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Designers dress up Mini Cooper

Canadian design duo DSquared2 has released initial sketches of the Mini Cooper Countryman it outfitted for this year's Life Ball, which is on May 21 in Vienna, Austria. Each year, the small-car maker commissions designers to dress up a Mini to be auctioned off at the Life Ball, which donates proceeds to the fight against HIV and AIDS. The “Red Mudder,” as the car is called, is branded with a maple leaf on both doors and a DSquared2 logo on the front shield and wheels.

Redesigned Ford Focus expected to get 40 mpg highway

The redesigned 2012 Ford Focus will get an estimated 40 mpg in highway driving with an all-aluminum 2.0-liter engine mated to a six-speed, dual dry-clutch automatic transmission. The normally aspirated engine combines variable camshaft timing and high-pressure direct fuel injection to crank out 160 hp and 146 lb-ft of torque. That compares with 140 hp and 136 lb-ft from the aluminum 2.0-liter engine used in the current-generation Focus.

First Sight: Daimler-BYD electric car design renderings leak out

Computer renderings of an electric car, being jointly developed by BYD Co., a Chinese battery and car producer that began making cars only less than a decade ago, and Daimler AG with more than a century of experience - were leaked for the second time this year. The car marks a critical juncture for the young Chinese carmaker based in the south China industrial hub of Shenzhen, just a stone's throw away from Hong Kong. It is also a key initiative in China, now the world's biggest auto market, for Daimler.