https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...troll-k61soxrp

 

I hope Stroll can turn this around but Palmer still has to go...sounds like he's a branding luxury goods type not auto so we'll see how this plays out..without the right cars and pricing I don't see it...time will tell...


On a different note...we hit 300+ vantage cars 4 sale on cargurus (2019 & 2020)....I have never seen inventory this high and 2021 deliveries start in the spring...25-30% off seems doable if you're in the market..

https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/invent...dEntity=c27435

 

The Times has a more in depth coverage with near and mid term strategies.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f...rtin-q2k6qcrzg

600 layoffs. About time. And add new 600 to St. Athans.

 

Lawrence Stroll IS a car guy, Owns Canada's premier historic (F1) racetrack, among the finest vintage Ferrari race cars, and yes, an F1 team. No lack of auto passion.

But I take your point - if the current slate of AM cars, and new SUVs ends up a collective mess - that's just not an easy fix.

Note that Red Bull F1 team has been branded Aston for some time (albeit with Renault and Honda engines) - and nothing technical from Aston, AFAIK. Go figure. A

Assuming it's just branding, AM took the dosh and spent it on the current dud products/inventory?

Capital infusion is great, but executing a long-term plan will be challenging. I'm hoping for the best.

Cheers

Matt

 

I think what may actually save them is if Mercedes or Volvos parent company Geely purchases majority share and bankrolls them. Geely did a great job with Volvo in a relatively short time. Yes they lack sport cars but if Geely had a hands off approach and allowed them a higher budget the newer products may not be as rushed or the opposite with more resources be able to come to market quicker. DBX is only in front of Ferrari's SUV at this point.

 

"The company has also confirmed that the slow-selling Vantage (pictured above) will be given a major refresh and that a roadster version will be launched later this year to broaden its appeal further."

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a3...lan-announced/

 

The Vantage major refresh is what's needed to save the brand. It's exciting to see they finally will refresh the Vantage. Make the DBS the now DB11 at same pricing of the DB11. They need to outdo the Roma which will be a better Vantage than the current Vantage. Not sure how committed a major refresh of the Vantage is, if they are already releasing the soft-top Vantage now. You would think they would wait till after the major refresh. They need to go back to more of the past elegant interiors and keep the cool analog or if going digital, outdo the Roma (the Roma even has a digital panel for the passenger -super cool), and they need to put the V12 in the Vantage as a standard engine, even if naturally aspirated which would out-do the Roma. You open the hood of a Roma and you see that great Ferrari engine - the past Astons (all of them) you open the hood and yu see - engine. The new Vantage? Open the hood and you see a sea of plastic. A V12 in the Vantage wold certainly fix that. The nose needs to be a major redo. The pop-up I-Pad screen - Yuk - and cheap looking, especially compared to what Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, and even arguably the new C8 has. If you are going digital today, you can't be just so so. The Vantage needs an entry level price. Maybe do a GT deal at $99K for liquidating the current line. The current Vantage is not a bad car and does have many who think it's great, but not at the well over $200K optioned out. And the Warranties - they need to be better than the competition, and not charge nearly $2K annually for an inspection for an oil change and new wiper blades just to maintain the warranty - and not make the customer argue on piddly warranty things that even a Kia dealer would simply fix, no conflicts to deal with. They need to deal with the dealer network that's sitting on inventory they can't sell, at least without taking a loss. The dealers need only two or three cars/SUV in inventory and go back to the days when most customers custom built their cars, that would solve a ton of problems. The 'brand' is suffering - what is the 'brand' anymore? It's not really elegant gentleman's sports car with world leading design. They certainly are not the quickest or the best handling. People bought the Aston because of the elegance - the mystique. Yes, an Aston sponsored 'Track-Day' is nice, but to get the brand excitement Aston needs to have owners clubs events - sponsor owner drives to elegant restaurants where owners can display their cars to other potential buyers whose wives will want their husbands to buy one, or successful women will desire them - again (assuming they fix the elegant problem). That sort of thing will help sell cars and build the brand. The Aston Martin Magazine - wow - what marketing genius put that together? I'm not sure Aston owners in general bought their car to drive to their $100 million yacht or to the store to by a $5,000 bottle of wine. I'd like to see more of their cars, stories more about Aston Owners - History, thing that build the Aston Brand - almost like the Vantage Magazine does. The Aston 'stuff'. It's now incredibly cheap clothing compared to the past - what's with that? I can get a Titanium Exhaust for my V12S which outside the USA get's me 600 HP, but here not so much for just $30,000 and still keep my warranty. If it was say $10K I'd drop that (even at the lower HP) in a heartbeat. It would be really nice to have Aston Martin upgrades to the current and past models at somewhat realistic pricing. That would help the brand. They should have a manual as an option in every car as they used to. I personally like the sports-shift more than the Auto or manual. For me it's because it's still involving, but I have knee pain (67) and fear the clutch, if I was younger, a manual would be the route for sure. Even the DBX should have a manual option - would set it apart if the DBX is promoting being an SUV Sportscar which it seems to be the marketing. My local Aston Dealer was FORCED to pre-purchase inventory - eight (8!) DBX's. I hope Aston stops making the dealers have excessive inventory. You would think a buyer of a $220K SUV would like to choose their own colors and options and not pick one form the lot like a Toyota. I hope Lawrence Stroll and his team reads this blog, I hope they query every current Aston owner as to their thoughts. I hope they actually concentrate on their cars - not the planes, boats, condo's, etc. I'm cautious but also excited to see where it's all headed.

