New Kia Picanto 3-door (2011) arrives

The new sport Kia Picanto 3-Door

The Kia Picanto of old was a dreary little thing, best thought of as disposable motoring flotsam; so cheap you could throw it away when you’d finished with it.

But the new Kia Picanto – revealed at Geneva this year - is a different kettle of fish altogether, and now we’re to get treated to a ‘Sporty’ version too – the 3-door Kia Picanto.

Already in a different league in the looks department, the 3-door Picanto raises the bar again and is starting to look almost as good as stuff like the Fiat 500 – but from only £7,795. So, still disposal able prices, just not a disposable product any more.

Changes for the 3-door Picanto include a bigger grill and new bumpers, with the front bumper getting a slim lower grill and black-bezelled fogs whilst the back bumper gets a black central section with twin chrome exhausts pipes on show. There’s also some posh alloys on offer on the higher-trim models.

Inside the 3-door Picanto is perhaps not quite bas ‘Sporty’, with the bog standard ’1′ (and 1 ‘Air’ which, you’ll be astonished to learn, is the trim level 1 with AirCon) just getting plain black trim. But move up to the Halo or Equinox (yes, the 30door gets its upper trim levels named instead of the 2 and 3 of the five door) and the Halo has premium black and grey interior trim and the Equinox gets premium ‘Chilli’ red.

Halo models come with 14″ alloys, parking sensors (back only), high-gloss white fascia, heated seats and steering wheel. Move up to the top of the tree Equinox and the alloys become 15″ and you get Climate instead of AirCon and keyless.

Engine options on the 3-door Picanto is the same as the 5-door, with either a 1.0 litre 3-pot with 68bhp, 67.3mpg and 99g/km or a 1.25 litre 4-pot with 84bhp between 100 and 1125 g/km CO2 depending on the model. Which makes both the 3-pots and the 4-pot 1.25 ‘Halo’ EcoDynamics exempt from Congestion Charging.

Who needs electric or hybrid cars for urban use when you can have a congestion-charge exempt, good looking Kia Picanto – with AirCon and decent levels of kit – for around £8k?

(5 photos – click any thumbnail for full size)

By Cars UK