As much as I love Aston Martin, I was shocked when I first heard the news that FORD were taking over as the new owners being a solid 200% Holden Fan.
Recently noted in the weekend paper is the Ford are now looking to sell AM saying it has been approached by several potential buyers and that it would be the quote "...logical one to sell" Peter Cooke 'professor of automotive industries management at Nottingham Business School'.
Aston Martin were made big in the 1960's as British Secret Agent James '007' Bond's car of choice and still to this day marvelled by many celebrities and spoken very highly of by the Top Gear crew.
I have to admit that under FORD they did bring out the very impressive DB9 which I still drool over as it drives down the road and am very interested to see if sold what the new owners can bring to the Aston Martin Badge.
9 comments:
The late 20th century has made it very apparent that regardless of how much you charge for a car, volumes too small simply cannot support the R&D required to even develop a tail light assembly, let alone a sophisticated engine worthy of such a badge. Ford, for whatever problems it's got, has generally been a good surrogate parent, and has seen the improvement of quality for the British marques (even if it couldn't bring Jag to profitability). Volvo and SAAB were not exactly exclusive, but still couldn't survive with only half a million cars. I just hope whoever buys Aston has the proper funding to keep it afloat.
Saab is a GM vehicle Tony, and I am thinking that BMW or VW will be the likely purchasers of AM.
Should BMW take over control then someone please wipe my mouth as the drool will definately pool
Yes, precisely why SAAB isn't independent anymore, like Volvo (which by 1990 was only making 250,000 cars/year), they just haven't got the resources to keep pace with even Fiat on even engine development cost. It would be interesting if VW or BMW bought Aston. If VW did though, they may have to dump some of their other brands, since they have a stable full of exotica like Bugatti and Lambo. I reckon between those two and Aston, AM is more feasible, since the other two really are toy cars for weekends while Aston can be used on an everyday basis, like a Porsche. BMW ownership would make the Aston brand complimentary to what they've got -- Rolls-Royce for the stately occasions, and Aston for, um, James Bonds.
You have the right info Tony, although I cant expect VW to offload any of their marques.
I think Tony hit it on the head when he said AM could be used on an everday basis to compete with the likes of Porsche. In that way it could fill a gap in the VW stable between regualr-premium brands like Audi and supercar brands of Bugatti/ Lambo.
I thik releasing 'cheaper' AM's to compete with the likes of Boxster/ Cayman would be a good move. I understand originally the vantage was intended to compete with 911 Carrera but ended up being far too expensive. Its a shame because if they were both the same price I know which I would have.
A more, um "accessible" (perhaps the right word) Aston, as what Scotty proposes, isn't such a bad idea.
There's a right way to do accessible, as what the Boxster is -- a real Porsche with simpler equipment, just enough of the right stuff for those who never drive to the extreme. Carefully executed, accessbility to a marque allows for a realistic number of people to dream and eventually join the club, to ensure that the brand is kept afloat. No point in buying a $700K car, only to find out in three years it's an orphan.
Look at the Monaro -- they couldn't build a new one because there aren't enough numbers to justify it. My answer? They should've allowed for the previous one to be available from, say, the Berlina version up. They made the Monaro, a doubtlessly good-looking car, $20K more expensive than the most accessible Commodore. I don't think it would necessarily cheapen it -- one would ponder how successful BMW would've been if the 2-door versions of the 3-series were preposterously priced vs the 4-doors.
Tonyc is correct: the capital you need for even a low-volume operation like Aston can be tricky. Bez will probably lead a (European) consortium to buy it, but I quite liked the idea of it falling into a luxury goods’ company’s hands, since those guys are pretty flush with funds. Remember that without Ford, Aston Martin could not even develop its own airbag system.
As to the price, I would spend the extra $40k on the Vantage versus the 997, even though the 997 is dynamically superior in every respect. It even feels better screwed together. Astons will seduce on looks, but I know for many people, the extra $40k cannot be justified for an inferior car.
I prefur the Porsche. Both are rampant in these parts.
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