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Chrysler's new 300C John Varvatos Edition ad

Anybody remember Polocore? That weird little moment in the mid-'90s when a sect of hardcore kids were all decked out in Ralph Lauren finery? What seemed incongruous in '95 was simple, unvarnished fact a dozen years later, when it was announced that former Ralph Lauren designer John Varvatos would open a flagship boutique in the space formerly occupied by CBGB's.

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.

Lexus to unveil new concept at Detroit 2012

Lexus has released a second teaser shot of its new concept car, set to be unveiled at next month’s Detroit auto show. This glimpse inside the Lexus sports car reveals an elegant cabin; we assume the photograph has been cropped to show just one front seat and it is in fact a two-seater. All will be revealed at the NAIAS in January 2012.