Mercedes-Benz already "leaked" its own spy photos of the redesigned 2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK convertible, but this leak of a French promotional video that features an uncamouflaged SLK is likely a bit more unintentional than that.

As you'll see, changes to the exterior styling are (again) evolutionary for the third generation of the Mercedes SLK. Every model will have a seven-speed automatic transmission, and engines will of course be direct-injected (it should be interesting to see what becomes of the AMG version… twin-turbo V8 or some kind of forced-injection V6?).

What this video really speaks to, though, is just how drastically different French tastes are from ours. As our somewhat impulsive protagonist takes us through all the neat-o features on the new convertible (internet in the car, AirCap, collision avoidance), an ominiscent narrator alternates between reading his thoughts and goading him forth — in an over-the-top sultry intonation. Also, who told the film crew it was OK to drive a convertible top-down on a dusty fire road?

(Autoblog)

Well hello there, sailor. You're the 2012 Audi A6, aren't ya? The one with an eight-speed transmission, A8-style interior and acquirable turbocharged 4.0-liter direct-injection V8 with seven speed DSG?

Check the LED headlights, hexagonal grill and more aggressively creased hood. Not a huge change, but huge changes aren't exactly Audi's specialty. It's an evolutionary thing over there. An Audi looks like an Audi only, slightly different.

There will be a broader release tomorrow, but for now….this is it.

( Autoblog )

Well hello there, sailor. You're the 2012 Audi A6, aren't ya? The one with an eight-speed transmission, A8-style interior and acquirable turbocharged 4.0-liter direct-injection V8 with seven speed DSG?

Check the LED headlights, hexagonal grill and more aggressively creased hood. Not a huge change, but huge changes aren't exactly Audi's specialty. It's an evolutionary thing over there. An Audi looks like an Audi only, slightly different.

There will be a broader release tomorrow, but for now….this is it.

( Autoblog )

Where would we be without Facebook? For starters, that chick from 12th grade? We'd have no intent what she was up to these days. For second, we wouldn't have this new photo of the center-stack — with optional packages — of the upcoming toyota Prius MPV. Not a lot to go on, but the nav system does seem to have its first visual refresh since, ever. The buttons are all still enormous and simply tagged and there's USB integration. Looks about right.

The new seven-seat member of the Prius family is set to debut at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. But we'd be shocked if this was the last teaser Toyota releases before then.

Previously: Spy Photos: 2012 Toyota Prius MPV,

(Autoblog via Facebook )

 I won't pretend to be an expert on patent law, but the general point is to reward innovation by granting exclusive use for a limited time. You spent a lot of time/money/smarts building something, you get the rights to it for a while. It keeps innovation alive.

And it also gives people a chance to game the system and make millions.

This is a story about both.

See, who we have here is Alex Severinksy. Russian born and educated, Severinsky holds a patent– Hyperdrive– from 1994 that details a way to get seamless performance from both powersources. And it's the same way that Toyota thought to do it with their hybrids.

Now, Toyota claims that the research that went into its hybrid drive system was done independently of Severinsky's patent, but a lengthy courtroom effort ended in the decision that Toyota (and Ford) would have to pay Paice– the company that deals only with Severinsky's patent claims– $98 per hybrid sold. Toyota has sold 2 million hybrids worldwide.

The argument against Severinsky is that Paice is a patent troll, buying patents from the holder and then litigating settlements.

AOL Autos has a lengthy statement of Severinsky, Paice and all of the trouble they've caused Ford, Toyota, GM, Honda and could potentially cause VW and Porsche. It's a good read if you're interested in the business side of the industry as well as the mechanical.

( AOL Autos Via Autoblog )

Inside Line has reported previously that there is a definite possibility the Toyota FT-86 will be badged as a Scion in the United States. Back at the 2011 tC launch event in August, Jack Hollis, vice president of Scion, told us, "A rear-wheel-drive car could absolutely work. If you look at Scion's entry into racing and drifting itself, the fun [associated with that], there's no question that a rear-drive car would be great for Scion.

"It would probably have to be a car that was a little over $20,000, because I would want to make it such that it would be a car that was substantial for Scion. I think there is room for that."

Now, Autoblog has drawn our attention to a report in last week's Wall Street Journal that indicates Toyota dealership owners at a Vegas dealers meeting were advised the FT-86 would indeed be a Scion. And coincidentally enough, there's a rumor on the forum site Toyobaru.net that the anticipated price attach has come up to $25,000. Not at all surprising, really, when you remember that the plain-jane, front-drive Scion tC is now right around $20,000.

