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Five most-watched car ads of 2011

Page views: They're life and death on the Web, and for an automaker trying to make an advertisement go viral, page views and the eyeballs viewing them are what it's all about. This year was big for the top-five viral automaker ads: Volkswagen's “The Force” spot hit 63 million views, while Fiat grabbed 27 million with its Jennifer Lopez song. The Chrysler “Imported From Detroit” Super Bowl ad was next, with 22 million views.

Fisker goes to China's Wanxiang

China's Wanxiang Group won an auction for Fisker Automotive Holdings Inc., the maker of luxury plug-in hybrid cars, with a $149.2 million bid, almost six times what Fisker was seeking when it filed for bankruptcy. Wanxiang topped Hybrid Tech Holdings during the auction, which began on Wednesday and went through 19 rounds of bidding, with an offer that includes $126.2 million in cash and $8 million in assumed liabilities, Fisker said Friday in a statement. U.S.

Spied: The 2012 Volkswagen New Beetle looks a bit squished

Volkswagen's upcoming onslaught of new products includes a redesign for the New Beetle. The new New Beetle is expected to arrive in 2011 as a 2012 model, with a convertible version set to arrive a year after the coupe. Recent spy photographs of a prototype being tested on public roads in Europe show that the 2012 New Beetle has a roofline that has less arch than the current model.