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2011 Kia Picanto revealed

The 2011 Kia Picanto teased in a sketch ahead of Geneva 2011 Kia are on a bit of a roll at the moment (as are sister company Hyundai) with cars like the new 2011 Kia Optima and the new Kia Sportage taking Kia’s offerings to a much higher level in terms of design and style. And perception of quality. That upwards march looks set to continue with Kia’s version of the Hyundai i10 – the 2011 Kia Picanto – which is due to launch at the Geneva Motor Show in March 2011.

New Hyundai Test Centre at the Nurburgring revealed

Hyundai’s new test centre at the Nurburgring If anyone had said, just a few years ago, that Hyundai would develop a test centre at the Nurburgring to help shake-down their cars, they’d have been laughed at. But Hyundai – and Kia – have come so far in recent years that it makes absolute sense for them to develop a full-time testing facility at the Nurburgring to test their cars for the road, along with just about every other car maker of note. James May may object to the Nurburgring factor in the suspension set-ups of many road cars (and we do have some sympathy for his point of view), but the sometimes extreme nature of the Nurburgring’s surfaces – and its endless twists and turns, uphill and down – do offer car makers an easily accessible place to test cars in the (almost) real world.

Facelifted Lexus CT200h at 2013 Guangzhou show

Next week is already daft enough, what with the 2013 Tokyo and Los Angeles Motor Shows kicking off on the same day – Wednesday 20 November. Now it turns out there’s a third motor show happening at the same time, the 2013 Guangzhou Motor Show in China. And for some reason, Lexus has chosen Guangzhou to debut the revised CT200h hybrid hatchback.