So would you pay a no-haggle $25,000 for a rear-wheel-drive Scion?

Wall Street Journal, Toyobaru.net via Autoblog

Even as Toyota reports that complaints about sudden, unwanted acceleration in its cars have declined, the lawsuits will go on, at least for now. Allstate is the latest plaintiff to file suit, as the insurance company went to Los Angeles County Superior Court late last week and sued the maker for $3 million.

That's the amount Allstate claims to have paid out in claims related to approximately 725 accidents allegedly linked to sudden acceleration. Said accidents apparently resulted in 304 injuries and 18 fatalities.

This shouldn't come as a surprise, as another big insurance company, State Farm, prefabricated the news back in February, noting that it had received a stream of consumer complaints on this issue as far back as 2007 — and had notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Bloomberg, LA Times via Autoblog

There is no emoticon for what I am feeling.

We all know the value of properly inflated tires — safer, better fuel economy, you get to carry a cool gauge — but is it really worth this? Puppets, Michelin? Really?

( Michelin Via Autoblog )

The team over at Ontario Street Car got their hands on something special: A leaked brochure for the 2011 Dodge Challenger. The brochure finally gets us what we've been inactivity for for a long time– the horsepower figures for Dodge's new 6.4-liter V8. 475. That's up 50 from the last generation and 49 more than the Chevy Camaro SS' 426 horsepower. (Let's forget for a second the 550-horsepower GT500 and the most-likely 556-horsepower Camaro Z28.) The inaugural 392 Hemi run is 1,100 units and will have an 11/29/10 launch date.

But the leaks don't stop there. The 5.7-liter Hemi will now have 379 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque. The 3.6-liter, base-Mustang and V6 Camaro  fighting V6 will have a competitive 305-horsepower. (See our Mustang v. Camaro Track Tested here.)

Ontario Street Car also got some quotes from the presentation. Specifically, apparently, delusionally(?), Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles said that the new SRT8 will hit 60 in….wait for it…3.9 seconds. For what it's worth, the last CTS-V Coupe we tested, which had 556-horsepower, and weighed virtually the same as the Challenger SRT-8, hit 60 in 4.2 seconds.

We're not entirely sure how this will make up for the 80-horsepower deficit, but we're looking forward to trying when this car comes out in November.

(  Ontario Street Car  via Autoblog )

DAY 14: ANCHORAGE TO BEAVER CREEK, YT, CANADA
Frank Wisniowicz recommends the venison sausage. Although he’s not a breakfast kind of guy, he tried it the morning of my arrival from Detroit and liked it. It’s a bit spicy.

I’m trying to be good, trying to stave off the ravages of too many press trips, so I choose grapefruit, oatmeal, and coffee. Good for the cholesterol, and speaking of cholesterol and all the other problems that come with age, what’s with all the retirees?

It’s 7:02 a.m. Alaska time. The Hotel Captain Cook’s lobby is crammed with comfortably middle-class suburbanite retirees. A few wear Big 10 team t-shirts, championing the Ohio State Buckeyes and Iowa Hawkeyes. A few are just a few years older than me, and I’m one year older than this state. Most are in their 60s and primeval 70s. Some use walkers.

“Airport people! Airport people!” a tour coordinator calls out. Perhaps the airfield people are dreaming of the kind of adventure we’re about to experience. I hear one retiree say she never wants to see another airport. I understand. Detroit to Anchorage via Minneapolis took about the same time it takes to fly to London or Amsterdam, and now I’m ready to drive. Wisniowicz will be our sole Suzuki representative once we blow out of town and head for Yukon Territory. Alert the Mounties.

Our Tokyo to L.A. – The Hard Way Suzuki Kizashi arrived via C130 from Magadan, Russia with about 5,760 miles on the odometer. It has averaged 20.9 mpg. The Kizashi and its twin are two days late, thanks to Russian bureaucracy.

Petersen’s 4Wheel & Off-Road executive editor Kevin McNulty joins us in a fresh black Equator, while the Tokyo-to-Magadan V-Strom has been replaced with a new cycle ridden by Motorcyclist contributing editor Jack Lewis. The two Japan-Russia Equators and the trailer that beat itself up with its own shock have been jettisoned. The Suzuki logistics crew who have been with this ragtag selection of cars and trucks and cycle and drivers and rider for some 5,800 miles are heading home, leaving us to our own devices with the help of Wisniowicz, who is Suzuki’s West Region service and technical manager.

