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Jul 5, 2011 8:39:08 AM
- easy_rider911
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Re: Top Gear Season 17 Episode 2
Exactly - what makes me laugh is how British TV presenters like Jeremy Clarkson are forever complaining about the range of 911s available - when there are real differences between each product - whereas cars like Aston Martin have barely noticeable differences but that's okay since it is an Aston Martin. It's a pro-Aston, anti-Porsche bias that is so transparent.
Porsche makes the Panamera - it's terrible. Aston Martin makes the Rapide, it's the best thing since sliced bread.
I remember when TG raced the Panamera and Rapide head-to-head around a business park. The Panamera Turbo ate the Rapide for breakfast.
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RT Moderator - 997.1 Carrera S GT Silver/Cocoa, -20mm sports suspension/LSD, PSE, short shifter, SportDesign rims, Zuffenhausen collection
Re: Top Gear Season 17 Episode 2
koko:
Heist:
Aston needs to stop sausaging the DB9.
What pisses me off the most is the length they go to convince the world that it's an all new model. They all look the same!! Even the Rapide looks like a DB9.
I've just realised who replaced Henrik Fisker as Aston Martin's styling chief.
It was a Xerox copier. 
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fritz
Jul 6, 2011 4:06:52 PM
- Jean
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Re: Top Gear Season 17 Episode 2
Its a bit depressing, I love Astons, they have a sense of cool that no other brand has. Even the Virage doesn't look bad, it just looks the same and thats the problem. They need to refresh the whole identity and differentiate their models better. Its a "too much of a good thing" example.
Re: Top Gear Season 17 Episode 2
Jean:
It is quite sad for a great brand like Aston can only produce a variation of only one platform (VH Platform), with the exception of One-77, the world's most expensive production car.
To be fair to Aston Martin I would say that, on the contrary, it is a brilliant strategy on the company's part to use the flexibility of the VH Platform system to enable such a small company with very limited resources to build a range of cars which, though not perfect, are quite brilliant considering the said resources. Up until the last dozen or so years, AM seemed permanently to be in the red and skating on the edge of bankruptcy and annual output was sometimes less than a thousand units.
We all like to make fun of the fact that AM takes the Corporate Identity concept to such extremes by making all its models look so similar, but overlook the fact that they are all beautiful.
We'd have lot more to complain about if they all looked similar but ugly.
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fritz
Jul 6, 2011 4:57:58 PM
- easy_rider911
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Re: Top Gear Season 17 Episode 2
Agree with your post fritz except, to appreciate it, one has to know that these cars all share the same VH platform. Most people don't know this and so will simply assume that they all look the same due to Aston's lack of imagination or lack of creative design.
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RT Moderator - 997.1 Carrera S GT Silver/Cocoa, -20mm sports suspension/LSD, PSE, short shifter, SportDesign rims, Zuffenhausen collection
Jul 6, 2011 7:24:13 PM
- jaffamonkey
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Re: Top Gear Season 17 Episode 2
I think Aston is really trying to pull the wool over peoples eyes claiming the Virage is a new car. The Virage should be marketed as an updated DB9. The DB9 should then be discontinued and a Virage S developed to replace the DBS.
Astons range would then consist of Vantage, Vantage S, Virage, Virage S, Rapide and One 77. I'll disregarding the cygnet which has no place in Astons range.
Then they can concentrate on developing a new platform and use it to refresh the whole range, instead of releasing piecemeal updates and claiming they're new cars.
Oh btw Hi everyone, this is my first post on rennteam, though I've been a member for years. :)
Jul 8, 2011 3:47:13 PM
- Atzporsche
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Re: Top Gear Season 17 Episode 2
I guess the Mercedes interest or close development of future sports cars with AM fell through.. that's really sad. I too hope AM will start spending some R&D and make a modern car.
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indeed shifting is ancient technology - so is a fuel burning engine.. I happen to like both :)
Jul 8, 2011 4:57:18 PM
- fritz
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Re: Top Gear Season 17 Episode 2
Atzporsche:
I guess the Mercedes interest or close development of future sports cars with AM fell through.. that's really sad. I too hope AM will start spending some R&D and make a modern car.
I should think that, In relation to its turnover, AM is already spending a disproportionately large amount on R&D and tooling costs and that these attempts at maxing out the model diversity by making model variants from common components and production processes is just an attempt at mitigating these high one-off up-front costs to improve profitability and ensure sustainability of the company.
Considering AM no longer has Ford's resources behind it, I'm more inclined to be amazed that AM achieves so much than to be critical that it doesn't do more.
My understanding was that talks with Daimler where slanted more towards Daimler wanting to offload some of the responsibility for the Maybach brand rather than to help AM develop its sports cars. I'm not sure that such a move would benefit AM, and that's without even considering what came out of the McLaren Mercedes road car project.
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fritz
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