In case you were wondering, yes, there will be a Kia Forte hatchback. We don't know yet whether it will be called Forte5 (a la Spectra5), but it's pretty clear this image is a five-door version of the Forte sedan. It was caught by our shooters on a frozen lake in northern Sweden

Several styling cues on the hatchback appear to be lifted directly from the Forte sedan — the beveled sweep of the A-pillar is familiar, as is the profile between the A- and C-pillars. Moreover, the glimpse of the fascia and headlights we get through the camouflage virtually confirms this car is part of the Forte family. The disguised test car looks nearly complete, though the rear bumpers seem to be missing in action.

The Forte hatch prototype was sharing the lake with a Forte sedan and a Forte Koup; the latter was even wearing the same wheels.

We don't know yet when Kia would launch the third Forte body style, but from the looks of it, the maker intends on having a car to go toe to toe with the current Volkswagen Golf and Mazda 3 5-door. We expect the hatch to come to the U.S., but no doubt this car is even more critical to Kia's product plan in Europe.

Second photo after the jump.

Apparently, this is the Ferrari 599 Hybrid set to be unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show on March 2. We still know little about this car, other than that it's based on the GTB and likely to use two electric motors, a lithium-ion battery pack and KERS, the kinetic energy recovery system developed for the 2009 F1 season but forsaken for 2010.

One of the leaked photos suggests that the electric motor (or motors) are built into the rear transaxle, which is of course a typical layout for a hybrid. We'll know more in a few days.

CarSpyShots via Autoblog

Hummer has received a temporary stay of execution, or at least the 153 remaining Hummer dealers have, as General Motors has extended their franchise agreements for another 60 days, Automotive News reports. The reason? More offers have come in, it seems, since the deal with Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co., Ltd. collapsed early this week.

The Hummer leadership now has until May 1 to find a buyer for Hummer, or portions of it.

"The next step in the process is to sit down with those interested parties and figure out who is serious and who just doesn't make any sense," Hummer CEO Jim Taylor told AN. "Some are well-known equity houses, who do this for a living. Some are just those who say, 'I want to buy it.'"

Reuters is reporting that four more Chinese manufacturers have entered a bid. None are mainstream automakers, say sources close to GM, and none are likely to be interested in buying all of Hummer. Instead, they might be interested in only tooling and equipment from the brand's Shreveport, Louisiana, production plant.

Still, nothing's a sure bet, as the Tengzhong deal is thought to have fallen apart due to objections from the Chinese government, and other companies may be loath to challenge the government. In addition, Hummer's product portfolio really isn't any better a fit for the Chinese market than it was for the United States.

Automotive News

Reuters

Thanks to all who entered the Friday Caption Contest, especially given its shorter duration this week. We'll get back on the normal schedule next week.

That's not to say there was any shortage of amusing, lol-worthy entries about the walk-in Fiat 500. The win goes to estreka for putting words in Fiat President Sergio Marchionne's mouth.

As usual, we laughed over the honorable mentions, too.

"It's a small world after all." (allenychung)

They let Chrysler design the Fiat 500 SUV. (adantium)

"The Fiat 500 Fellini edition first drive." (thejohnp)

The big one? That's for the Shaq! (questionlp)

Damn metric conversion! (ergsum)

We figured we could scare off the Pacific Rim competition with a giant one. (gregnv)

The Fiat 500, re-worked for the North American market. (dougtheeng)

Be sure to check out the winning caption on our Long-Term Road Test blog as well.

You can rest cushy now: NHTSA says it has purchased the 2007 Lexus ES 350 once owned by Rhonda Smith and will evaluate it at its test center in East Liberty, Ohio. No word on how much the second owners were paid for their Lexus, but the ES reportedly has about 30,000 miles on its odometer.

Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, U.S. Representative Edolphus Towns, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter to Toyota North USA President Yoshimi Inaba today, laying into the big maker for its "systematic disregard for the law and routine violation of court discovery orders in litigation."

This didn't have a thing to do with alleged unintended acceleration incidents. Rather, Towns had just finished poring over internal Toyota documents related to rollover crash litigation.

"People injured in crashes involving Toyota vehicles may have been injured a second time when Toyota unsuccessful to produce relevant evidence in court," he wrote. "This also raises very serious questions as to whether Toyota has also withheld substantial, relevant information from NHTSA."

Finally, from Pittsburgh, a Carnegie Mellon Professor, Paul Fischbeck, says that driving a Toyota or Lexus with a potentially sticking throttle increases your risk of death by only 2 percent. Walking a mile, Fischbeck says, is 19 times more chanceful than driving a mile in a recalled Toyota.

