New Ford Focus ST at Goodwood Festival of Speed – and a diesel version too (video)

The new Ford Focus ST teased The facelift for the Ford ST facelift has started, with Ford releasing a single image (above) of the new ST which will be on show at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week, taking to the Goodwood Hillclimb in the ‘First Glance’ category. The basic facelift fodder for the new ST is what we saw earlier this year when the rest of the Focus range got a facelift, with a few new panels, bumpers, grill and lights marking out the old from the new. Ford is being coy about any power updates for the new ST, but it seems likely it will stick with the same 247bhp 2.0 litre as the current model and the same output.

New Mercedes GLA does off-road – a bit (video)

Mercedes want you to know the new GLA (pictured) can do off-road too. Mercedes are wasting little time in promoting the new GLA, with yesterday’s reveal of the A-Class Compact SUV coming with the first video trailer to whet potential buyers’ appetites. But it seems Mercedes are quite keen to show that the GLA might  just offer a bit more than soft-roader credentials if you opt for a 4MATIC 4WD version (initially available on the 2.0 litre petrol GLA 250 or turbodiesel GLA 220 CDI) in their latest promo video for the GLA.

Mercedes-Benz axes Maybach

High ranking Mercedes-Benz sources have confirmed to Autoweek that the underperforming Maybach brand will be officially killed off in 2013. The decision to disband Mercedes-Benz’s upper luxury marque comes after a decade of disappointing sales for the Maybach 57 and 62 and a recent decision from the German car maker’s chairman Dieter Zetsche not to push ahead with the development replacement models – the likes of which were tentatively due out in 2014 – owing to what one insider describes as a “positive move to focus greater attention on the Mercedes-Benz brand” . “We’ve come to the conclusion that it is better to cut our losses with Maybach than to continue into an uncertain future with a brand that has failed to live up to original sales expectations," the insider said.