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Happy New Year! Our Top 12 Car News stories of 2011

Top Car News 2011 Happy New Year to all Cars UK readers, and a look back at the top car news stories – month by month – of 2011. It’s the first day of 2012, so it seems like a good time to look back at the top car news stories of 2011. Instead of looking at the most read stories overall of 2011 on Cars UK, we thought we’d have a look at the top story for each month.

Suzuki take Volkswagen to court

Suzuki are seeking to get their shares back from VW The partnership between Volkswagen and Suzuki promised so much. VW wanted an easy way in to the car market in India – where Suzuki is very strong – and in return Suzuki wanted access to the sort of technology – hybrid and EV – it couldn’t really afford to develop independently. And all looked rosy when VW took a near 20 per cent stake in Suzuki in 2009 But things started to go a bit awry when VW insensitively referred to Suzuki as an ‘associate’, where it could pull all the right strings, in its annual report.

Lada X-Ray

Russian automaker AvtoVaz has unveiled the Lada XRAY concept at the Moscow motor show. It's the first concept to emerge from under the direction of AvtoVaz's new design chief, Steve Mattin. Previously Design Director of Volvo, Mattin has a strong history with the SUV breed – it was under his direction that the XC60 was developed while at Volvo, while in his role prior to that at Mercedes-Benz, he also worked on the ML-Class.