 

The performance of the new Vantage is great. The looks are divisive to say the least. We all said how the cars sell would be the the proof. The marketplace has spoken. I would guess a revision is 6 mths to a year out. So there will be all the inventory and even more of the current iteration to get sold. There's more wrong with Aston than the new Vantage and they need to decide what niche they are going to fill.

 

Not gonna help with the re-sale of my 2019 Vantage if they refresh it shortly. Dammit...as much as I love it wouldn't wanna take any sort of a hit on it.

 

Yeah, a re-fresh is for vehicles long in the tooth, and before a completely new model comes out.

You can't meaningfully 'freshen' a brand new line of 2019 models.

I just don't see how that's going to work - sound like 'too little, too early'. It even sounds strange writing it.

Cheers

Matt

 

What they need is for the suv to be a hit and then make a couple more variations of said suv (electric/lower price models etc) so they can get enough cash to plow back into money losing sports cars. I bought a small amount of stock, not based on the investment but on the positive dbx reviews.

 

I walked in the Aston Dealer and saw they were forced to pre-order 8 DBX's. So given the number of Aston dealers worldwide (150+) X 8 that's 1,200 'sold' DBX's - the same numbers they played with the DB11 and Vantage. Using the dealers as the finance arm did not work in the past - won't help today. Hopefully they can find the 8 buyers of a $220K SUV that like the color and wheel options the dealer had to preorder. As far as resale value for Ksa's new Vantage, you've just gotta enjoy the car! Unless you bought a used older Aston with most of the depreciation they are all goin' down. I had a pristine 13,000 mile black on black 2015 V12S which I had $110K invested (with 2 year warranty) and put maybe another $3K in some custom work. When I saw a never sold 2017 V12S Metallic Silver with Sahara Tan (my best Aston colors) that retailed for $205, but I got it for $145 (I put about another $5K in options since then - including extending the warranty to 3 1/2 years) - the value will continue to go down - to a point. The trade in for my 2015 V12S was a piddling $75K - ouch. The point is at least for me, I have the prefect Aston Martin despite the financial hit I'll take until the rarity (hopefully) of the V12S reverses and it becomes a collector status. I could have simply bought an older V8 Vantage (which is the buy of the century )that took all of the depreciation already (they seem to actually be going up in value looking at whats for sale), and had money in the bank as well as lower licencing fees, gas mileage, and insurance - a lot lower. But you only live once, and if you are fortunate enough to have an Aston 9and afford it), and love the current new V8 Vantage you have - just enjoy it.

 

I read an article that all DBX's so far have been pre-sold which is good if true for the company.

 

Not if they are pre-sold to dealers. See the post above.

 

It's called deception, interestingly under the Palmer leadership. Like when Aston Martin in Chicago sold me my first V12S as 'Timeless Certified' and it was actually a factory track-car test vehicle they conveniently lost ALL the records on (22,000 miles). I received a letter signed from an Aston VP stating the car had never been driven other than 'normally'. The Naperville dealer claimed they had no idea of it's history, but a document I saw from Aston Martin to dealers looking for a buyer clearly showed that was a lie. It was when I discovered the car had been 'resprayed' and the ceramic disk brakes had been replaced on a surviving document that Aston's deceptive practices became clear as day. This warranted an out-of-court settlement (they replaced the car with a better one at a significant loss on Aston Martin's side). As a three decade owner of Aston's this came to me as a shock to say the least. The brand I respected for 30 long years started to lose my confidence. This story does not end - they resold to a local gent who was made aware of the car's history (by me), and then the story gets much worse, but essentially more deception and an out of court settlement from the next owner.

So when Aston releases numbers of 'sold' vehicles and I witnessed the GM of the local Aston Dealer trying to figure out the colors and options to order the required 8 DBX's, without customers, I actually felt sick to my stomach that a brand I loved for three decades has stooped to such unethical practices of claiming sales - but not to end users.

I sincerely hope that this recent change represents an entirely new era, and that a year from now I don't see eight DBX's sitting on the showroom floor, unsold, and willing to sell at desperation pricing like I know I can get any of the cars sitting at the dealer to negotiate.

The solution - get the brand to be the most elegant sportscar in the world and out-gun the Ferrari Roma - and that will take a major overhaul. Concentrate on making it a great Aston Martin product - not a repackaged AMG Mercedes. When you open the hood of a Roma you see a beautiful Ferrari engine - a V12 DB11 or Vanquish - a beautiful Aston engine - a Vantage - a sea of plastic then a Mercedes engine. The interior of the Roma looks like a proper Aston Martin, not a mish-mash of styles - that's the benchmark for changes. It has to be better, not just equal, and it has to have better warranty, better service. Ferrari just changed the game, and if Aston still wants to play they have to be smarter, and do it quickly.