And the first trailer/behind the scenes video for Fast Five, the fifth instalment of the Fast and the Furious series, is now live on Vin Diesel's facebook.  !

From IMDB: "Dominic and his crew find themselves on the wrong side of the law once again as they try to switch lanes between a ruthless drug lord and a relentless federal agent. "

The film stars Vin Diesel, The Rock, Jordana Brewster (!), Tyrese Gibson, Elsa Pataky (!!) and some other people and should be released on June 10, 2011.

Again, you'll have to go to…sorry…Vin Diesel's facebook page to view it.

It's only a matter of time before expensive in-dash navigation systems give way to much cheaper and even free smartphone nav apps, and the transition probably won't even move for Gen Y to get behind the wheel in droves — if they ever do.

Google blatantly makes the case for the death of in-dash nav in a new commercial for its Nexus S smartphone with latest version of Google Maps for Mobile 5.0. And shows that using the app is child's play — as long as you're sitting in the passenger seat.

The commercial depicts a kid riding shotgun with the Nexus S, giving his papa in the driver's seat directions from the phone's nav app. The driver then reaches over to turn off the in-dash nav system in what appears to be a Ford vehicle.

While the free Google Maps Navigation app on the Nexus S does offer a lot that most in-dash nav system can't — including accurate voice activation, Street View, and Internet-connected POI search — what it doesn't show is all the other infotainment content the driver looses by switching off the in-dash screen: audio, Bluetooth hands-free, back-up camera and a much better view than on a smartphone's small screen.

Maybe the next commercial of this type will come from Nokia, showing how its free Ovi Maps nav app can be integrated into a car — and transferred to an in-dash screen via a technology the auto industry is getting behind called Terminal Mode. Regardless, the commercial makes clear that the death knell for in-dash nav is drawing near.

We've seen primeval spy shots of the 2012 Mercedes-Benz SL before. Back when it had the super cool armor-type camo. We've even seen the interior on not one, but two occurrences. And now we have it wearing slightly less clothing. We can see more of the new-but-like-everything-else SLS-type grill, LED running lamps. What we don't see is the new carbon-fiber construction used to save weight and increase awesome.

What we do see in following photos, however, is what Mercedes is benchmarking the 2012 SL against….

(I really like this picture, btw….Thinking caption contest. We'll see.)

Just a few days after the Nissan Leaf was delivered to the first customer on a freakishly warm California weekend (at least here in LA it was– Global Warming, surely) truckloads of Chevy Volts are being loaded onto frigid trucks in Michigan, out for delivery to customers on the East Coast. GM said that customers in California, Texas, Washington, D.C. and New York will be the first to get hands on the company's new hybrid/extended-range/plug-in contraption. GM expects 160 vehicles to be delivered this week.

"Today is a historic milestone for Chevrolet," said Tony DiSalle, Volt marketing director. "We have redefined automotive transportation with the Volt, and soon the first customers will be healthy to experience gas-free commuting with the freedom to take an extended trip whenever or wherever they want."

In a mad-dash for the finish of 2010, Toyota is recalling 94,000 2011 Toyota Siennas to fix defective brake lights.

Toyota will replace the stop lamp / brake light switch bracket on affected Toyota Sienna minivans starting in mid-January. The issue is that the stop amp switch bracket is too close to the parking brake and a driver's foot could "deform" the bracket by the driver operating the parking brake. This could cause the brake lights to remain on or, "if the deformation is significant" the brakes could remain partially engaged causing brake drag / noise / vibration / wear / warning light.

A new bracket has been developed to fix the problem. If you've got a Sienna and you're worried, call Toyota @ 1-800-331-43331.

With this latest news, Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles in this year. 2011 can't come soon enough for Toyota.

The first round of voting for the 2011 North American Car and Truck of the Year is over, though the finalists won't be announced until this Thurdsay, December 16th.

Because we're in that narrow time frame where everyone has voted, but nobody yet knows the finalists, I'm going to make my predictions for which three cars and three trucks have prefabricated the cut. After all, my predictions can't influence the outcome. Here goes:

In the car category, I'm betting the Chevrolet Volt, Hyundai Sonata and Nissan Leaf will be finalists, with the Ford Fiesta possibly displacing the Leaf.

I should note that these aren't necessarily the cars I want to make the cut, these are the cars I think will make it, based on my understanding of the jury and past winners/finalists.

If I were going to pick to the three cars that should be the three finalists, I'd pick the Sonata, Leaf and Fiesta. Why not the Volt? I answer that question in detail in a story I wrote for Auto Observer, but the short version is this: the car's cost/benefit equation doesn't make any sense.

Yeah, I know that's true for just about every hybrid and electric vehicle on the market, but the Volt really doesn't make sense from any financial standpoint, and its starting price over $40,000 is simply too much money to make an environmental statement (though the lease rate does offset that issue somewhat).

Is the Volt super advanced? Yes. Does being a super-advanced-but-financially-ridiculous-car acquire you North American Car of the Year status? Not in my book, but I'm just one of 49 jurors. 

