Hot! Aston Martin: News and What's Next

[Syris]

Ah well, the infamous "supply chain issues"....

Seems like Aston always has this one trick up their sleeves when they run into troubles once again, regarding their sales numbers. Could be that the new line up doesn't reignite their desirability after all, regardless of their fabulous looks & updated interiors.

Does that also mean the conpany won't become CF positive in H2 as many financial experts have already doubted?

Although the company has made great progress in many areas, financial health isn't one of them. Under Stroll's leadership the firm has continued to overpromise and underdeliver with respect to their quarterly results.

Could it be that Aston Martin is the Titanic after all and impossible to steer away from the inevitable collision with the iceberg, i.e Chapter 11 once again?

Share your thoughts!

 

[Centurion]

That's unfortunate for the brand. But even without sales disruption, it's unlikely that the new line would have a seismic impact on revenue because:
-Interior upgrades are just playing catchup on what they should have been 5 years ago.
-The exterior recycles pre-existing designs which won't do anything to attract new customers to the brand.
-Interest rates are high with 8-11% APR for cars. There's less cheap credit for buying cars.
-Getting out of a luxury/prestige car is harder as many dealers now only offer sale or return.

 

[Syris]

That's unfortunate for the brand. But even without sales disruption, it's unlikely that the new line would have a seismic impact on revenue because:
-Interior upgrades are just playing catchup on what they should have been 5 years ago.
-The exterior recycles pre-existing designs which won't do anything to attract new customers to the brand.
-Interest rates are high with 8-11% APR for cars. There's less cheap credit for buying cars.
-Getting out of a luxury/prestige car is harder as many dealers now only offer sale or return.

Agree!

I think they should have really pulled through with the initial Vanquish mid-engine concept to seize new opportunities in the market besides GTs.
Due to the age of technology, the average millionaire's age is becoming increasingly younger and most of those love Supercars rather than Grand Tourers. The concept Vanquish would have competed with the likes of Lamborghini Temerario, McLaren 720 and probably the Ferrari 296 GT.
This would have given them greater recognition & attention among younger potential customers which would in turn have a significant halo effect on the entire line-up.

But that's just me.

 

[Centurion]

Want to know how poor DB12 demand is? Check out this car. It's less than 6 months old with 365 miles. With options, the total price was £225k. Last week it sold for £128k at auction.

Agree!

I think they should have really pulled through with the initial Vanquish mid-engine concept to seize new opportunities in the market besides GTs.
Due to the age of technology, the average millionaire's age is becoming increasingly younger and most of those love Supercars rather than Grand Tourers. The concept Vanquish would have competed with the likes of Lamborghini Temerario, McLaren 720 and probably the Ferrari 296 GT.
This would have given them greater recognition & attention among younger potential customers which would in turn have a significant halo effect on the entire line-up.

But that's just me.

I agree. The Vantage could have been reborn as a mid-engine V8.

 

[Syris]

Want to know how poor DB12 demand is? Check out this car. It's less than 6 months old with 365 miles. With options, the total price was £225k. Last week it sold for £128k at auction.

I agree. The Vantage could have been reborn as a mid-engine V8.

I really do wonder why that is though? Because to me the DB12 looks very desirable from a design perspective and the new infotainment, whilst not the best, isn't bad either.
Is it that the brand lacks customer awareness for the mentioned reasons above or could it be something else like depreciation concerns?

I would love to know the internal discussions around the cancelation of the vanquish concept and why they decided to avoid a firm entry into the mid-engine supercar market (the Valhalla doesn't count as it's a limited run & not mass market in terms of pricing).

 

[Centurion]

I really do wonder why that is though? Because to me the DB12 looks very desirable from a design perspective and the new infotainment, whilst not the best, isn't bad either.
Is it that the brand lacks customer awareness for the mentioned reasons above or could it be something else like depreciation concerns?

I would love to know the internal discussions around the cancelation of the vanquish concept and why they decided to avoid a firm entry into the mid-engine supercar market (the Valhalla doesn't count as it's a limited run & not mass market in terms of pricing).

The DB12 looks like a heavy facelift of the DB11 which is 6 years old. Furthermore the DB12 is V8 only.

You could buy a 296, Urus or GT3 Touring, drive it for 12 months and lose less money than that aston has done in just 365 miles.

 

[Syris]

The DB12 looks like a heavy facelift of the DB11 which is 6 years old. Furthermore the DB12 is V8 only.

You could buy a 296, Urus or GT3 Touring, drive it for 12 months and lose less money than that aston has done in just 365 miles.

So it's a depreciation problem?

 

[Bridster]

Want to know how poor DB12 demand is? Check out this car. It's less than 6 months old with 365 miles. With options, the total price was £225k. Last week it sold for £128k at auction.

That's crazy, but I am not sure it necessarily translates into low sale volumes. From what we know the sales have been OK.

That said, yeah, I am not sure about the DB12 in general. The Vantage now actually looks like a nice proposition, and the new Vanquish is there if you want the V12. What does the DB12, which has the same V8 as the Vantage, with the same power, but heavier and slower, do? Apart from costing more?

From memory AM's plan for this year was to sell 7150 cars, so even with 1000 less that's still a bit over 6000. The thing is, in the first half they only sold 2000. So really, 7150 was never realistic and even getting to 6000 will be a major stretch which will have to involve them again loading dealerships with cars before the end of the year. The Vantage just started shipping at the end of Q2, so if the Vantage sales are good, we could see them hit 6k. But that's still gonna be less than the previous two years - which already weren't very good - and it's very far from their original goal to sell 10000 cars per year by 2025.

