RE: Aston abandons Lagonda SUV

RE: Aston abandons Lagonda SUV

Author
Discussion

tali1

5,265 posts

200 months

Friday 18th July 2014
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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.
The Rapide was again about cutting corners. They knew they needed a big saloon at least for the key markets that were delivering sales to their competitors but they chose to squeeze something out on the cheap, using an existing platform and funnel the money instead to their pensions.
Nothing new really as Aston have used the existing platform method on their previous 4dr saloons.The only time they took risk was with the digital dash of The Lagonda( The development cost for the electronics alone on the Lagonda came to four times as much as the budget for the whole car) Wasn't money well spent.

BarbaricAvatar

1,416 posts

147 months

Friday 18th July 2014
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It's the first time i've seen this SUV concept and i'm glad i'll never have to see it again.
It a pity Aston didn't do a similar backtrack pre-Cygnet.

MonteV

363 posts

259 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Thank you, Aston, and thank you market. Let Bentley handle the butt ugly SUVs market.

bobberz

1,832 posts

198 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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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! yuck

Now, we just have to have an intervention for Bentley, Maserati, and Lamborghini.


bobberz

1,832 posts

198 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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A modern take on this, done properly, could be quite nice:



Perhaps my favorite Lagonda, though, is this:



Fantastic profile, but I don't think a modern version would work as well because it would be too similar to the Dodge Charger.


Justices

3,681 posts

163 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Interesting quote about the Chinese market buying the Rapide. I'd be interested to know the sales numbers for it as I've only seen two on the street. In that same time I've seen countless examples of the V8, DBS, DB9 and the Vanquish. I suspect someone is telling fibs..

RosscoPCole

3,300 posts

173 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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I love this


A Vantage 4 Door

bobberz

1,832 posts

198 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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RosscoPCole said:
I love this


A Vantage 4 Door
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!


toppstuff

13,698 posts

246 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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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.


andrew.delamare

74 posts

254 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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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.


MajorProblem

4,700 posts

163 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Just looks like an updated Maserati bi-turbo.

DonkeyApple

54,921 posts

168 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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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.

The Lagonda brand should either be a Bentley SUV rival or a Rolls rival. Pitched right at the very top, the pinnacle.

Vanquisher

3 posts

116 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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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?


Sampaio

377 posts

137 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Another useless sub-brand for rich people to waste their money on...

Pesty

42,655 posts

255 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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That was a monstrosity

But do it right and take steal from Porsche make lots of profit like they did.

toppstuff

13,698 posts

246 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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Sampaio said:
Another useless sub-brand for rich people to waste their money on...
Hows that bitterness working out for you in life then? smile

bobberz

1,832 posts

198 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
quotequote all
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.



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:







unsprung

5,467 posts

123 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
quotequote all
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

anonymous-user

53 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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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.

To me, that looks like someones attempt at making a Rolls Royce Phantom birthday cake. A really st attempt.

FourWheelDrift

88,375 posts

283 months

Saturday 19th July 2014
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DoctorX said:
Hope the new saloon looks something like this:

http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Secret-new-cars/Searc...
But without the big cheese grater at the front.