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New Car Sales 2012: Big winners – and big losers

Car sales in the UK hit a four year high in 2012 with over 2 million registrations. But which were the big winners and losers? Despite the Eurozone being on the verge of imploding – and the economic outlook on the gloomy side just about everywhere – 2012 has turned in to the best year for new car registrations in the UK since 2008.

RS and Dusk sedan join Chevy's Sonic lineup

The Chevy Sonic RS sedan and the Sonic Dusk sedan will join the bow tie's lineup of small city commuter cars next spring. Both start at just more than $20,000. The Sonic RS sedan will take the styling cues of the RS hatchback, including the deep air dam in the front fascia, aluminum sport pedals, flat-bottom steering wheel and leather seats with red accents.

Driven: Volkswagen Passat CC GT

Elegant and refined. Forty years ago these two words would not have been used to describe the Beetles bought in droves by the counterculture in the US; a symbol of the hippy movement and the definitive people's car, designed at a time when Germany sought to put people in motion. With the Passat CC, however, Volkswagen is indeed making a sharp move away from the ‘volks wagen', and these two words rolled off the tongues of those who saw the car in all three countries we drove through on our winter holiday.