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Ford Focus (2011) prices start at less than £16k

The new Ford Focus range will start at less than £16,000 when it hits UK showrooms in March 2011, the company has announced. The base Edge, with a 1.6-litre 102bhp petrol engine, is the cheapest Focus at £15,995, with the £25,095 2.0-litre TDCi Titanium X topping the range. There will be seven engines to choose from: three petrol and four diesel.

Kia Rio (2011): first sketches of new supermini

It never rains, it pours in Kiaworld, it seems. Not long after showing us the new Kia Picanto city car last week and the KV7 concept car at this week's 2011 Detroit auto show, today Kia publishes these first design sketches of the new Rio. It's Kia's supermini to compete with the likes of the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa and VW Polo.

Relive Volvo's 'Emotion of Design' Google Hangout

If you missed out on Volvo's ‘Emotion of Design' Google Hangout, which was broadcast on Volvo's YouTube channel on 28 November, you can relive it here. The Hangout, which featured Volvo's exterior design chief Maximilian Missoni, neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis and Wallpaper magazine's automotive correspondent Jonathan Bell, discussed the results of the Swedish carmaker's experiment to measure the emotional response to the Volvo Concept Coupé – among other things – using an electroencephalographic (EEG) machine. Participants were asked to rate a series of images while wearing an EEG headset measuring brainwave activity, with results showing that car design and emotions were inexorably linked.