Audi A3 Saloon arrives in the UK from £24,275

The Audi A3 Saloon (pictured) arrives in the UK Audi isn’t afraid of covering every possible niche in its ambition to be the world’s top ‘Premier’ marque, so we now get a third body shape for the new A3 – the Audi A3 saloon. Designed to sell in markets that prefer a traditional 3-box car to a hatch – like the US and China – Audi still believes there’s a market for an A3 with a boot in the UK, so the new A3 Saloon arrives on sale with a choice, at least initially, of three engines – two petrols and a diesel. Cosmetically, apart from the addition of a boot, the A3 Saloon gets more pronounced curves, bigger wheel arches, new shapes on the bonnet, new bumper, new lights and a boot spoiler.

Exclusive: Derek Jenkins to become Design Director at Mazda

Derek Jenkins, former chief designer at the Volkswagen Group design studio in Santa Monica, will become the new Director of Design at Mazda's R&D Design Center in Irvine, CA. Jenkins, who resigned from Volkswagen on March 17th, will be filling the position previously held by Franz von Holzhausen, who left Mazda in August last year to become Design Director at Tesla Motors. "I'm excited to take on something new," Jenkins told CDN.

BMW's EfficientDynamics teaser (2010)

This rather strange looking black BMW is the German car company’s latest publicity stunt. Painted matt black, and with ‘dontblogaboutthis’ emblazoned across its flanks, it is of course a tease designed to get forums fanatics and bloggers worked up into a frenzy as everyone tries to guess what it is. BMW has released just a few photos, plus a couple of videos, all of which are on www.dontblogaboutthis.com.