Aston Martin DBX - crunch time
Sports car based crossover or Merc GLE-derived SUV? Aston's Andy Palmer on the brand's new direction
"The most obvious configuration is to do a derivative of the next DB platform," he told PistonHeads earlier this week. "There's a fair few changes to move from a low-down car to a high-up car but that's definitely one of the options."
Could 585hp GLE AMG yet underpin fast Aston SUV?
Palmer said that any plan to build it on a Mercedes SUV platform - previously mooted as a GL-based Lagonda - is virtually dead. There was some sense to the idea, given Mercedes parent Daimler is also supplying the turbocharged V8 engines and electric gubbins like infotainment systems for next-gen Aston sports cars. "They clearly sit in a very different space to the one we want to go to. They're very much an SUV and we don't want an SUV," Palmer said of cars like the Mercedes GLE. However he did say that there was the possibility of using some parts from the Mercedes bin.
What is looking more likely is that it will be built in the United States rather than Gaydon. Palmer said that Alabama (where Mercedes makes SUVs) is the "obvious choice" for a second plant, so perhaps we shouldn't write off a reskinned Mercedes altogether yet.
Anyway, given this project's primary role is to ensure the company has enough cash to make hairy and mostly uncomplicated sports cars then we should applaud it. On that score, Palmer had a nice line in a speech he gave to a conference in London focusing on future technology earlier this week. "The only autonomous thing I can imagine for an Aston is a button that says 'drift'," he said. It got a big laugh.
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However, I can't help thinking that AM would be better building things like this, and the 4 door they did, under the Lagonda brand. Its a well known name, known for luxury cars rather than sports, although this all depends on what exactly they mean by a crossover.
As for building in the US, I'm not sure about this. Mass production can be shipped around the world to follow a set of guidelines to get the same thing stamped out again and again, but I have seen too many high end companies try this way of extending their range and it does not work. It works if you extend down the way Porsche did, keeping the high end stuff well in site and letting the mass market stuff go elsewhere, but I'm not sure AM can do this. You lose too much control when you can't give someone a plan and rely on crafts, as AM do for many things still.
I think it looks great for what it is. And it will sell with profit in the US, the Middle East and the BRIC countries.
Interestingly, the form factor reminded me of a posh, road-going interpretation of the Local Motors Rally Fighter.
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