RE: Aston abandons Lagonda SUV
Discussion
DonkeyApple said:
Amirhussain said:
Clivey said:
Hopefully (and this seems to be the "plan" going from the article), a tasteful Lagonda-badged saloon will sell by the bucketload in China, negating the "need" for yet another a blinged-up WAG mobile.
How well has the Rapide sold? Aston needed this car, look how many Cayenne's Porsche has sold.cullenster said:
Aston had a chance to build a spectacular Lagonda back in the mid 90s. But owners Ford wouldn't let them. Shame on you Ford.
Honey, who melted the Maybach?!As for this:
Good riddance! Absolutely hideous, vile thing!
Now, we just have to have an intervention for Bentley, Maserati, and Lamborghini.
RosscoPCole said:
That's certainly a more elegant solution than this:Though the shooting brake/estate versions quite appeal to me.
Then again, I wouldn't turn down any Virage/Vantage variant. Fantastic cars; brutish, British, and very nineties.
For all the DB9s, DBS, Vanquish, V8/V12 Vantages I see around where I live, there are very few Virage/Vantages. There's even a V12 Vantage Zagato near me, and those weren't even imported to the US (there's only one other in the country, and that one's in Pebble Beach), yet Virages are exceedingly rare!
While the Lagonda design study of a SUV is utterly horrible, it does not alter my view that this is a mistake and that management do not know their arses from their elbows.
It will prove to be a massive error not to build an up market SUV.
Jaguar are going to do it.
Bentley are going to do it.
This is the marketplace now.
I find it distressing how poor the strategic decisions seem to be coming out of Aston.
At a tactical level, working with the products they have, they do a decent job. But when it comes to the big strategic stuff about the business, my Yorkshire Terrier could do an equal job.
It will prove to be a massive error not to build an up market SUV.
Jaguar are going to do it.
Bentley are going to do it.
This is the marketplace now.
I find it distressing how poor the strategic decisions seem to be coming out of Aston.
At a tactical level, working with the products they have, they do a decent job. But when it comes to the big strategic stuff about the business, my Yorkshire Terrier could do an equal job.
andrew.delamare said:
Car magazine ran an article on the new Lagonda that Aston have been working on and produced an artists impression based upon the test mules it had shots of.
I think its looks pretty awesome.
That looks lovely. Their issue is that they only have the one floorpan. I suspect the Rapide is about as big as they can go. I think its looks pretty awesome.
The Lagonda brand should either be a Bentley SUV rival or a Rolls rival. Pitched right at the very top, the pinnacle.
Thank the Gods for that. Shelving this horrid vehicle shows that Aston are truly committed to the Marque, not money. Most, if not all high level Marques (and all of the low to middle-level ones) have "reached down" to accommodate this market and in reality, it discounts their respective brands. In fact, that's it - all they then become are brands. Aston have seen this and gingerly treaded the "Concept" path. The rational is such that Land Rover don't make a sports coupe!
Now why didn't this same fate happen to the Cygnet?
Now why didn't this same fate happen to the Cygnet?
andrew.delamare said:
Car magazine ran an article on the new Lagonda that Aston have been working on and produced an artists impression based upon the test mules it had shots of.
I think its looks pretty awesome.
The sharper, more angular lines of that seem to echo the recent Aston Zagato concepts (as seen recently at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este in Lake Como), which I actually find quite attractive. I think its looks pretty awesome.
Though I'm a huge fan of the "classic" Aston profile as seen in the DB7/9/DBS/Vanquish, etc, I think they've reached a point where they can't really do much more with that shape without messing it up too much with ever increasing fussy details.
Aston have a fairly sizable back-catalogue of attractive shapes and designs that have, as of yet, not really been drawn upon in their recent design language.
I think this could, and should, change soon, and I think the Zagato concept and the (possible) new Lagonda could be evidence of this.
In the Villa d'Este concept, I can see elements of these:
bobberz said:
The sharper, more angular lines of that seem to echo the recent Aston Zagato concepts (as seen recently at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este in Lake Como), which I actually find quite attractive.
That Aston Zagato concept is gorgeous.As an aside, I'll just leave this other photo here... ;-)
Edited by unsprung on Saturday 19th July 20:31
DoctorX said:
But without the big cheese grater at the front.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff