What is Ford Vignale?
Vignale is the name for Ford's top-of-the range cars. With this new brand, Ford promises a high level of luxury and personal service
With so many Mercedes, Audi and BMW cars on the roads, it’s clear that upmarket brands are in high demand nowadays. Vignale is Ford’s answer to this increasingly popular high-end market, offering luxury touches to compete with the brands previously mentioned.
Instead of creating a whole new Vignale brand, like Toyota did when it founded Lexus, Ford uses the Vignale badge as a trim level which differentiates the models with more luxury touches and equipment from their more mainstream counterparts. As standard, these cars receive high-grade leather, swathes of electronic gadgets and a much-improved service at dealerships.
Ford first launched the Vignale name back in 2014 on the Mondeo, after realising buyers were willing to pay more for a higher-spec car - half of Mondeo buyers were going for the top-of-the-range option at the time - the Titanium.
Aside from the Mondeo, the Fiesta, Focus, Kuga, Puma and S-Max are now also offered in the Vignale specification, making them more desirable and luxurious than their standard trim levels
Ford claims that 10% of total model sales are cars specced in Vignale trim, and that demand for the cheapest models in their range is decreasing, while sales are increasing for the more expensive trim levels.
This is exemplified by Ford’s decision to drop the basic entry-level Fiesta Studio model due to poor sales, and to make room for more upmarket versions higher up in the Ford’s range of trim levels.
What's included with Ford Vignale?
The most obvious benefit of choosing a Vignale model is that Ford has ticked pretty much every option on the list, as well as using upmarket materials that aren't available with the rest of the range.
This means that Vignale models are available with exclusive exterior colours and alloy wheel designs, plus other cosmetic features, such as a hexagonal upper grille and LED headlights. The interiors of Vignale versions are made to feel like exclusive places to be too, with a generous helping of high-quality leather covering the seats and dashboard.
Part of luxury car appeal in the 21st century is that the driver needs to expend minimum effort and benefits from maximum comfort. As a result, you can expect a liberal scattering of electric motors - in order to remove the effort from adjusting the front seats, raising and lowering the bootlid, and folding the side mirrors.
Vignale models typically feature reversing cameras, upgraded sound systems, large alloy wheels and further luxuries, such as heated steering wheels.
Ford claims that each Vignale model is individually tailored to customer specifications and put together using a process that combines the latest in high-tech manufacturing techniques and the kinds of traditional craftsmanship employed by luxury car makers.
Vignale models are also said to undergo 100 additional quality checks at Ford’s production facility in Valencia, Spain.
Ford Vignale personal service
The other element of the Vignale package is the personal service that buyers receive.
Vignale customers receive a single number to get in touch with their dealership - for whatever enquiry they might have. Ford says that they can expect an answer 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from a specially-trained relationship manager.
They will arrange for your car to be collected when it needs servicing, and will also deliver a loan vehicle if needed. Ford will even book travel, events and 'lifestyle activities' such as breaks at luxury hotel and spa venues, and provide offers for theatre, music and sporting events. So you can think of this like a personal concierge service.
Along with this exclusive service number, the Vignale Service app links to online lifestyle content from Vignale Magazine, and offers driving tips and information, dealership and fuel station locators, and emergency call services.
What Ford Vignale cars are available?
The first Vignale car was the Ford Mondeo Vignale, but the range now includes the Ford S-Max Vignale, the Ford Edge Vignale, the Ford Fiesta Vignale, and the Ford Kuga Vignale. There are also Vignale versions of the Focus and Puma.
All models are very plush, but the Kuga might just be the plushest. It's one of the poshest SUVs from a mainstream manufacturer, though as a result prices are higher than for other versions, too.
High prices for new Vignale models might sound like a lot for a Ford, but these prices also mean that used Vignale models can make a very savvy purchase, as upmarket versions of ordinary cars tend to lose value quickly as used cars, meaning that you get a lot for your money by going second-hand.
Is a Ford Vignale worth the extra money?
The whole premise of the Vignale concept is that owners get a higher-quality product and save time on the odd occasion that their car needs servicing. Whether that's worth as much as £4,000 when new is the question. That's the price difference that you'd have had to pay with a new Mondeo if you chose the Vignale over a high-specification Titanium model.
Will a Ford Vignale lose value quickly?
Will Vignale models still be worth a premium when they are sold second-hand? The concierge benefits will pass onto subsequent owners if they buy a Vignale car from a Ford dealer - including cars sold through BuyaCar, which are often sourced from Ford dealers.
But Ford's own figures suggest that the Vignale range will only be worth a very marginal premium over other high-specification models, according to the company's finance predictions. That means that you get all the benefits of Ford's upmarket models with only a small additional cost with used models, making them seem particularly appealing when you consider the far larger premium facing new car customers.
Is it worth buying a Ford Vignale?
Drivers will have to decide whether the additional costs for Vignale models constitute value for money for them. If you really want a high-quality soft leather interior, and will take full advantage of the concierge and app services, then you might decide to take the plunge and go all-in for a Vignale model.
But the high price of the cars new means that there are plenty of other upmarket options from more high-end brands that might seem more enticing to new car customers. Whether the time you save at the dealership is worth the extra money is a moot point; you should only be going to a dealership once a year or so for a service, with a new car, so we can’t see that a few hours saved once a year is worth hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
Where does the Vignale name come from?
If you've been Googling Vignale, you may have stumbled upon some extravagantly styled classic cars. Vignale Carrozzeria was an Italian styling house started by Alfredo Vignale, famed for its exotic Ferrari-based cars. Ford bought the company, along with another Italian coachbuilder-turned posh nameplate, Ghia, back in 1973.