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Cars 2 Premiere: A closer look at Finn, Holley and Rod

Cars 2, which opens on Friday, stands to be one of the top box-office hits of the summer. Many of our favorite characters are back, such as Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater, but there are also a bunch of new rides rolling onto the big screen. Some, like Grem the Gremlin and Acer the Pacer, take obvious inspiration from real cars.

Volkswagen Passat drops United States model when new sedan debuts

Volkswagen probably will drop the Passat sedan and wagon in 2011 when VW's new U.S.-built mid-sized four-door is expected to go on sale. "We are looking at it in detail," Stefan Jacoby, VW Group of America CEO, said this month at a press event here. The U.S.-built sedan, which has yet to be named, will be larger than the Passat but priced lower.

Mercedes introduces C-Class Estate

Mercedes-Benz introduced a wagon variant of its new C-Class today at its factory in Bremen in northwestern Germany. The C-Class Estate is not only an affirmation of the popularity of the Benz wagon, a popularity that transcends decades as well as engine swaps, but also a commitment to Bremen -- a facility that already builds the C-Class, along with the E-Class, SL, SLK and GLK. The C-Class Estate makes extensive use of aluminum construction -- up to 50 percent of its body is made of the stuff.