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Suzuki refreshes Swift with five-door Sport and 4x4 model

Suzuki is offering its cracking little warm hatch, the Swift Sport, with five doors for 2013. The family-friendly model shares its powertrain with the three-door Swift CAR ran (and loved) as a long termer last year – that means a naturally aspirated, 1.6-litre engine good for 134bhp, a six-speed manual gearbox and 0-62mph in 8.7sec. Suzuki says it expects one-third of Swift Sport customers to opt for the five-door model – sales have so far averaged 1200 a year in the UK.

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.

General Motors and Ford load up on small cars for bigger profits

Ford has no qualms about charging nearly $23,000 for a fully loaded 2011 Fiesta, which is smaller than the Focus. The Fiesta sedan, which goes on sale this summer, starts at $13,995, including shipping. The Fiesta, with a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine and a six-speed transmission, gets 40 mpg on the highway.