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Ford Mondeo Vignale revealed – it’s back to the days of Ford Ghia

The Ford Mondeo Vignale (picture) has been revealed as Ford’s new range-topper Mainstream car makers have always tried to add some glitz and gloss to their models by tagging on a badge they thought made their cars more exclusive. Like Ford with endless ‘Ghia’ models sitting at the top of the Ford range after they bought Ghia of Turin in 1970. Ford continued to use the Ghia badge to mark out its best-equipped models until very recently (you could still buy a Fiesta Ghia as recently as 2008) but they finally dropped the badge and moved their top of the tree badge over to the ‘Titanium’ moniker.

Chinese bank may join Saab rescue deal

Saab's owner, Swedish Automobile, said on Monday it is discussions with a bank in China and Chinese automaker Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile over a rescue deal for Saab. Reports had said on Sunday that the Bank of China would replace China's Pang Da as an investor in Saab, which is under bankruptcy protection. Swedish Automobile confirmed Monday that it is talking with Youngman and a bank in China about an equity interest, but did not name the bank.

BMW M8 (2016) supercar

BMW’s plans to unleash a new mid-engined supercar are firming up. Previously known as M1, the 600bhp supercar is now called M8 internally, and is being lined up as the flagship car to mark BMW’s 100th birthday in 2016. M division boss Friedrich Nitschke has proposed that the M8 shares the exotic carbonfibre and aluminium underpinnings of the i8 plug-in hybrid due in 2014.