RE: Aston Martin caps DBX production at 5,000 a year

[SpeckledJim]

XIII said:

At the current climate are people in China, UAE and US wanting a £160k SUV?

Only Aston would launch a car so of it's time..

China car sales down 79% YoY in February.

If Aston Martin didn't have bad luck they'd have no luck at all.

[anonymous-user]

treeroy said:

Lamborghini does not even sell 5000 Uruses a year so I struggle to see how Aston will sell 5k of theirs.

If we boil this down, to avoid any confusion - the car is not yet in showrooms to demonstrate, and yet 2700 orders have been taken, the rest being 2 per dealer (on average). There isn't the swathes of cars being built and forced upon dealers - that's something McLaren did a lot, and something Aston Martin did with Vantage and DB11, but since December have cut supply - so if you want a car new, you spec one, there isn't going to be a surplus of stock going forward, and it follows the practice Ferrari have down quite successfully.

Everyone who has driven the DBX, be it a pre-production, Verification Prototype or near-production, have universally praised it. The DBX training for dealers has been based around back-to-back assessments of the DBX against both the Urus and Benteyga, as these are the cars the DBX is aimed at. As a complete package, the majority of those who've driven it, say it's the best package overall, and handles like a sports car, not like a 2 tonne, high CoG barge.

The problem for the Urus is that an RSQ8 does the same job for much less money, looking quite similar i.e. not understated, and the Benteyga is becoming increasingly long in the tooth.

I think at some point, there'll be a realisation that "I don't like it, so why would anybody else?" is not a representative view of the market, particularly overseas markets, which like the brand, and the cars.

[SpeckledJim]

NFC 85 Vette said:

treeroy said:

Lamborghini does not even sell 5000 Uruses a year so I struggle to see how Aston will sell 5k of theirs.

If we boil this down, to avoid any confusion - the car is not yet in showrooms to demonstrate, and yet 2700 orders have been taken, the rest being 2 per dealer (on average). There isn't the swathes of cars being built and forced upon dealers - that's something McLaren did a lot, and something Aston Martin did with Vantage and DB11, but since December have cut supply - so if you want a car new, you spec one, there isn't going to be a surplus of stock going forward, and it follows the practice Ferrari have down quite successfully.

Everyone who has driven the DBX, be it a pre-production, Verification Prototype or near-production, have universally praised it. The DBX training for dealers has been based around back-to-back assessments of the DBX against both the Urus and Benteyga, as these are the cars the DBX is aimed at. As a complete package, the majority of those who've driven it, say it's the best package overall, and handles like a sports car, not like a 2 tonne, high CoG barge.

The problem for the Urus is that an RSQ8 does the same job for much less money, looking quite similar i.e. not understated, and the Benteyga is becoming increasingly long in the tooth.

I think at some point, there'll be a realisation that "I don't like it, so why would anybody else?" is not a representative view of the market, particularly overseas markets, which like the brand, and the cars.

So you're predicting they'll sell the 5000?

[treeroy]

NFC 85 Vette said:

If we boil this down, to avoid any confusion - the car is not yet in showrooms to demonstrate, and yet 2700 orders have been taken

And, if we avoid further confusion - that 3000 figure has come from not a news source but a random Pistonheads user who "has a buddy who works at Aston Martin HQ".

Sure.

[anonymous-user]

SpeckledJim said:

So you're predicting they'll sell the 5000?

I think once cars are available to demo, and the embargo lifts on driving impressions of the finished production car, they'll have a waiting list for build slots, and not be waiting for customer orders. Just my opinion though.

treeroy said:

And, if we avoid further confusion - that 3000 figure has come from not a news source but a random Pistonheads user who "has a buddy who works at Aston Martin HQ".

Sure.

Fair enough, we'll leave it there. No further comment from me on the topic.

[JxJ Jr.]

camel_landy said:

JxJ Jr. said:

The question is more how many of those 2,700 are actually customer orders and how many are orders for dealer stock, as both of us have highlighted that AM has some recent history on this.

Talk about splitting hairs... Does it REALLY matter? Do we care how AM run their business?

M

Erm....given that this article is COMPLETELY about how the DBX fits into how Aston run their business and uses words such as 'supply', 'demand', 'production capacity' and 'order book' then, yes, it does really matter and yes, we do care otherwise we would have stopped reading halfway.

[JxJ Jr.]

NFC 85 Vette said:

...yet 2700 orders have been taken, the rest being 2 per dealer (on average). There isn't the swathes of cars being built and forced upon dealers...something Aston Martin did with Vantage and DB11, but since December have cut supply...

We are yet to know how many are actual customer order, though. And we're also to take at face value that AM haven't been tempted to return to their old tricks, particularly in a very critical and challenging last few months.

[Venturist]

NFC 85 Vette said:

Everyone who has driven the DBX, be it a pre-production, Verification Prototype or near-production, have universally praised it. The DBX training for dealers has been based around back-to-back assessments of the DBX against both the Urus and Benteyga, as these are the cars the DBX is aimed at. As a complete package, the majority of those who've driven it, say it's the best package overall, and handles like a sports car, not like a 2 tonne, high CoG barge.

I think at some point, there'll be a realisation that "I don't like it, so why would anybody else?" is not a representative view of the market, particularly overseas markets, which like the brand, and the cars.

The same could be and was said about the Vantage, though, and the eventual sales of that were by the companies own admission, disappointing.

[anonymous-user]

ds666 said:

XIII said:

At the current climate are people in China, UAE and US wanting a £160k SUV?

Only Aston would launch a car so of it's time..

I imagine you have a 20/20 crystal ball that would have predicted the current world situation 4 years ago when they started development ??

