I'm a bit surprised they have dropped the titanium name. I wonder if that signals a move to a higher spec luxury push across other models in the Ford family for Australia.
According to an article I found online dated 2017 (
https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...ignale-review/ , the vignale is almost a luxury sub-brand. Here are some extracts from that:
"Unlikely as it seems, Ford of Europe is deadly serious about its new Vignale sub-brand, planning to create lux iterations of everything from the subcompact Fiesta to the minivan-like S-Max. Having sold off both Jaguar and Land Rover when times were tougher, Ford no longer has any s****ier brand in Europe—Lincoln has never had a presence on the Continent—and Vignale models are meant to fill some of the gap. We’re told that they are positioned above the existing model hierarchy and are aimed at customers who otherwise would go for a premium brand".
"As you’d expect, the Kuga Vignale gets plusher trim and more standard equipment than its workaday cousin, and indeed it comes fitted with pretty much every available option. But it also will be sold differently, from no-hassle “lounges” inside select Ford dealerships to the offer of pick-up-and-drop servicing and even a concierge service that claims to be capable of getting tickets for sold-out shows. (These perks are similar to those offered to buyers of Lincoln Black Label models in the U.S.) The company says that Vignale variants will undergo extra quality checks during assembly as well, which might make buyers of lesser Kugas wonder just what Ford is willing to overlook on their cars."
I wonder if this means we might be looking at a sort of Ford Special Vehicles
presence in select dealerships.
The absence of a diesel in the new Escape range probably means the endura is intended to hold the fort until hybrids become more mainstream in the brand.