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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.

Ford, Chrysler sales up 12 percent, other carmakers expect gains

Chrysler Group posted a 12 percent increase in August U.S. sales with robust retail volume and demand for cars and large pickups fueling the automaker's 41st consecutive monthly gain. Ford Motor Co.

NHTSA probes shattering liftgate glass on Ford SUVs

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating about 200,000 copies of the 2010 and 2011 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner SUVs for liftgate glass that reportedly shatters. There have been 18 complaints of the liftgate window breaking, four resulting in injuries. The models involved were built on or before Oct.