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Dacia prepares for its UK market D-Day

Renault may have halved its UK product range and taken a profit tumble in 2011, but its budget car subsidiary Dacia has been growing strongly with its range of no-nonsense value-for-money cars. The Dacia Duster SUV has been winning plaudits for its cheap-and-cheerful blend of practicality and value,and leads the UK market launch next month. Dacia: Renault's developing market brand heads West Dacia was founded by the Romanian government in 1966, and began with license-production of the Renault 8 (Dacia 1100) and Renault 12 (Dacia 1300).

Toyota reveals safety research car at CES

One day before the International Consumer Electronics Show opened its doors in Las Vegas, Toyota took the wraps off the highest-tech Lexus LS ever made. The car -- with spinning sensors and probing lasers galore -- is meant to demonstrate safety features that could be coming to production cars someday soon. Called the Advanced Safety Research Vehicle, it sure looked like some of the autonomous self-driving vehicles we saw at the DARPA Challenge, but Toyota stressed that a robot car is not the goal.

AC Schnitzer upgrades the Mini Cooper coupe

The Mini Cooper coupe is still fresh--it hasn't been out for more than a year. Now, German tuner AC Schnitzer has taken it into the shop for some upgrades. The company is working on performance upgrades for both the diesel- and gasoline-powered cars, starting with a front limited-slip differential.