The second-generation Fusion is the most important model Ford will launch at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. And this is because it's the Blue Oval's contender in the popular mid-size class not only in North America, but also in the rest of the world where it will replace the Mondeo.

The outgoing Fusion was the first model to feature Ford’s then-new five-bar grille, which was later adopted by the rest of its U.S. range. Likewise, its successor is the model that introduces the next evolution of Ford's design language previewed by the Frankfurt Motor Show Evos concept.

It is distinguished by the slim headlights and the hexagonal, Aston Martin-like front grille, while the bodywork looks like a sportier, tauter evolution of the European Mondeo.

“The previous Fusion was an easy purchase for a customer to rationalize”, said Chris Hamilton, chief exterior designer. “Our design goal for the new car was to give the mainstream sedan buyer a top-drawer visual experience, adding some emotional appeal to an already sensible choice.”

As the year shrivels down to its last hours, we're getting ready to put our keyboards to rest and prepare for our New Year celebrations, but no before we wrap our 2011 Countdown with our final Top 10 list that includes the most popular Offbeat stories of the year.

This year's list includes a wide variety of offbeat news and videos ranging from fancy replicas to crazy accidents and barely dressed female dancers.

So join us for a look back at the most read articles in this segment right after the break. And just in case you missed out, click here for the Top 10 Scoops and here for the Top 10 New Car stories of 2011.

Yesterday, we brought you our most popular Scoop Stories of 2011 (to be clear, not the most read overall, but the most viewed spy shot-related piece) and now it's time to tell you which new car presentations drew the most attention from readers this year.

To be honest, while we expected certain cars like the brand-new Volkswagen Beetle and BMW 3-Series sedan to make it on the top 10 list, some of the vehicles and especially the most read single post on a new vehicle even surprised us.

Just goes to show you than you can never be 100 percent sure what kind of stories/vehicles will prove to be the most popular. Curious to find out which new model gathered the most views this year? Sure you are, so just hop over the break and let the countdown on the most read "New Car" stories of 2011 begin…

Ah yes, it's that time again when we all remember the best and worst of the year that was 2011. For our first countdown, we crunched up the numbers on our 10 most popular spy-related stories of the year based on our page views.

Over the course of the year, we brought you close to 300 scoop stories (285 to be precise) but for one reason or the other, these ten articles captured your attention the most.

In the list that follows after the break, you'll find a picture and a link to each story starting from number 10 and climbing to the most popular scoop of 2011. Enjoy!

To all our readers, we would like to take the time to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from everyone here at Carscoop!

Being a joyous time of celebration, some folks may overindulge during the holidays, in which case we hope that you'll forget about driving altogether and have someone else deliver you back home.

We'll be taking some time off to spend the day with our families and friends, but not without programming some select news for today and tomorrow before we return to our normal daily schedule on Tuesday, December 27, as we get ready for the next round of car shows starting with the Detroit Auto Show in the second week of January.

Vroomy wishes to all, and hope you enjoy the Santa Claus videos after the jump!

Here’s wishing to all of our readers and their families a happy and hearty Thanksgiving. Even in the case that you don't celebrate the day, perhaps you can still take a moment to acknowledge all the super-duper things that make your life and a little better and more pleasant – and hopefully we're one of them.

In lieu of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, we plan to take half the day off (okay, maybe a bit more) but we will resume our regular coverage of the daily automotive news and then some more on Friday, November 25.

We’ll send you off with the sounds of happiness: a compilation of new and old V12-powered Lamborghinis, which you can check out in the video after the break.

Some of you may have noticed that our poll on the three compact SUVs that Ford, Mazda and Honda introduced at the 2011 Los Angeles Auto Show last week is a little on the cuckoo side today in regards of the number of people that voted.

If our memory serves us right, there were about 2,800 votes last night with the Mazda CX-5 leading the pack, but dropped to around 1,690 in the morning and have being going up and down ever since.

Obviously, there's a bug somewhere, but being that the gadget used for the poll is an official Google widget, there's really nothing we can do about it from our side, so we've decided to remove it.

We hope you accept our apologies for the glitch and promise to head over to one of Google’s official forums to write a heated message to someone who may or may not escalate the problem to a Google employee and cross our fingers that he or she will read it in six business days and find the time to respond in a timely manner - if you've ever dealt with Google, you probably know what we mean…

The freakish October snowstorm that hit the northeast this weekend took its toll on Carscoop as we were among the many millions of people without power or internet access since Saturday. Fortunately, power was just restored in our area so we're back to our normal schedule...

Hans, a German native who happens to be the president of the M Flight Club, had the chance to drive the brand-new, BMW M5 F10 powered by a 560HP twin-turbocharged V8. And like any car-nut living in Germany, he took the sports saloon to the Autobahn. Read more »