Can you tell me the lottery numbers for this weekend ? Thought not

What a muppet .

I meant only Aston would have the luck or lack thereof to launch a car in such a climate.

Moron.

[JuniorD]

NFC 85 Vette said:

treeroy said:

Lamborghini does not even sell 5000 Uruses a year so I struggle to see how Aston will sell 5k of theirs.

If we boil this down, to avoid any confusion - the car is not yet in showrooms to demonstrate, and yet 2700 orders have been taken, the rest being 2 per dealer (on average). There isn't the swathes of cars being built and forced upon dealers - that's something McLaren did a lot, and something Aston Martin did with Vantage and DB11, but since December have cut supply - so if you want a car new, you spec one, there isn't going to be a surplus of stock going forward, and it follows the practice Ferrari have down quite successfully.

Everyone who has driven the DBX, be it a pre-production, Verification Prototype or near-production, have universally praised it. The DBX training for dealers has been based around back-to-back assessments of the DBX against both the Urus and Benteyga, as these are the cars the DBX is aimed at. As a complete package, the majority of those who've driven it, say it's the best package overall, and handles like a sports car, not like a 2 tonne, high CoG barge.

The problem for the Urus is that an RSQ8 does the same job for much less money, looking quite similar i.e. not understated, and the Benteyga is becoming increasingly long in the tooth.

I think at some point, there'll be a realisation that "I don't like it, so why would anybody else?" is not a representative view of the market, particularly overseas markets, which like the brand, and the cars.

How does it square up to the Maserati Levante? Obviously the Levante isn't a true competitor as it costs from £58,000, which is not far off three times cheaper than the DBX..

[thatdude]

scottygib553 said:

I’m still laughing at how bad it looks

Sort of a mash-up between a ford...whatever and a 1st gen qashqai

I'm hapy it'll be an uncommon sight on the roads. I dont think they need to worry about limiting it to 5000!

[JuniorD]

thatdude said:

scottygib553 said:

I’m still laughing at how bad it looks

Sort of a mash-up between a ford...whatever and a 1st gen qashqai

I'm hapy it'll be an uncommon sight on the roads. I dont think they need to worry about limiting it to 5000!

And that's 5000 a year, not total...

[camel_landy]

JxJ Jr. said:

camel_landy said:

JxJ Jr. said:

The question is more how many of those 2,700 are actually customer orders and how many are orders for dealer stock, as both of us have highlighted that AM has some recent history on this.

Talk about splitting hairs... Does it REALLY matter? Do we care how AM run their business?

M

Erm....given that this article is COMPLETELY about how the DBX fits into how Aston run their business and uses words such as 'supply', 'demand', 'production capacity' and 'order book' then, yes, it does really matter and yes, we do care otherwise we would have stopped reading halfway.

Actually, yeah... Fair point.

I suppose what I was getting at was; does it matter what the split is?

M

[Xenoous]

I saw one in red/black camo wrap in Cambridge yesterday. I have to say it did look nice. Perhaps I'm in the realms of people who like SUVs. Whilst they're never going to offer you any real driving feel... They're just perfect to live with.

Alright, perhaps the luxury SUV segment is daft, but in terms of every day cars, they make sense.

Saying that, I'd take a Vantage over a DBX any day of the week.

[Neil1300r]

treeroy said:

Lamborghini does not even sell 5000 Uruses a year so I struggle to see how Aston will sell 5k of theirs.

Just under 5000 sold in the last year
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/13/lamborghinis-2019-...

[Bladedancer]

camel_landy said:

JxJ Jr. said:

The question is more how many of those 2,700 are actually customer orders and how many are orders for dealer stock, as both of us have highlighted that AM has some recent history on this.

Talk about splitting hairs... Does it REALLY matter? Do we care how AM run their business?

M

Not so much splitting hairs as creative accountancy.
If significant number out of that 2700 is going to be manager's cars, demo cars and showroom pieces, then they're not really SELLING them, are they? Sure, they're creating a secondary market but this is different.

[SpeckledJim]

Bladedancer said:

camel_landy said:

JxJ Jr. said:

The question is more how many of those 2,700 are actually customer orders and how many are orders for dealer stock, as both of us have highlighted that AM has some recent history on this.

Talk about splitting hairs... Does it REALLY matter? Do we care how AM run their business?

M

Not so much splitting hairs as creative accountancy.
If significant number out of that 2700 is going to be manager's cars, demo cars and showroom pieces, then they're not really SELLING them, are they? Sure, they're creating a secondary market but this is different.

The bigger question for me isn't how many are internal cars, but how many of the order book are flippers. Each one of those likely takes out another, so what looks like two in the book become fewer than two cars.

Once the newness wears off I can't see them selling as many of these as Lambo sell Urus. The styling is a problem (to say the least) and the quality won't match Lamborghini or Bentley.

If it was sexy (like Aston Martins used to be) then it wouldn't be a problem.

Edited by SpeckledJim on Thursday 12th March 16:07

[Thankyou4calling]

And the official line from Aston is that they have 1800 orders so I’m struggling to reconcile 2700 let alone 3000+

No chance of selling 5000 in a year.

[williamp]

Worth considering?? Last year 2/3rds of Porsche sold were the SUV brands, outselling the sportscars and making serious cash for them

There is still a huge market. How many with Macan are due to go back in 2020 and will wonder down to the Aston showroom?? They could just do it..

[anonymous-user]

williamp said:

Worth considering?? Last year 2/3rds of Porsche sold were the SUV brands, outselling the sportscars and making serious cash for them

There is still a huge market. How many with Macan are due to go back in 2020 and will wonder down to the Aston showroom?? They could just do it..

Most Porsche SUVs are half the cost of this.