Ford opens online reservations for the 2012 Focus electric

People can now place their online orders for the 2012 Ford Focus electric, Ford's first all-electric passenger car. The electric Focus carries a base sticker price of $39,995 including shipping charges, but that price does not reflect any tax credits available. The electric Focus comes standard with MyFord Touch with an eight-inch touch screen, two 4.2-inch color LCD displays in the gauge cluster for EV monitoring screens, and the MyFord Mobile App for remotely monitoring the charge status of the lithium-ion battery.

Top Global Car Brands 2012: Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, VW, Honda, Ford & Hyundai

Interbrand has released its 2012 Top Global Brands rankings for 2012 with Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, VW and Honda the top four car brands. Last year, when we had the 2011 Top Global Brands revealed, Toyota managed to come at the top despite a year beset with the woes of the Tsunami. And for 2012, Toyota has hung on to its top automotive brand gong with a brand value of $30.28 billion.

2011 VW Jetta gets launched

The 2011 Volkswagen Jetta Volkswagen reckons that this latest Jetta is no longer a Golf with a boot to make a saloon but is instead a completely new stand-alone model, even though under its new skin – inspired by the VW NCC (New Compact Coupe) concept at New York this year – it sits on a stretched (by 70mm) Golf platform. To make the Jetta stand apart from its Golf sibling VW has fitted the Jetta with an all new dashboard with aluminium highlights and a leather trimmed steering wheel. All Jettas will come equipped with AirCon and CD stereo with touchscreen SatNav an option.