Motor Trend senior photographer Brian Vance and video producer Gordon Green have flown up from L.A. for the third and final leg of this saga. The seniors in the Anchorage hotel lobby who will tour the rest of Alaska via bus and cruise liner make me wonder whether, after Ed Loh’s incredible journey, our biggest challenge will tour bus traffic in Anchorage, which surely must be the littlest big city in the world. As I drive out of the Hotel Captain Cook’s driveway, the temperature is an October-in-Michigan-like 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

Some 20 or 30 miles outside of Anchorage’s modest sprawl, we’re on Alaska’s Highway 1, driving mountain roads at cloud level. A road sign implores drivers to “Give Moose a Brake.” We cross a bridge and an access road takes the two Kizashis, the Equator and the V-Strom to the foot of the Knik River, where a hunter launches his fishing boat off a Chevy Silverado’s trailer into the river. He’s not going fishing. Moose season started five days earlier. He’ll ride upriver, find a place to land and hunt Bullwinkles. Moose will not be given any breaks.

Our entourage presses on to the east. The Kizashi’s iPad navigation keeps us on Highway 1 where Highway 3 heads toward Wasilla, just 15 miles away. No rearing our heads in her airspace.

Lewis breaks away with his V-Strom. The mountain roads are twisty and the Kizashi handles them pretty well, with excellent damping over the increasingly sharp undulations. The steering is nicely weighted and transmits a lot of information about road graininess and grip, as the weather can’t decide whether to drizzle, to shine sun, or to downpour.

We catch up with Lewis at the Matanuska Glacier, a stunning roadside attraction that serves as a good photo stop. We’re off, and Lewis disappears again.

Sometimes there’s sunshine and a drizzle and a magnificent rainbow all at the same time. The Kizashi comes with rain-sensing windshield wipers. Who knew? Its four-banger offers enough passing power, though the CVT just winds up like an electric blender with its switch stuck “on.” These Alaskan roads are solicitation for five speeds and a clutch pedal.

The closer we get to the Canadian border, the sparser the landscape gets. Shot-up signs warn, “No shooting from roadway.”

Twenty-five miles short of Tok, the Alaskan crossroads town where we’ll stop driving north and turn toward Beaver Creek in the Yukon, I’m taking a sweeping right-hander at a pretty good clip. Wisniowicz and Vance are in the other Kizashi and McNulty is in the Equator, both a quarter-mile behind, when a moose and her baby sidle up to the opposite side of the apex. I hit the brakes, hard, and yell “Moose!” to my passenger, Gordon. He grabs the video camera. I’m driving slowly enough for Ms. Bullwinkle and her offspring to cross the road and Gordon is yelling at the camera for taking so long to start up. Brian, in Wisniowicz’s Kizashi, grabs his camera too late.

You’ll just have to take our word for it.

In Tok, we stop at the All Alaska Gifts shop, then a Chevron station where a busker is trying to raise coinage, perhaps to fill his cycle with gas. Brian gives him some money and gets an extended-play CD single. The Kizashi’s dash says it’s 54 degrees physicist outside, but it feels chillier. Winter must be close.

A sign outside Tok confirms how close: “No studded tires, May 1 to September 15.”

Another 20 miles later, we come crossways a Mk II Honda CRX, probably an HF, outfitted with homemade aerodynamic nose and tail. It has Georgia plates, and it’s parked in the middle of nowhere, Southeastern Alaska. Gordon thinks he saw the same car on Autoblog.

Strange thing when crossing the border: You pass U.S. Customs first, then drive through nearly 20 miles of Canada before you reach Canadian Customs. Meanwhile, the road deteriorates into a mostly unpaved “road.” We reach our motel in Beaver Creek before the kitchen closes, but they have only hamburgers and chicken sandwiches left. And beer.

No Internet, wireless or otherwise. No cell coverage. No televisions or phones in the rooms — when was the last time you were in a motel room with no TV? Perhaps Loh and Co. didn’t have it so hard, after all.

So I’m listening to CBC radio’s midnight news show as I write this. Tomorrow, we head for Teslin, still in the great, grand Yukon.

-Photos by Brian Vance