Apparently, Aston sold the design and tooling for the outgoing Vanquish? Why in the world would they do that? It is possible that someone else will bring it back from the dead, or use as a starting point for some other car, or parts manufacturer?

Sold for $26 million.

It is really a little weird if you ask me.

Here is a link to the article......

https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1119506_someone-paid-26m-for-outgoing-aston-martin-vanquishs-tooling-and-design-drawings

 

 

 

My bet the buyer is Chinese and plans to make their own cars for the Chinese domestic market or where ever they can sell them.

 

that certainly seems like a paltry amount and a bad decision by aston brass. why potentially damage the reputation/reduce the value of one of your special models? short-sighted, for sure.

 

+10
Yes please.

 

So the thing I think that is weird about this is that the Vanquish S is still considered a current model. You can still go to the Aston Martin website and configure one to build. Why in the world would they want to sell a current model line? Sure it is being sunsetted, but its not dead yet. I could see selling older designs, but not one where there is probably still new inventory sitting in some dealer's lots.

So if they are selling it to the Chinese, Why would they choose to abandon that market, China? It is potentially a huge market. Furthermore, China has dictated that passenger cars will go all electric. Are the chinese going to fill the engine compartment with batteries and convert the car to electric?

The other thing is that this sale was disclosed as part of the process of going public. It occurred prior to the company going public. Was the company that desperate for cash prior to going public that they are selling off their children?

I agree that it is not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things,

It is a bit of mystery and unexpected. Its like GM is coming out with their new mid engined Corvette and they go ahead and sell the rights, tooling, and designs for the current C7. Hopefully someone has a plan where this all makes sense.

 

Do we know if it was China that bought it? It was a likely guess on my part. Could be that buying the tooling would ensure spare panels for the future and maybe other parts too? I don't think there's 28 million plus profit in spare parts for the Vanquish in short or near term. Could the additional IP be worth it and the tooling be only worth so much? We'll see as the story gets more details.

As everyone has mentioned, I don't see the upside for AM selling at that price, but what do I know? I am in cyber security, not the auto business....

 

Hmmm. What about protecting the heritage of the marque?

I suppose it really depends on who bought them, but the bottom line is, once they are out of Aston's hands, there is nothing to say that they can't be sold and sold again...

 

Hardly true- if you guys think they sold the IP and molds to someone like you sell a car (pun intended)- ie without a sale contract prohibiting certain things post sale; you should probably go back to business school.

What likely happened here is they sold it someone who can make the panels cheaper; it's not common for OEM's to make as much as AM does on a car, and that trend likely began with marrying Mercedes Benz electronics into the new models. Hell, it likely began way before the partnership with MB.

We're likely getting wound up over nothing. I don't think you're going to be seeing imitation Vanquish's running the streets with LS7 motors any time soon...

 

They're just selling tooling to a supplier to make replacement parts for product sustaining. Very normal practice. This vendor will be used to manufacture the parts that you buy through the dealer. Non-news.

 

 

Tooling is sold from manufacturer to manufacturer all the time. Aston may even have sold all the tooling to one vendor who then goes on to find sub-vendors to make individual parts and resells to each of them. There's nothing special going on here.

 

 

Would you really want Chinese junk?