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Mercury dies off, Lincoln to benefit

Ford's brand portfolio is set to get smaller by the end of the year. Following the sale of Aston Martin, Land Rover, Jaguar and most recently Volvo (to Chinese automaker Geely), the Blue Oval has now announced the demise of its 'middle of the range' Mercury brand, with production of the last vehicles set to cease at the end of 2010. In a statement released to media, Ford announced that the shuttering of the 71-year old Mercury brand was in the interest of focusing on Lincoln, the automaker's only remaining premium brand.

Porsche 918 Spyder to get 875bhp to take on McLaren P1 & LaFerrari

The Porche 918 Spyder – Porsche’s hybrid supercar – is to get a power boost and go on a diet to better compete with the McLaren P1 and LaFerrari. But the duo of hybrid supercars at Geneva will become a trio at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September when the Porsche 918 Spyder gets revealed in final production form before heading for a select group of customers in 2014. It does seem to have taken Porsche quite a while to get the 918 Spyder in production-ready guise  but it seems they may have been waiting to see what McLaren and Ferrari had up their collective sleeves before settling on a production specification for the 918 Spyder.

2013 Astra Cabrio caught on video

We have video of the 2013 Opel / Vauxhall Astra Cabriolet on video ahead of its debut at the Paris Motor Show. We’re guessing that even though the 2013 Astra Cabriolet (which will arrive as both the Vauxhall and Opel Cabrio) is due to debut at the Paris Motor Show next month, it won’t be in showrooms until the spring – just in time for another miserable summer. Ahead of that debut, GM Europe are out at the Nurburgring making sure their new soft-top doesn’t wibble wobble too much, resulting in the spy video below.