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Toyota hands over small-car development to its European unit

Toyota Motor Corp.'s European division next month will take charge of global product planning for small cars as the Japanese automaker expands model research and development in the region. The change, announced Dec. 17, means that Toyota will count on Europe to develop future products in the minicar, subcompact and compact segments, something that Ford Motor Co.

Ford door protector takes the sting out of dings

Nothing ruins car joy like a door ding--whether it's the first blemish on your pride and joy or the latest door divot. Now, the engineers at Ford in Europe have developed a way to take the sting out of the parking lot--a retractable door-edge protector for the Ford Focus. It's no surprise that this comes from Europe, where roads are narrow and parking spaces are squeezed tight.

Toyota and Mercedes-Benz are top global car brands

Toyota & Mercedes-Benz are the Top Global Automotive Brands 2011 Interbrand, a branding consultancy, delivers a report on the world’s brands every year, and in 2011, despite recall woes and the devastation of the Japanese Tsunami, Toyota leads the automotive brands, with luxury car maker Mercedes-Benz just behind. Interbrand uses three measures to gauge how effective a brand is – performance of branded product, the brands ability to secure earnings and the role of the brand in purchasing decisions – to come up with a chart of the top 100 world brands. At the top of the tree are companies like Coca Cola, IBM, Microsoft and Google, but car brands do well with Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Honda, VW, and Ford all making it in to the top 50.