Monroe 72122 Front Sensa Trac Strut on 2040-parts.com

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.

New Toyota Avenis (2012) at Frankfurt plus new Prius family and 2012 Yaris

2012 Toyota Avensis - teased ahead of Frankfurt 2011 As Frankfurt draws close its Toyota’s turn to reveal their 2011 offerings at the show, which will include the 2012 facelift Toyota Avensis. The new Avensis is the only Toyota at Frankfurt we haven’t already seen, and Toyota hasn’t done much more than send us the teaser photo you see at the top. But we do know Toyota re claiming the 2012 Avensis is the ‘Most expensive mid-life facelift’ they have ever undertaken.

Audi A6 (2011) first official pictures

Essentially an A7 fastback in its work clothes, the new Audi A6 saloon is lighter, greener and more tech-heavy than ever.  The mini-A8 styling is more evolutionary than revolutionary, but underneath the skin are some key key changes, including the addition of a hybrid drivetrain. Initially the A6 comes with a choice of five engines: a pair of petrols and three TDI units. And because all new A6 engines are linked to efficiency-enhancing systems like start-stop and energy recovery the average consumption across the range has been dropped by 19%.