RE: First Aston Martin SUV confirmed as 'DBX'

[Jex]

NFC 85 Vette said:

It's a two way street - remember that the other prestige sports car manufacturers have all gone down that road already (Bentley, Lambo, Ferrari). It's only McLaren left... and they're a week late on their next new car announcement, so never say never

Ferrari? I know an SUV (FUV) has been proposed, but I haven't seen anything. Where should I look?

[Doofus]

Why cover a car in "Don't Look At Me" dazzle camouflage and then plaster the car's name all over it?

I guess it sums up the target customer pretty well..

[Andy665]

There are a lot of whingers on here about this

Bleating about this is not what Aston martin should be doing - they should stick to what they know best etc etc. So, be like other failed brands and not respond to market forces and end up dying - - great - then we lose another brand and people will slate them for not being realistic in what they were building

Is anyone going to be forced to buy one - no

Look at Porsche - the sales and resultant revenues of the Macan and Cayenne help ensure that they can afford to continue to develop the 911 - put simply the manufacturers need the SUVs to survive and to be able to continue to develop the low volume sports car that others want to buy

[NJJ]

At least it seems it will be more authentic than the Lambo Urus by offering a V12. Lambo should have at least offered its V10 as an engine option, but i don't think it would fit given its VAG background.

[bluemason]

dazwalsh said:

I see the anti SUV force are up early this morning.

I think the front looks great, side profile looks good too but i hope that is heavy camo on the rear disguising a lovely rear end, bit awkward looking on the pics.

I promise you that the dbx will be one of the best looking suvs on the market.

[indapendentlee]

It's a ground up Aston - it has as much Mercedes in it as DB11 and Vantage. Electrical architecture and engine basically.

[Doofus]

Andy665 said:

There are a lot of whingers on here about this

Bleating about this is not what Aston martin should be doing - they should stick to what they know best etc etc. So, be like other failed brands and not respond to market forces and end up dying - - great - then we lose another brand and people will slate them for not being realistic in what they were building

Is anyone going to be forced to buy one - no

Look at Porsche - the sales and resultant revenues of the Macan and Cayenne help ensure that they can afford to continue to develop the 911 - put simply the manufacturers need the SUVs to survive and to be able to continue to develop the low volume sports car that others want to buy

I just think it's a shame that SUVs have become the default purchase for so many customers that they do now prop up so many manufacturers' businesses.

There are many other car styles and models that perfectly well achieve what those customers actually need; whether it be carrying kids, and/or a dog, towing a horsebox or going offroad

It seems to me that, often, little imagination is used to default at the SUV, when buying something else can usually be no less impractical, cheaper to run, easier to use in town and less ubiquitous.

I do know, however, that most car buyers are like those PHers who post "I've just moved to a house with a front garden, and winter is coming, so which 4x4 should I buy?" External Validation is everything, and the suggestion that you've overpaid for the wrong car for your needs will be met with vociferous defence.

It also creates a lot of brand dilution. Not necessarily a bad thing, of course, and businesses must do what they must do. But when a long-established builder of sports and supercars decides to build an SUV, loads of people say "Ooh! That'll be good!". If Land Rover, or Jeep said they were launching a two-seater sports car, most people would assume it'll be st.

Because SUV are now the ubiquitous choice, will these manufacturers, in 10 years' time, when they have 4 SUVs in their ranges, be able (or even want) to build sports cars, gt cars and supercars?

[Gameface]

bluemason said:

I promise you that the dbx will be one of the best looking suvs on the market.

Do you have an insight into the finished product or are you going out on a limb?

[Zod]

Jader1973 said:

stew-STR160 said:

Anyone else quite like the fact the testing is being done off road, bit sideways, covered in mud?

Not really, it is on roads that any normal 2WD every day car could cope with. Like a front wheel drive Skoda Fabia.

I wouldn't take my 2wd Aston on those roads!

[krisdelta]

Gameface said:

bluemason said:

I promise you that the dbx will be one of the best looking suvs on the market.

Do you have an insight into the finished product or are you going out on a limb?

+1 - I hope it's a huge success. ex V8V owner who can't fit a family in any of the existing range (without leaving someone at home).

[Zod]

Jader1973 said:

Piha said:

TimReed said:

It’s about integrity and legacy. Sports car companies and their designers should stop this mission creep. Anyone want a Land Rover mid-engined two seater sports? Don’t think so. It’s a nonsense. Leave 4x4s to 4x4 manufacturers and treasure the provenance of Aston, not bastardise it, chasing markets in Russia, the Middle East and China.

It's very interesting when people denigrate AM, Jag, Lambo et al for developing vehicles that sell well.

British industry is infamous for stubbornly sticking to a tried and tested formula and ignoring the competition. Look at the British car & motorbike industries of bygone years, refused to modernise their products and tried to dictate to the marketplace what consumers should buy. It was an utter failure think BSA, Triumph, British Leyland, the list is as long as your arm. And these decisions were always taken by management.

To the detractors, what do you want? A car company that's with current trends and financially viable or a company stuck in the past and financially on a cliff edge?

Bring on a Lotus/Jag/Ferrari/Lambo SUV if it means the company survives and if the marketplace buys 2 seater sports cars, these companies will still hopefully make them.

But they don't need to. Ferrari, Lambo and Aston aren't struggling financially. They charge huge amounts of money for cars that cost a fraction of that to design, engineer, and produce. They can pretty much charge what they want for their cars.

