Prodrive buys Aston Martin (from ? to !)

[pitviper]

saw this over in the F1 forum, but it has its obvious Sportscar/GT relevance...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/EDITORIA...ent/33744.html

pit

[Kidzer]

bad link;

"Sorry, the page you were looking for could not be found"

[pitviper]

sorry, try this one...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/EDITORIA...ent/33744.html

pit

[knighty]

all sounds VERY believable to me......looks like AMR-F1 is just around the corner.......albeit a re-badged McLaren if those rumours are true.

[SALEEN S7R]

Excellent news, and this has bigger implications than just this too. We could have large scale British manufacturer back here in the UK! Something which GB hasnt had since MG folded.

[Truckosaurus]

I don't think AM counts as "large scale", perhaps they will even have to produce fewer but higher priced cars as they can no longer have cheap access to the Ford parts bin once sold off.

[Nordic]

The last Aston F1 project ended very badly.

If he does achive his goal, and in some ways I hope he does as he does seem to be very clever and he may have the right ideas, he would however be well advised to leave F1 out of the concept. The majority of Astons sales are from the US where F1 is near to invisable in the grand scheme of things and it would be a huge drain on both his and the companies money.

Its also worth noting that very few people , if any, have ever emerged from owning the Aston Martin Brand better off than when they started.

[Adam43]

Lets leave the (potential) F1 link to the F1 forum: http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=94474

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that it is a done deal with just the final pieces to come together. Unlike last week Prodrive seem to be favourites to land the deal for £500m. We'll see, but I guess it strengthens the case for Aston continuing in Sportscar racing. Although, no doubt, in a manner as of today where it is strictly not for a loss and with no burden on the manufacturer.

Originally Posted by Nordic

Its also worth noting that very few people , if any, have ever emerged from owning the Aston Martin Brand better off than when they started.

Well the last lot seem to have done OK and the company has grown. That was it's most recent problem though - access to resources to make a new car.

[davyboy]

This is a very dangerous move for Prodrive. Its been proven time and again that premium brand sports car manufacturers can only survive under the ownership of car companies... and those car companies have significantly raised the stakes in recent years by pumping huge amounts of money into them significantly raising the quality. Aston floundered for a very long time before the Ford acquisition, so too did Lamborghini and Maserati. All three have shone like never before thanks to their multinational benefactors. If Prodrive buy Aston it will lead to the demise of both of them.

[The Real DMN]

As Hunter S Thompson wrote (and its also very adpt here):

"Buy the ticket, take the ride"

If this is true, then good luck to them.

[AU N EGL]

Were would Ferrari be without Fiat? Where would Reneult be without Nissan ?

[HORNDAWG]

Originally Posted by davyboy

This is a very dangerous move for Prodrive. Its been proven time and again that premium brand sports car manufacturers can only survive under the ownership of car companies... and those car companies have significantly raised the stakes in recent years by pumping huge amounts of money into them significantly raising the quality. Aston floundered for a very long time before the Ford acquisition, so too did Lamborghini and Maserati. All three have shone like never before thanks to their multinational benefactors. If Prodrive buy Aston it will lead to the demise of both of them.

I think you are pretty spot on!

L.P.

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Its been proven time and again that premium brand sports car manufacturers can only survive under the ownership of car companies... and those car companies have significantly raised the stakes in recent years by pumping huge amounts of money into them significantly raising the quality.

Porsche might disagree with you.

[Adam43]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Porsche might disagree with you.

They are worried and want to branch out into more sectors to make themselves more immune to market fads. So they want to buy VW!

Originally Posted by davyboy

This is a very dangerous move for Prodrive. Its been proven time and again that premium brand sports car manufacturers can only survive under the ownership of car companies...

The plan is that Ford keeps an interest and access to their resources and preferential rates on
shared parts remains. This is presumably to allay some of those fears.

[The359]

Although Porsche is not owned by anyway, you can't deny that their alliances with Volkswagen helped them.

[Adam43]

and it is possible that the Aston deal will put them in a similar position with Ford.

