Well, it was almost certain to happen after the March 11 earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan causing multiple problems to the country's automotive industry. Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, saw its production drop by 23% to 3.37 million units for the first half of the year - and includes sales of Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino vehicles.

As a result, the Japanese company lost the title of the world’s largest automaker that it held since 2008 to General Motors, which saw its sales rise by 8.9% to 4.536 million units for the first six months of 2011. For the time being, second place goes to the Volkswagen Group which sold 4.13 million units worldwide.

This fall will see Buick adding two more offerings to its Regal range, namely the performance orientated GS that's powered by a turbocharged four, and the fuel efficient eAssist featuring a "light" hybrid powertrain.

Pricing for the 2012 Regal GS starts at $35,310 while the 2012 Regal eAssist at $29,530 , with both prices including $860 in destination charges.

Royston, Hertfordshire is a sleepy and historic market-town in England with very little crime. It is also the proud owner of seven Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras covering every route in and out of the community.

The cameras have been in use since 1990 and provide police with alerts for untaxed, uninsured and / or suspect vehicles. These cameras, previously used only on main roads and motorways, will log the registration of every vehicle passing through and store them in a national database for two to five years.

On Thursday, we brought you news on Alfa Romeo's plans to exhibit the 4C at the upcoming Frankfurt Motor Show. Today, the Italian automaker's social network gurus released an updated announcement saying that the 4C will be presented in a "new exclusive look" at the German auto show.

Records are meant to be broken and even though the Guinness World Record officials are keeping a lid on the video of the Chinese driver who beat German Ronny Wechselberger's feat for the tightest parallel parking on July 21, live footage shot by someone from the crowd has made its way online.

Having cleared up the misunderstanding on whether or not the pure-electric RAV4 will be sold to the general public (it will), Toyota and partner Tesla Motors confirmed today that their jointly developed EV SUV will be built at the Japanese company’s Canadian manufacturing plant in Woodstock, Ontario starting from 2012. Read more »

Actor Rowan Atkinson, best known for his roles in UK TV series Mr. Bean and the Black Adder, may drive an original Mini on the screen, but in real life, he is a car enthusiast. So much that he once described in CAR magazine the process of ordering a Ferrari 456 GT and let's not forget that he owns one of the most exclusive and extreme supercars ever built: a McLaren F1.

Unfortunately, the 56-year old actor made headlines today for losing control of his precious F1, and crashing into a sign. No other cars were involved in the accident, which seems to have occurred when the McLaren met a wet patch on the road.

The Chrysler Group continues to aggressively market the newcomers in its vehicle lineup with new advertisements. This time the automaker has released numerous television and online spots to tout the new generation of the Dodge Durango SUV, all of which will begin airing this week.

While you can check out all the ads in the videos after the break, we must say that four commercials captured our attention including one that refers to Ferrari to show off the Durango's leather interior, another one that depicts seven Stig-lookalikes running to get into Dodge's SUV, and two spots featuring the 2011 Ford Explorer.

Fiat has returned to the American market after 28 years – and it has done so in style with its colorful city car, the 500. Besides having already sold 7,982 cars since March with 3,038 deliveries in July alone, Fiat seems to be reaping great profits from its small model.

That’s because American buyers apparently like to personalize their 500 by choosing pricier editions and adding numerous options. As a result, prices go up generating bigger profits for the Italian brand.

Exactly a month ago to this day, Saab announced a deal with China's Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. and Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co while also revealing a grand plan for expanding its range with three new models, the 9-1, 9-6X and 9-7. It also delivered its first 9-4X in the US. All’s well that ends well, right?

Well, in Saab’s case it looks like we haven’t seen the end just yet. The Swedish firm continues to face a cash-flow problem. Thus, it issued a press release concerning the subscription notice for 5 million shares under a €150 million agreement between Swan and GEM Global Yield Fund Limited.

We all know about the merits of electric vehicles but have you ever wondered how it would really be like owning one and driving it on a daily basis?

In collaboration with the British government, the BMW Group launched a trial program in the UK with 40 pure-electric MINI E cars given to 62 citizens and 72 pool users over two six-month periods, from December 2009 until March 2011.