A couple years ago the Saturn Aura won the honor because, as far as I could tell, it was a Saturn that was finally (mostly) competitive with (but in no way better than) the average family sedan. That doesn't acquire Car of the Year position in my book either, but what do I know? 

As for the trucks, it's clear the Ford Explorer, Honda Odyssey and Jeep Grand Cherokee are the big obloquy on the list. I don't see them being displaced by the likes of a refreshed Edge or the more fog Touareg. The Sienna might displace the Odyssey, but I highly doubt it.

BTW, these are the three vehicles I also want to make the cut, so in the truck area I'm expecting to be happy with the finalists. Of course I've been unhappily surprised in the past, so don't bank on it.

As for the eventual 2011 North USA Car and Truck of the Year winners?

I'll be making that prediction in a couple weeks, when the final votes are already cast.

The trending topic today on Twitter (besides the sposored one) is #inhighschool. You get the gist: in high school ______ and you fill in the blank with something relevant to your interests. 

So here we're going to apply the #inhighschool theme to cars. 

In high school – barring the exotics we all wanted — what car did you REALLY want. 

Me? Firebird Firehawk…Shutup…it was awesome. I still want one. With the LT4 as pictured above. Only 29 made. Awesome.

(photo from LT1.net  — go there for more Firehawk.)

With dreams of taking over the automotive world, Volkswagen has prefabricated the 2011 Jetta every-so-slightly worse than the car it replaces. It's also cheaper. Cheaper is good when you're going for ultra-high volume. $5,995, however, is probably too cheap.

That's why VW is teaming up with Gilt.com for a three-day "flash sale" taking $10,000 off the price of a new 2011 VW Jetta. On day-one, the understanding will only be acquirable on a mobile app while the other two days will feature a traditional flash sale. Picture woot.com, but with 3 Volkswagen Jettas.

You have to register to be eligible and you can do that at Gilt.com. One editor here said for $5,995 they'd rather just go on a trip. I said a brand-new car with full warranty for that price was a no-brainer. What say you? Going to try to find one?

Sale starts tomorrow at 12 et.

The "styling direction" of the 2012 Honda Civic will be shown via the above Civic Concept at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show. The "sleek and aerodynamic profile" of the concept vehicle shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been reading Straightline, or up on the 2012 Civic, as spy shots have been leaking for months.

As the car, the 9th generation Civic, is set to go on understanding in spring of 2011, expect the phrase "styling direction" to mean "production car but with big wheels and tiny side-view mirrors" unless the public is so overwhelmingly displeased Honda's forced to change something.

It's Monday again and for now at least, that means we talk about Top Gear USA.

Last week was a significant improvement and the ratings held steady. This week we had Tanner in a Ford Raptor modified by Hennessey, the guy from New York in an SLS, Foghorn (Adam opened up that door this week, so henceforth, Wood will only be called 'Foghorn') hugging / threatening to lick a Ford Raptor, interviewing Kid Rock and involved in a 'challenge' with Adam.

So, as with before: Did you watch it? What'd you think? Tuning in next week?

And, again, my (irrelevant) opinion after the jump.

Episode 4 was better than 3. How can I tell? I finished watching it. That said, it still wasn't good. It's the equivilent of the magazines in your doctor's office; usually not what you wanted, but good enough to pass the time and certainly better than Marie Claire. Trouble is, my TV has like, 9,000 channels and a DVR and there's an internet next to me and there are DVDs. It's the best option for watching cars on TV at 10 on a Sunday and that's really it.

The shooting is still excellent and Tanner behind the wheel is thrilling, trouble is still the hosts are wooden and clumsy and the writing is pandering at best. When they're in the studio reading it feels like people reading in a studio. When they're in the cars it's stilted and clunky. And when Adam tries to honestly review a car…yikes. ("The steering is really responsive, it's not so much turning as it is driving" )

It's got good bones. Here's the fix:

Fire Foghorn (Sorry, hear he's a great guy in person. Not great here, though and we want this show to stick around.)

Fire Ferrara (Funniest IMO, but his demand of car knowledge should have kept him out of the initial screenings.)

Make Tanner The Stig. He won't even need a helmet or a gimmick, guy barely talks as it is. Just say, "Some say he eats nothing but white bread with the crust cut off. Some say an impish expression is his only form of communication.All we know, is he's called Tanner Foust." Keep him on salary for being stupid-fast.  

Hire someone who knows cars. An automotive journalist or similar. Someone who's been breathing cars since day one and has managed to make a living off of transferring automotive knowledge to people who are passionate car guys.

Hire a nerd. All three guys on the show are goons. Tanner's a fast goon, but he doesn't bust out tech knowledge with any sort of conviction. Get someone on there who knows something. Anything. Just something.

Hire a real host. Someone who can carry a show and keep the other two at bay. Someone who has carried a show. Tanner never carried Supercars Exposed, he was just on it. Someone who won't be walked / talked over and someone who can be the boss of the show. Corolla could potentially do this. No other ideas.