AP - fewer cars, built to order, the British Ferrari

[LooneyTunes]

I don’t think I’ve seen any discussion of this week’s Autocar interview with Andy Palmer: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/qa-ast...

Doesn’t surprise me that there’s a desire to reduce cars built without a customer order but I do find the comment that “ We expect in future to make materially fewer sports cars” goes a little against the drive for volume that AM seems to have been pursuing in recent years.

2018 I think sales were approx 6500, and AM were planning 4000 DBX p/a amidst talk of “doubling dealer volumes”?

It’d be interesting to know what sort of mix AM has in mind now, but I think it would be a shame if Aston ceased to be recognised primarily as a producer of sports cars. Porsche have shown they can pull off the model range expansion trick but without trying to become the “German Ferrari”.

[Jon39]

They even spoke about a volume of 14,000, split equally between Gaydon and St Athan.

My guess (we need insider knowledge), is that during the VH era, AML built most of their cars under the following headings:-

Customer specified orders.
Dealer specified orders - showroom and demonstrators.
AML HQ specified - employee cars and road test cars, which were eventually absorbed into the 'pre-owned' market.

Speculation - When there was slower than expected retail demand for the new Vantage, it appeared that extra cars were then being built. These went to dealers, who possibly were reluctant recipients.

The new plan might be, going back to the previous philosophy of matching supply to demand.

[Thankyou4calling]

I believe the target for the DBX was 5000 cars PA.

This, in my opinion, would never be achieved pre Covid .

Post Covid? It’s finger in the air stuff.

AM is in dire straits. Covered elsewhere at length on PH.