Now that the trial period is over, MINI and the Oxford Brookes University, which undertook the research, have released their findings.

In the 1970s, the must-have automotive accessory was the fuzzy dice. Forty years later, it is the in-car GPS / satellite navigation system. It has as effectively replaced the seat pocket map book as the Apple iPod has replaced the Sony Discman.

Now, GPS / sat nav users are playing a potentially dangerous new game whereby they attempt to “beat” their portable / in-dash unit’s estimated time of arrival. It’s a game where things like road rules, speed limits and other drivers are mere impediments to “winning” the game.

The Chrysler Group has issued a recall on 299,718 Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans from the 2008 model year to fix a problem that could cause the airbags to deploy unexpectedly.

The automaker said that the issue is related to the Occupant Restraint Control (ORC) modules that controls the airbags. According to Chrysler, the OCR module may have been exposed to moisture. If this happens, it could lead to the airbag warning light going on while in some cases, the airbag could deploy for no reason.

Ford's India subdivision announced today that it sold 71,347 units from January 1 until July 31, which corresponds to a 45% increase compared to the same period of 2010 when it delivered 49,131 units.

The Detroit firm wants to further increase its presence in the country and has announced the signing of an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the State of Gujarat to invest approximately $1 billion to build two new plants in addition to the one in Chennai, for vehicle and engine manufacturing on a 460-acre site in Sanand.

It is known for some time now that Lotus is going to axe the Elise roadster and Exige coupe from its North American lineup by the end of August due to Toyota's decision to stop production of the 2ZZ 1.8-liter, 4-cylinder engine that powers the two models.

Fans of the Elise and Exige in other markets around the world including Europe need not to worry as the two cars will continue to be available as they are fitted with a new 1.6-liter four-cylinder unit.

To mark the end of production for North America, the British firm has announced the release of three Final Edition [FE] models. Lotus said will build and import into the US and Canada 15 examples of the Elise SC FE, 25 of the Exige Matte Black FE and 30 units of the Exige S260 FE.

Under the supervision of an official Guinness World Records [GWR] adjudicator, German driver Ronny Wechselberger, also known as "Ronny C-Rock" (be careful with the spelling here…), set a new record earlier this year for the world's tightest parallel parking.

Mr. C-Rock was able to slide his VW Polo with the help of the handbrake into a parking space measuring just 26 cm’s (10.24 inches) longer than that of his vehicle. Even though the record was set in April 2, 2011, the Guinness World Records officials released the video today.

Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo, has stated that he expects the Scuderia to win more races this season. And this despite the fact that in the 11 first races of the year they have won only once, with Fernando Alonso in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Alonso lies fourth at the Drivers’ championship and his teammate Fernando Massa sixth, trailing championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 89 and 164 points respectively with just eight races remaining. In the Constructors’ championship, Ferrari is in third position, with 215 points, trailing Red Bull (383) and McLaren (280).

Mazda has announced that orders for the subtly revised Mazda Demio, or Mazda2 as is known overseas, in its first month of being available in Japan have far exceeded their initial target. Specifically, from June 30, when the Demio became available, until July 31, orders have reached 13,500 units, more than double Mazda’s initial estimate of 6,000. Read more »

The Cadillac-related announcements keep dropping in as after the release of a teaser photo of the firm's entry-level compact sedan codenamed ATS, GM revealed that we're also going to see a flagship luxury sedan model added to Cadillac's range in the Spring of 2012.

We will come to know that model as the Cadillac XTS and it will replace both the current STS and the DTS, the production of which was terminated this year.

General Motors may not have published a teaser photo of its Cadillac range-topper in the sedan category but the Detroit firm said it will be modeled closely after last year's XTS Platinum concept study adding that the final production model will be revealed in the coming months – obviously either in LA this November or Detroit in January 2012.

We've been following the news for a very long time but General Motors is finally ready to give us our first taste of Cadillac's new entry in the premium sport sedan segment codenamed ATS with the release of an official –albeit shadowed- photo.

The new entry-level Cadillac which may or may not keep the ATS moniker when it arrives in the market next year, will go up against Germany's finest including the BMW 3-Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class as well as the Lexus IS range.