Lexus, Subaru, Mazda score highest Consumer Reports' rankings

Japanese brands, led by Lexus, Subaru and Mazda, continue to dominate Consumer Reports' rankings of the best light vehicles on the market, claiming "top pick" honors in seven out of 10 product segments and capturing the top seven spots for overall brand reliability and performance. The brands that scored best on the magazine's report cards for 2013 were Lexus, with a score of 79 out of 100, followed by Subaru and Mazda, which both scored a 76. Toyota, Acura, Honda and Scion rounded out the top seven.

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.

CCTV parking fines could be banned

COUNCILS in England could be banned from using CCTV cameras and "spy cars" to impose parking fines on motorists under new government proposals. Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has said he wants to curb "overzealous" local authorities which use cameras to maximise their income from parking fines. He warned that public support for CCTV could be undermined if people believed they were being used to generate revenue rather than preventing crime.