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Am I alone in worrying about Aston Martin’s exhumation of the Lagonda name?

The business case is clear: you can call a luxury limousine a Lagonda and sell it in places an Aston could never venture, which is why Aston Martin reckons it could expand its global footprint from 32 to 100 countries.

Moreover if the much-rumoured tie-up with Mercedes takes place, then a Lagonda based on a Mercedes platform using modified drivetrains might well be an expedient way of executing such a project.

Putting aside all issues about the relevance of such a car in the world as it stands today, my real concern is the strength of the name. How many people out there have actually heard of a Lagonda and how many more would spend a substantial sum to own one?

It's not every day that you get to be a spy photographer, but I was travelling around the M25 on Tuesday evening when I suddenly noticed a strange, but vaguely familiar car ahead of us. We were getting near our junction turn-off, so I asked the driver...

How do you top the Veyron? After spending the weekend at the Pebble Beach Concours – where the new Grand Sport was unveiled – I can report it’s a question that Bugatti’s senior execs are wrestling with.

One thing's for sure, the company isn't in the mood for downsizing or replacing the 253mph supercar with a pale imitation of its predecessor.

Today is a sad anniversary for the car industry: the 20^th anniversary of Enzo Ferrari’s death in 1988.

In many ways, the company that Ferrari founded has changed enormously in the last two decades, but in others it’s stayed pretty much exactly the same – not least the continuation of the mystique that he created around the brand.

More than 20 years ago, a couple of senior Volvo engineers travelled to Audi’s Ingolstadt HQ, bought an Audi 90 20v saloon and took it back to Gothenburg.

Taking Audi’s engineering as an inspiration (front and four-wheel drive, five-cylinder engines in 10v and 20v form), Volvo planned to modernise its image and engineering, and head upmarket. But two decades on, its global sales are stuck at around 420,000. And even board members lament that its customer base still wants simple, unflashy, reliable cars.

Cute though it appears, you might be a bit crestfallen to learn that Nissan thinks the future of the car is signalled by this strange black and white Cube prototype, that gets around using an electric motor. This does not look a car likely to excite.

Your thinking might change, though, when you discover that it hauls itself to 40mph as quickly as a powerful V6 saloon, and that the production car this engineering mule will sire may be good for 60mph in around five seconds.