on 2040-parts.com

Driving the Chevy Volt isn't special, and that's good

We've had our first taste of the drive system under development for General Motors' pioneering Chevrolet Volt, piloting a test mule based on the Chevrolet Cruze at the company's Warren (Mich.) Technical Center, and it left us hungering for more. Yes, it's an electric car, but mostly, it's a car--one you could imagine driving every day without feeling as if you were engaged in a lab experiment. Frank Weber, vehicle line executive for the Volt, gets his nose out of joint if you call the drive system a hybrid.

Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid at Geneva

The Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid Yes, it’s yet another eco car, this time from Volvo. But as eco cars go the Volvo V60 Plug-in Hybrid does seem to have quite a lot going for it. Volvo confirmed back in 2009 that they would bring a plug-in hybrid to market by 2012, and it looks like they are very much on track as we learn they are planning on taking the V60 Plug-in to Geneva in March in what they say is almost production-ready form.

One Lap of the Web: The lost F-Type, a velvet Panamera and Lutz on being king

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Long before there was a Jaguar F-Type, there was the XJ41, originally conceived to be a lightweight successor to the XKE.