I saw the DBX today
Discussion
At Daylesford in the Cotswolds courtesy of AM Cheltenham.
I’d give it a solid 9/10 for looks and overall feel. Clearly a pre production example with dodgy panel fit in areas, and some other bits and pieces not up to scratch. Easily fixed though.
This one was Concourse Blue with a dark blue leather interior. I’d go dark grey and black leather, with black wheels and black everything else if I was going to buy one.
I won’t though as I still believe Aston should just make sports cars, but I’m not the target buyer, and what do I know?
Interestingly enough, one of the sales guys stated that they are limiting numbers in the UK to maintain desirability and residual value.
Production will be geared towards China and the USA.
So to summarize, excellent effort, and in looks alone I think it will dominate its target market, Bentley, Rolls, Lamborghini etc. Not sure how big that market is however? Good luck AM.
I’d give it a solid 9/10 for looks and overall feel. Clearly a pre production example with dodgy panel fit in areas, and some other bits and pieces not up to scratch. Easily fixed though.
This one was Concourse Blue with a dark blue leather interior. I’d go dark grey and black leather, with black wheels and black everything else if I was going to buy one.
I won’t though as I still believe Aston should just make sports cars, but I’m not the target buyer, and what do I know?
Interestingly enough, one of the sales guys stated that they are limiting numbers in the UK to maintain desirability and residual value.
Production will be geared towards China and the USA.
So to summarize, excellent effort, and in looks alone I think it will dominate its target market, Bentley, Rolls, Lamborghini etc. Not sure how big that market is however? Good luck AM.
Edited by Phil74891 on Tuesday 10th December 17:17
Edited by Phil74891 on Tuesday 10th December 17:18
Bigger than you might think... Aston can only make 4500 cars in St Athan annually.
When you look at what has happened (and if you believe the online stats) with bentaga alone, I believe it’s their best selling car, they had to increase production to cope with demand in their first year. I believe they sold over 4000 in 2018. Lambo sold almost 3000 Uris in the first half of this year. Also their best selling car by a long way. The SUV market is only getting bigger too.
Whether you think Aston should only make sports cars or not, given the opportunity, they would be stupid to ignore it. Lambo and Bentley haven’t, Maserati and Porsche haven’t all to their benefit. Ferrari coming soon!
When you look at what has happened (and if you believe the online stats) with bentaga alone, I believe it’s their best selling car, they had to increase production to cope with demand in their first year. I believe they sold over 4000 in 2018. Lambo sold almost 3000 Uris in the first half of this year. Also their best selling car by a long way. The SUV market is only getting bigger too.
Whether you think Aston should only make sports cars or not, given the opportunity, they would be stupid to ignore it. Lambo and Bentley haven’t, Maserati and Porsche haven’t all to their benefit. Ferrari coming soon!
When we went to see it a few weeks ago at an Aston Martin event one of their senior guys was telling me very few of the early cars were coming to the UK. The first 500 are a special 1913 edition but he said most of them would go to the US and China. He said the long term success of the DBX would be driven by those markets and it was important to get enough cars in the ground quickly so that people saw them and they made an impact. Hence very few coming to other markets initially. Interestingly they never mentioned the early edition in the presentation or in about 40 mins of my wife and i speccing a car - it only came up when I said we had a deposit down as soon as it was announced and then he told us about it and said given the very early deposit there might be a chance of getting one of the few coming to the UK. Unlike the launch editions on previous models where they loaded it up and charged you more, in this case you got £2-3k of extras and some badges and no extra cost. He said you could delete the badges so basically free stuff on the car.
I'm among those who think Aston Martin should build only sports and GT cars. The Rapide, imo, fits into that description (it's close, but I think it does). I do, however, understand the business case for an SUV. Aston Martin Lagonda had, perhaps uniquely, an absolutely perfect opportunity to accomplish both -- the DBX would've been the perfect vehicle for relaunching Lagonda. This would enable 1) Aston Martin to remain true to its heritage as a builder of only sports and GT cars, 2) provide the (hoped for) business advantages of offering an SUV, and 3) reintroduce Lagonda. I'm told they didn't do this because, first, they're concerned that Lagonda doesn't have enough name recognition in most markets (including China and the US), and, second, they want Lagonda to be an all-electric brand. Well, they could simply call the DBX an "Aston Martin Lagonda" -- keeps the Aston name recognition while simultaneously reintroducing Lagonda. It would also provide a nice bridge to Lagonda as its own brand. About the electric-only plan for Lagonda, I'm sure they have their reasons, but why? Surely it could be the division of Aston Martin that does SUVs and EVs rather than just EVs. Seems to me it would've been the best of both worlds.
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