This vs V8 Vantage Coupe

[christof]

First spy shots of the 2023 AMG GT...

https://www.carscoops.com/2022/01/2024-mercedes-am...

Come on AML, you (hopefully) can do better than this with the 2023 V8 Vantage...

[Veg]

If I know German designers they will mess it up with a hideous grill, so no worries

[LTP]

Veg said:

If I know German designers they will mess it up with a hideous grill, so no worries

You mean something that throws out the well-known symbol of the brand for something that looks like a fish's mouth, that is roundly condemned by most observers except its designer and to be forced to offer an alterative months after launch?.....oh, wait

[Jon39]

LTP said:

... and to be forced to offer an alterative months after launch?.....oh, wait

That is the funny part.
I think it took them 3 years, not just months.

[Veg]

🙂🙂🙂exactly, those pesky Germans

[David W.]

christof said:

First spy shots of the 2023 AMG GT...

https://www.carscoops.com/2022/01/2024-mercedes-am...

Come on AML, you (hopefully) can do better than this with the 2023 V8 Vantage...

Looks like it’s a bit more cab forward so you’re not sitting on the back axle, i like it. .

[LTP]

Jon39 said:

That is the funny part.
I think it took them 3 years, not just months.

It takes time to re-homologate a new front end; potential implications are: PedPro; front crash, cooling pack performance, Exterior Projections, Durability plus other, less likely effects - although the design would have been executed to minimise these changes (which is why it's possibly still not aesthetically optimal). Then there's the tooling for a complete new front end, pre-production builds, maybe some changes to the paint and assembly lines as they now have to paint and assemble two different noses. And before you can do any of that you have to convince the senior team that it's actually required when it's not in the program plan or budget.

But I'd be reasonably sure that a "skunks works" exercise was probably under way within AML PD to look at possible low-budget alternative noses a lot earlier than it first seems. .

[Jon39]

LTP said:

It takes time to re-homologate a new front end; potential implications are: PedPro; front crash, cooling pack performance, Exterior Projections, Durability plus other, less likely effects .....

Gosh, just to change the grille. Behind the scenes, small scale car manufacturing must be a very expensive nightmare, Paul.
With AML's present rate of spending, more money raising might be on the horizon.

Thinking about what you have just described, there seems to be an expectation by some on here, that the DB11 and Vantage will have a complete exterior and interior makeover next year. Usually the mid-term (often year 5 out of 7) model refreshes in the car industry, tend to involve fairly minor alterations. Just tempting enough to give sales an extra boost, before the next new version of the model is introduced. If Aston Martin follow that same philosophy, then the anticipated 2023 changes might be much more minor, than people are hoping for.

[nathwraith1]

I feel like the vantage needs the below for it’s facelift:

- a nicer integrated screen
- newer UI(even if it is the same as the DBX one)
- higher res digital dash, the cyan hued white is not the best
- a glove box
- maybe more power

Can’t see anything revolutionary happening though.

[GingerMunky]

Jon39 said:

there seems to be an expectation by some on here, that the DB11 and Vantage will have a complete exterior and interior makeover next year. Usually the mid-term (often year 5 out of 7) model refreshes in the car industry, tend to involve fairly minor alterations.

Some minor alterations are definitely need to resolve the front end of both DB11 and Vantage, the do the interior when the model changes. Aston need to do something as the competition are continually moving further ahead

[cayman-black]

Those new style Merc wheels put me right off straight away.
Compared to the F1 Vangae that was posted a few days ago this doesn't even compete imo.

[LTP]

Jon39 said:

Gosh, just to change the grille. Behind the scenes, small scale car manufacturing must be a very expensive nightmare, Paul.
With AML's present rate of spending, more money raising might be on the horizon.

Thinking about what you have just described, there seems to be an expectation by some on here, that the DB11 and Vantage will have a complete exterior and interior makeover next year. Usually the mid-term (often year 5 out of 7) model refreshes in the car industry, tend to involve fairly minor alterations. Just tempting enough to give sales an extra boost, before the next new version of the model is introduced. If Aston Martin follow that same philosophy, then the anticipated 2023 changes might be much more minor, than people are hoping for.

If you look it's more than the grille - it's a whole new nose-cone moulding, along with the new vanes. You can see where they've tried to minimise the changes to keep the costs and implications to a minimum: the aperture is the same (cooling); the profile follows the original, even to the point of tracing the outline of the front edge of the black moulding and keeping the aperture the same size and shape (PedPro; aero); the sheet metal is unaffected (expensive); the lights are unaffected (also expensive); the front splitter blade is retained (aero?) - all my opinions/guesses.

Small-scale auto manufacture is indeed a tricky game - your product has to be competitive and can and will be judged against cars that sell 10x the volume (911 vs Vantage, anyone?). So if you price the same and recover your investments in the same way you can only afford to spend one tenth on R&D, tooling and manufacturing facilities combined. But the journos aren't going to be one-tenth as critical and your customers aren't one-tenth as demanding. And that's before you factor in economies of scale that help the larger players even more. As far as the upcoming model refresh activities, it all depends how big the additional slug of cash the shareholders are prepared to commit in order to try to turn the model fortunes around, and if they really understand the problem so they spend the money in the right areas.

Frankly, on roughly 3x the volume Ferrari do an amazing job; on 40x the volume, Porsche are in a different league.