What happened to Ghia badged Fords?

[Drclarke]

xrv said:

Ford thought the Ghia badge was too old fashioned for its new cars. I think the term they used was "Smoking jacket"
They did run Ghia and Titanium side by side on the Mondeo for a while with Ghia meant to be the luxury version with wood trim etc, and Titanium with
modern technology like bluetooth and DAB.
The Ghia just became pointless so it was dropped and Titanium took over as the top badge.

The last Ghia badged Ford was the Galaxy before the facelift in 2010.
Like the Popular, L, LX and XR badges of the past the Ghia trim now resides in history.

I had wondered, thank you for the explanation

[fathomfive]

[redacted]

[fathomfive]

Yep, my dad used to bring me the brochures home for me to look through. Then, when he'd made his choice, I'd have the nervously excited wait for it to be delivered - all the while learning its spec off by heart

[kingboyk]

J4CKO said:

The epitome of Ghia Era I think was the MK1 Granada Coupe,

Now that I really like. Great colour too.

[hman]

fathomfive said:

Yep, my dad used to bring me the brochures home for me to look through. Then, when he'd made his choice, I'd have the nervously excited wait for it to be delivered - all the while learning its spec off by heart

Glad it wasn't just me !!!

[LewisR]

Oddly, the Mk3 Granada has Scorpio as the top of the range, with Ghia just below that.
I think in Europe, where all Mk3 Granadas were called Scorpio, the top of the range was Scorpio Ghia and not Scorpio Scorpio.

[MorganP104]

Fox- said:

I loved my Mondeo Ghia X.

I had a MkII one of those, of the V6 variety.

It looked really ordinary, which was great for giving traffic light racers a bit of a shock. I remember the leather seats being particularly comfy.

[Dapster]

On the old S-Max the top of the range was the Titanium X. The top of the range on the new shape is the Titanium Sport - you can spec the X pack as an extra (leather, elec seats, LED adaptive headlamps etc) making it the Titanium Sport X Pack. I have one of these which makes me considerably richer than yaw.

[Wacky Racer]

[graham22]

Wacky Racer said:

Am I the only one reading that number plate Del-Boy style - Cap Rhee Gear?

[ambuletz]

Ghia, much like corolla and vectra is a little bit old fashioned isn't it? They want to appeal to a wide audience so use an impressive word like TITANIUM. I'm fine with the corolla name though. Bring back the camry too!

[Pistachio]

Ford after ruining a famous Italian coachbuilders name has now moved onto another Vignale
These were extremely famous and influential coachbuilders whose names were sullied by being treated as trim levels with nothing to do with Italy or the coachbuilding that they came from
Another American company destroying something of beauty

[cerb4.5lee]

MorganP104 said:

Fox- said:

I loved my Mondeo Ghia X.

I had a MkII one of those, of the V6 variety.

It looked really ordinary, which was great for giving traffic light racers a bit of a shock. I remember the leather seats being particularly comfy.

Same and l really liked mine, it had a nice spec and was very comfortable to cover miles in, and whilst the engine wasn't a fire ball it was very nice to use.

[David87]

To be fair, the Vignale cars are actually really nice. I like the sound of the Fiesta variant.

[J4CKO]

Pistachio said:

Ford after ruining a famous Italian coachbuilders name has now moved onto another Vignale
These were extremely famous and influential coachbuilders whose names were sullied by being treated as trim levels with nothing to do with Italy or the coachbuilding that they came from
Another American company destroying something of beauty

So, an Italian bloke builds a few special bodies in the fifties and sixties, largely gets completely forgotten until Ford buy the name, hang onto it for decades then decide to resurrect it on some new cars as their premium brand ?

Its this slavish thing that if its old it must be revered, history and stuff, especially as its Italian and a bit exotic sounding, it was a bloke who made new bodies for other cars, they were pretty but Ford arent exactly averse to the odd pretty car, but old and Italian will always win over new and American, if Vignale as a coachbuilder was that bloody good there would be cars still being made, by his descendants, in his own name.

Seeing it all over, if its British it must be st, if its new it has no soul, humans have not changed that much that they cannot create wonderful things, I love old cars but lets not get carried away because it all seems so romantic in the past compared to the reality of now.

Was reading posts on the Ford Capri Facebook group, same deal, new Fords just arent built the same way apparently, no quality, compared to what terminal rust and needing a decoke after five years ?

I think as humans, we like the past as it is a known quantity, the present is familiar and boring, and the future a bit scary and unknown, so lets wallow in the past.

[M-SportMatt]

LewisR said:

Oddly, the Mk3 Granada has Scorpio as the top of the range, with Ghia just below that.
I think in Europe, where all Mk3 Granadas were called Scorpio, the top of the range was Scorpio Ghia and not Scorpio Scorpio.

I thought in the UK the Granada Scorpio was the saloon while the hatch was the standard Granada....both available in GHIA trim.......the clue here is that GHIA has always been a trim level.....

[Dapster]

M-SportMatt said:

I thought in the UK the Granada Scorpio was the saloon while the hatch was the standard Granada....both available in GHIA trim.......the clue here is that GHIA has always been a trim level.....

In the UK both saloon and hatch were the Granada with Scorpio the top trim level. When the bug eyed mk 2 was launched, the Granada name was finally dropped in the UK in favour of Scorpio across the entire range which now included the estate.