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Lotus owner Proton tries to quell sale rumours

The Malaysian owners of Lotus have taken the unusual step of quashing rumours circulating of an impending sale of its British sports car division. Several newspaper articles have suggested that the new owners of Proton may divest its loss-making Lotus subsidiary. The ownership structure of Proton has changed in recent weeks, after the Khazanah Nasional Berhad sold its entire stake in Proton to DRB-Hicom.

Toyota fails to land 'top safety pick' rating in insurance-group study

For the first time in three years, none of Toyota Motor Corp.'s vehicles received “top safety pick” ratings from an insurance group, as tougher criteria pared the number of selections from 94 last year to 27 this year. Ford Motor Co. led all automakers for the second year in a row with six 2010-model top safety picks from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, including four from Volvo, a brand that's being sold.

BMW ActiveHybrid 5: BMW has another crack at Hybrid

BMW ActiveHybrid 5 - arrives in the UK February 2012 BMW’s Hybrid efforts to date haven’t been exactly an unmitigated success, with the BMW ActiveHybrid X6 not even making it to the UK before it was dropped. But now they’re having another crack at eco-cars with the BMW ActiveHybrid 5, a hybrid version of the latest 5-Series. The ActiveHybrid 5 gets a 302bhp twin-turbo six-cylinder in-line petrol – a good start – and throws in to the mix a 53bhp electric motor.