"There hasn't been a discussion about the actual risk of driving one of Toyota's recalled vehicles," he says in a Carnegie Mellon press release. "Even the messages from the Transportation Secretary have been confusing.  First, it's a recommendation not to drive the cars in question at all. Then, that was retracted. I think it's important for people to realize that when you look at the actual risk of driving one of these cars, it's actually very low."

You can read the full press release here and, for further enlightenment and encouragement, visit Fischbeck's Death Risk Rankings Web site.

You can read Rep. Towns' letter to Inaba here.

Detroit News

Wall Street Journal

It's just too perfect, isn't it? Schumi is back in Formula 1, racing for the new Mercedes GP team, and the gorgeous 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG is the official country car.

Mostly, it's the same as a regular Mercedes Gullwing with a 563-horsepower 6.3-liter V8 and a seven-speed, dual-clutch transmission. But the roof of the country car is carbon fiber, rather than aluminum, and equipped with a wing that deploys at 74 mph.

This is the first application of a light bar with all LEDs, Benz claims. Around back, the Gullwing's country car plate (where a license plate would be) uses 700 LEDs.

Inside, there are a couple of screens to allow the country car driver to monitor traffic on the course, plus the mandatory five-point harness.

The SLS AMG safety car will be in action at the first F1 race of 2010, the Bahrain Grand Prix, on March 12-14. More photos after the jump.

Inside Line Feature: 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG on Ice

First Drive: 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG

No, no, of course we didn't forget. Please to caption the giant Fiat Cinquecento.

Then, visit the Long-Term Road Test blog caption contest and try your wit there.

Maybe you didn't want to believe that a Lexus could cost almost 400 grand, but Lexus has confirmed this week that the 2012 LFA will indeed retail for exactly $375,000, not including destination. The 150 cars slated for the U.S. (out of a 500-unit production run) will be acquirable on a two-year lease with an option to buy.

Production begins in December 2010. Although each LFA will be hand-built to suit the customer, Lexus plans to sell them in three basic package configurations in the good old Toyota tradition.

Configuration 1: Leather or Alcantara-trimmed seats. 
Configuration 2: Leather or Alcantara seats, Lexus Navigation System and Mark Levinson Premium Surround Sound system.
Configuration 3: Leather or Alcantara seats, nav system, Mark Levinson sound system and Lexus Enform with Safety Connect.

Interestingly, Lexus says all of these configurations are included in the MSRP. In other words, you don't have to pay extra for nav and Mark Levinson — you just have to decide if you want them weighting down your supercar.

Other decisions to make: Choose one of 30 paint colors (some of which may carry additional cost), one of 6 brake caliper colors, one of 3 wheel finishes for the 20-inch forged BBS wheels, and one of 12 interior colors.

Inside Line Feature: On the Road With the 2011 Lexus LFA

2011 Lexus LFA: 10 Things You Don't Know About the Supercar

After the big week of Congressional testimony, Toyota has announced it will create two new executive positions in the U.S. — both focusing on quality. The intent is to make the giant maker more responsive when potential country issues crop up.

One of the positions will be a chief country executive who works full-time on recalls and calibre concerns. The other, higher-ranking position, a U.S. calibre chief, will work with Toyota North American President Yoshimi Inaba and sit on the new Special Committee for Global Quality led by company CEO Akio Toyoda.

"Virtually all decisions relating to recalls and country matters are decided in Japan," Jim Wiseman, Toyota spokesman, told the Detroit News. "This is an effort to elevate key North American executives in major positions of responsibility and dominance in that process."

Although these moves are ostensibly borne out of the recall mess, it has widely been expected that Toyoda would

review the company's leadership structure to give major regions like the U.S. more decision-making power, specifically over their product portfolios — rather than continuing the practice of having all dominance concentrated in Japan.

Detroit News

BMW will expand its lineup of hybrid models with a gas/electric version of the new 5 Series sedan. In typical BMW fashion the car pictured above is considered a concept car, which as far as we can figure just means that it's the upcoming 5 Series ActiveHybrid with those big, shiny stickers on the sides.

The 5 Series hybrid isn't going to challenge the Prius for any fuel-efficiency titles. BMW reckons that the 40-kW electric motor, which in the case of the 5 Series augments the power of a turbocharged inline-6 gas engine, should wage a 10 percent improvement in fuel economy. The system, of course, includes regenerative braking and an automatic start/stop function.

We'll give you more details on this car from the floor of the Geneva auto show next week.

More photos after the jump…