Standard T-series Rotor Dr311t on 2040-parts.com

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gets Ford with 1-millionth Sync system

It's taken a little more than two years for Ford to build 1 million vehicles with the Sync entertainment and communications system, and the automaker marked the milestone by having Ford CEO Alan Mulally deliver a Ford Fusion hybrid with the 1-millionth system to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Ford also let Mulally, a former Boeing executive, make a return visit to Seattle, home to the Microsoft headquarters. Microsoft supplies the software that is the heart of the Sync system.

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.

Warning over driving instructors

LEARNER DRIVERS are being urged to make sure their instructor is operating legally after dozens have been convicted for not having the correct licence, The Driving Standards Agency (DSA) has said. The warning from the DSA comes after more than 123 people have been arrested for offences relating to illegal driving instruction in the last four years. Of those 39 were convicted and 31 received police cautions, the DSA said.