Did he mention plans for fixing the awful front grill of the new Vantage?

 

interesting read

thanks for posting

Graeme

 

As an Aston fan, I hope the company survives and profits.

Lots of people over the years have fervently believed that they can take Aston successfully into the future, and we know historically how that has panned out: a company that has spent many of its 100+ years teetering at the precipice. Still, AP's approach sounds rational to me. What's also on his side is the number of high net worth potential customers worldwide, which is unprecedented in history, coupled with a worldwide trend of increasing income polarization.

I do have a concern, though. AP's strategy is based on Aston's niche as a maker of beautiful cars. Whereas his business strategy may be moving in the right direction, from my viewpoint his styling department is not.

 

From the interviews, articles and such out there with Andy Palmer's vision, it seems to me he is shooting at the upcoming generation, NOT the standard, more mature "money".
This being said, if you attend car cruise ins/shows, if you notice, the younger crowd gravitate more toward the "supercars", not the stylish cars. Hence, the younger, sometimes wealthy crowd of the internet business minded, or per se, younger "rich" jet set, is more interested in the WOW look rather than the traditional, styling of AM of recent years.
I have to agree, the grille of the new Vantage is/was too much. I am in hopes for a redesign as well...but...if you take that to a cruise in/show...I'd bet it's a hit with the under 30 crowd, and if there is money there, they will buy!

 

Grill side, I think the interior of the DB11 is far too busy, and the I-Pad Nav is a big turn-off. Even Mercedes who's new E-Class has an interior that is far cleaner and way above the 'glass' panel dash that Aston is adopting indicates that Aston is going giant steps backward in interior design compared to the clean cohesive interiors of Pre-Palmer interiors. The interior of the new Vantage is a convoluted mess trying to integrate the look of the AMG GT which is somewhat 'less ugly'. The exterior of the new Vantage is not a deal killer for me - it's the interior. When you open the hoods of the past Aston Martins (all of them) it's impressive - the new ones look plastic and unimpressive, another critical point. At the local dealer, pre-sales of 2018 Vantages is not happening, but it looks like DB11's are doing OK. If anything the new Vantage makes the DB11 look a whole lot better.

 

Strongly agree. I feel the same way and once I decide to get back in the market for another Aston, I'd likely go for a DB11 rather than the new Vantage.

Maybe I'm just getting older! Lol

 

Actually, parking the Vantage V12S next to the DB11 compared to a Vantage next to the DB9, the DB11 seems more 'compact' than the DB9, so it's not too much larger (in appearance).

 

Let me try to understand this.
Aston had years to look at the awful stuck on top of the dash navigation unit.
They then has yeats to design the dashboard on the new cars.
And they still stuck the god awful screen on top of the dash instead of integrating it into the dashboard?

You can’t make this stuff up.

 

At least the previous version folded away flush with the 'waterfall' when not in use. The current gen just sits there, immobile, as stupid and cheap looking as in every other vehicle with the same "design".

 

It looks like there are less metal finishes in the interior that previous models.

I like their styling and if you think of each model's life cycle; there's plenty of time for styling iterations and improvements. The 1st year grill of the new Vantage may be very intentional so they "refine or improve" over next decade.

 

I reckon Marcus is a Porsche guy too. Clear as day.

IIRC, Andy brought on SalesForce to track AM customers as well. His is quite methodical in his approach to understanding customer segmentation. With proper use of data, this can only get better, i.e. understanding what else AM customers might like beyond just cars, which we already see in Art of Living.