Daily News Briefs: May 29, 2012

The Toyota Prius is now the third best-selling car across the globe, according to Bloomberg News. The growth comes from strong sales in both Japan and the United States, Bloomberg News reports. With 247,230 models sold in the first quarter of 2012, the Prius trails only the Ford Focus (277,000) and the Toyota Corolla (300,800); the Corolla remains the best-selling car of all time. Prius sales have nearly doubled over last year on the backs of recent extensions to the Prius-brand lineup like the Prius v, Prius Plug-in and recently launched Prius c (known as the Aqua in Japan). The Toyota Prius remains Japan's top-selling version, with the Toyota Aqua in a close second place. The Prius brand was the fifth best-selling model in the U.S. for April. In other news: Ford has extended its complementary three months of SiriusXM Satellite Radio to all its pre-owned vehicles equipped with satellite radio, said the automaker. Previously, only Ford's certified pre-owned vehicles got the perk.  After nearly three weeks of production at its Illinois assembly plant, the all-new 2013 Dodge Dart prepares to head to Chrysler dealerships starting in early June, according to the automaker. The Dart is the first fully engineered product developed by Chrysler-Fiat.  As other Japanese automakers make plans to move production away from their home country, Subaru has taken the opposite tack by saying it will increase domestic production by 28% for the fiscal year, according to Automotive News.  Related More Automotive Industry News  More Automotive News on Cars.com  More Toyota Prius News from KickingTires http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/

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