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Kia Picanto three-door (2011): first pictures

Kia is launching a three-door version of the Picanto for the first time. The new entry-level supermini arrives in showrooms on 1 September 2011, priced from £7795. It's a wedgy, attitudinal hatch designed to broaden the appeal of the Picanto.

BMW are rolling out their ‘BMW Genius’ programme across UK dealers

Even when you’re immersed in the latest car news day in and day out, it’s often quite tough to keep up with the new technologies car makers are offering, so many buyers must struggle to know exactly what their options are. That should be a job for the car salesman, but most car salesmen only worry about explaining how good the deal is and how it’s better than any other deal, so buyers often come away with a car that doesn’t fit their needs as well as it could. But with fewer new car buyers really wrapped up in performance and dynamics and more interested in the tech behind the wheels, BMW has been trying out an idea borrowed from Apple Stores by employing ’BMW Geniuses’ at 10 of their UK dealerships to explain the advantages of much of their technology to customers.

LENNON'S FIRST CAR UNDER THE HAMMER

THE FIRST car bought by John Lennon after he passed his driving test is being offered for sale at auction next month. The Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 Coupe was bought by the Beatle in 1965 and is expected to sell for between 120,000 euros (£99,987) and 170,000 euros (£141,000). Lennon's biographer, Philip Norman, described how car dealers descended on the singer's home when the news emerged that he had passed his test and offered him a "gleaming smorgasbord" of luxury cars.