As for Jag, I suspect they're fked. They have a brand image of a not very good luxury passenger car maker (I see them as very like Volvo), and the only way they can get in to the SUV market is to build things that share platforms with their SUV maker sister company (which also has a pretty bad reputation), and therefore step on each others toes. They're trying to set Jag up as sporty SUV and LR as rough tough and luxury SUV. I'm not sure it is working. JLR need to turn Jag in to a luxury sports EV brand aimed directly at Tesla. Unfortunately modern Jags are at best derivative and at worst ugly which isn't a great start.

Lotus could go bankrupt (again) tomorrow and nobody would notice.

I suggest that you download Aston Martin's IPO prospectus and take a good look at the accounts. It's financial position is some way from being secure and selling models like this is the way that it is going to improve its balance sheet. It cannot just keep making specials and taking upfront deposits to fund R&D.

[P-Jay]

Zod said:

Jader1973 said:

stew-STR160 said:

Anyone else quite like the fact the testing is being done off road, bit sideways, covered in mud?

Not really, it is on roads that any normal 2WD every day car could cope with. Like a front wheel drive Skoda Fabia.

I wouldn't take my 2wd Aston on those roads!

If those roads, are the roads I think they are, they're a lot rougher than they look on that film. They're used for Rally Stages quite often including Rally Wales GB.

[Nelsons Club]

I first saw this in a pinky/purply colour and thought it was a new Ford - almost identical front grille as 'Mondeo/Focus/Fiesta Etc

[twocolours]

Doofus said:

Why cover a car in "Don't Look At Me" dazzle camouflage and then plaster the car's name all over it?

The camouflage is used to disguise the styling elements of the car rather than what the car actually is. Similar with the fake rear lights and what look like add on rear trim pieces.

It's also a popular marketing trick to drum up interest pre-reveal, hence Aston releasing official images of the test car and plastering it with logos/sponsors.

[petemurphy]

v boring looks - looks like f type / macan etc esp from side. totally see why they are building it i'd be interested in an aston suv if i had the cash

[Dark85]

BFleming said:

Correct, specifically at the former MOD site at St Athan, half way between Cardiff & Port Talbot.

It's much closer to Cardiff than Port Talbot.

I'm going to have to reserve judgement. With the camo on I think the best that can be said is 'it's likely not hideous' which is better than some SUVs but not good enough for an Aston Martin IMO; an Aston should be a properly beautiful thing which is an extremely difficult thing to achieve in SUV form. Obviously, Aston had to do it though from a commercial point of view and I think an SUV suits their line up and history reasonably well, certainly much more so than Lamborghini, Porsche and Ferrari.

[loveice]

Transfer case? Centre and rear diff locks?18" AT or MT tyre choices?

[Robert-nszl1]

Would be good to see some sort of motorsport series for all these SUVs, there are enough of them with 'sporting' pretensions. Maybe a cross between world rally and Paris Dakar, with 2 classes; one for ICE powertrains, the other for electric or hybrid. Try and keep them close to road spec. Might encourage future iterations to focus a bit on weight saving, while making those people that say they devalue the brands as they aren't sports cars think again.

[jonby]

Jader1973 said:

But they don't need to. Ferrari, Lambo and Aston aren't struggling financially. They charge huge amounts of money for cars that cost a fraction of that to design, engineer, and produce. They can pretty much charge what they want for their cars.

You are so very, very wrong. In every possible way

Do you know how much cumulative profit Aston has made in it's just over 100 yrs of trading ? Or in the last 10 or 20 yrs ?

Do you understand what effect SUV sales have had on the financial fundamentals of Bentley and Porsche ?

Aston can indeed charge whatever they want for their cars. Unfortunately, because they charge a price many are not prepared to pay, it's reflected in sales figures and deprecation

[Tom_Spotley_When]

Frances The Mute said:

I love it when people cry about a car they have no intention to even buy, anyway.

It’s almost as if they don’t want the company to succeed and actually make enough money to sustain itself for the future...for a change.

Aston Martin should only make manual cars, with a v8 or a straight 6, with a hideously expensive leather interior that requires feeding by the hands of a red-haired French virgin each waning gibbous moon. They should lose money on every car they sell and they should fall apart if you drive them from September to April.

Then, when I buy one 15 years after launch, I, the nasally voiced captain of Meltonshire Golf Club, Vice President of the Rotary Club (East Midlands, North Branch) and Pub Bore can say, I bought a manual for the Driving Experience, I don't expect you to understand.

At some point, people might realise that car companies exist to make money. They make money by making cars people want to buy. People want to buy SUV's - because they're hideously practical and, when you're driving at 50mph in the pissing rain on a wet Tuesday night in December, and just want to get home, it's nice to be above the spray and the rain, sat in a heated seat with a heated steering wheel without a care in the world.

Then, at weekend, you can take your car down a farm track to go fishing/take the dog for a walk/fill with all your kids gear for a day out/go shooting/horse-riding/anything you like in the great outdoors, without scraping the bottom of the car, again.

Of course, this being PH, everyone should daily drive either a Subaru/BMW/Mercedes Estate, with a manual gearbox (I just like being in control of the car - as you sit in traffic each day on your commute to work, I'm sure you're really feeling the benefits) an FM/AM stereo, textile seats, no extra fripperies and a full arctic survival kit in the boot, paid for in cash with a set of £2k winter tyres for the 2 days/year it snows in Berkshire and a job that's so important you can't not get to the office without the world ending.

I'm glad they're making it. I'm pleased RR make the Cullinan, I'm pleased Porsche make the Cayenne and the Macan. I'm also pleased Jaguar make the F-Pace. Why? Because the money they make on these means there's lots more money to be spent on making ridiculous Sportscars.

Can't have one without the other.