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by Fogelhund

Porsche might disagree with you.

Porsche came to within a hairsbreath of bankruptcy in the 1990s. They abandoned all but the 911 in a last ditch back to basics approach that actually worked. More recently they've had to branch out to SUVs etc... in order to survive. However, Porsche is and always was much bigger than Aston. Its a semi-volume sports car manufacturer. Aston isn't. We need look no further than TVR to see what happens when a low volume manufacturer has to compete with car giant supported marques.

If as Adam says, Ford provide continued support, ProDrive may stand a chance... but if I was David Richards... I'd keep well away.

[Peter Mallett]

A bit more on this.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6428999.stm

Just taking the Porsche bit further I know they are working with companies in Russia where labour is cheap and in particular they were looking to set up a Cayenne manufacturing base in Samara.

[Graham Goodwin]

The irony being that a Cayenne is about as good looking as a Lada Samara!

[Peter Mallett]

When I met the group of engineers (we were in a line at the immigration booths in Moscow) I suggested that the Cayenne was the biggest piece of automotive rubbish that I'd ever seen. Then they told me what they were doing.

On topic, that BBC article suggests the DR has Egyption backers among others.

[Truckosaurus]

Originally Posted by Graham Goodwin

The irony being that a Cayenne is about as good looking as a Lada Samara!

Bringing things full circle, the Lada Samara was built in the same Finnish factory as the Porsche Boxster....

[Leoparky]

I am lead to beleive that Ford Motor Co are retaining up to 30% interest in Aston Martin, making access to Fo Mo Co reserach, design and engineering capabilities all but a phone call away. I do not agree I have met David Richards on a number of occasions and he is a focussed and would not take on Aston unless he had a long term plan for the brand. I am confident the brand will prosper under his stewardship esp with his involvement in Motorsport.

[Fogelhund]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Porsche came to within a hairsbreath of bankruptcy in the 1990s. They abandoned all but the 911 in a last ditch back to basics approach that actually worked. More recently they've had to branch out to SUVs etc... in order to survive. However, Porsche is and always was much bigger than Aston. Its a semi-volume sports car manufacturer. Aston isn't. We need look no further than TVR to see what happens when a low volume manufacturer has to compete with car giant supported marques.

Of course, I know the story well. Bottom line is they are an example that runs contrary to your original statement.

[andy97]

Originally Posted by davyboy

Porsche came to within a hairsbreath of bankruptcy in the 1990s. They abandoned all but the 911 in a last ditch back to basics approach that actually worked. More recently they've had to branch out to SUVs etc... in order to survive.

Porsche are the most profitable car company in the world...bar none. And have been for the last 2 or 3 years. They succeeded by cutting costs and increasing sales of premium projects across the range. The SUV project was not aimed at helping them survive, it was to expand the brand desirability in the US and to showcase their technical competence. Porsche has recently massively increased its stake in the whole VW group and may well take it over completely - Audi, Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini & Bugatti and all. Not really the actions of a car company doing things just to survive.

[davyboy]

Not sure I agree Andy... I do not think they meandered into SUV territory to showcase their technical competence. Having taken a belt and braces approach to rationalize the business by focusing solely on the 911, they were well aware of how vulnerable they were in producing one model of car to appeal to a single type of buyer and also how important SUVs were to their US market. I hate the Cayenne, but a lot of people with plenty of money love it and its been a big success for Porsche.

Still, back on topic, Porsche have been the definte exception in this domain and they are a very different company to Aston Martin. Aston Martin are a small volume high performance car company which has had a chequered [from a business perspective] history and time will tell whether it declines again... I dearly hope not.

One other slant on this. I have immense respect and admiration for David Richards. He's quietly gone about becoming one of the most successful motorsport businessman in the world. However he's about to undertake a monumental feat in launching an F1 team [something which itself has been the demise of many successful motorsport principals] and if he goes ahead with the acquisition of Aston Martin, he may find he's spinning too many
plates.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong, there's nothing better I'd like to see than a successful Aston Martin and brilliant Prodrive F1 team under Richards' leadership.