 

[Centurion]

That's crazy, but I am not sure it necessarily translates into low sale volumes. From what we know the sales have been OK.

That said, yeah, I am not sure about the DB12 in general. The Vantage now actually looks like a nice proposition, and the new Vanquish is there if you want the V12. What does the DB12, which has the same V8 as the Vantage, with the same power, but heavier and slower, do? Apart from costing more?

From memory AM's plan for this year was to sell 7150 cars, so even with 1000 less that's still a bit over 6000. The thing is, in the first half they only sold 2000. So really, 7150 was never realistic and even getting to 6000 will be a major stretch which will have to involve them again loading dealerships with cars before the end of the year. The Vantage just started shipping at the end of Q2, so if the Vantage sales are good, we could see them hit 6k. But that's still gonna be less than the previous two years - which already weren't very good - and it's very far from their original goal to sell 10000 cars per year by 2025.

Aston have a desirability and positioning issus. Hence why they are on a journey to pivot from luxury to ultra luxury.

Even if Vantage and DB12 deliveries are slow, the DBX should be a brewd winner selling 4-6k units per year.

In the UK the base Urus or Urus S had a similar asking price to a DBX. On the used market a 3 year old DBX is half the price of the Urus which is a remapped RSQ8 with faster steering.

IMO 10,000 units in 2025 is unrealistic. Their limited edition cars are dope but the base models, although pretty, lack newness, surprise or distinction. The 911 gets away with this because its performance and tech is always second to none. It excels at something.

 

[Centurion]

Insightful article about Aston Martin and the direction that they are aiming for:

Aston Martin's first EV will be here by 2030 – but before then, expect lots of hybrids | Autocar

New boss Adrian Hallmark outlines plans for the future, including mid-engined investment

www.autocar.co.uk

 

[klier]

Want to know how poor DB12 demand is? Check out this car. It's less than 6 months old with 365 miles. With options, the total price was £225k. Last week it sold for £128k at auction.

Not surprising. The car is dated as hell and looks like a modded Dodge with Aston front.
The updated interior is just cheap lipstick, and I am thoroughly unimpressed with it.

They rather pay Max Verstappen a billion dollars for the next 5 years than actually invest in their core.

You could buy a 296, Urus or GT3 Touring, drive it for 12 months and lose less money than that aston has done in just 365 miles.

But what is "less money"? Do you lose like 80k on them in the first year? That's also absolutely batshit insane.
I would have surely thought a GT3 Touring would hold its value a bit better.....

 

[Jonathan19]

CEO Adrian Hallmark said they working on a Manual Vantage.

Aston Martin Is Going To Make The Manual Transmission More Attainable

Pointing to the Porsche 911 GT3, new Aston boss Adrian Hallmark thinks there's a market for a stick shift lower in the company's lineup.

carbuzz.com

 

[Syris]

This guy on Instagram has a great relationship with Aston & probably knows more about future models than many others.
What does he mean by „new DBX“? A once again updated version of the DBX wasn’t mentioned during Aston‘s Q4 results and I don‘t understand what they could possibly upgrade about the current model as the interior & infotainment system were just overhauled a year ago. Any ideas?

 

[Jonathan19]

This guy on Instagram has a great relationship with Aston & probably knows more about future models than many others.
What does he mean by „new DBX“? A once again updated version of the DBX wasn’t mentioned during Aston‘s Q4 results and I don‘t understand what they could possibly upgrade about the current model as the interior & infotainment system were just overhauled a year ago. Any ideas?

Some rumors talk about a hybrid DBX, maybe it's this.

 

[Syris]

Some rumors talk about a hybrid DBX, maybe it's this.

Also think they should tweak the styling a bit to make it either more aggressive or more luxurious, if they seriously want to compete with the likes of Urus and Bentayga. Because as of today, although looking beautiful IMO, the car appears too bland in the looks department for the price tag it commands. Just my opinion.

 

[Jonathan19]

Also think they should tweak the styling a bit to make it either more aggressive or more luxurious, if they seriously want to compete with the likes of Urus and Bentayga. Because as of today, although looking beautiful IMO, the car appears too bland in the looks department for the price tag it commands. Just my opinion.

They have a more luxurious version said to have a very high price in development.

 

[Jonathan19]

This guy on Instagram has a great relationship with Aston & probably knows more about future models than many others.
What does he mean by „new DBX“? A once again updated version of the DBX wasn’t mentioned during Aston‘s Q4 results and I don‘t understand what they could possibly upgrade about the current model as the interior & infotainment system were just overhauled a year ago. Any ideas?

Also think they should tweak the styling a bit to make it either more aggressive or more luxurious, if they seriously want to compete with the likes of Urus and Bentayga. Because as of today, although looking beautiful IMO, the car appears too bland in the looks department for the price tag it commands. Just my opinion.

Or maybe this!

DBX F1 - Page 1 - Aston Martin - PistonHeads UK

www.pistonheads.com

 

[Syris]

Or maybe this!

DBX F1 - Page 1 - Aston Martin - PistonHeads UK

www.pistonheads.com

Nice catch! Posted the same question on the Reddit Forum and one user who works as an employee at a dealer ship basically hinted at an updated version.

 

[Jonathan19]

Vanquish Volante coming tomorrow!

Aston Martin on Instagram: "25.03.25. 13.00 GMT. #AstonMartin #INTENSITYDRIVEN"

326 likes, 4 comments - astonmartin on March 24, 2025: "25.03.25. 13.00 GMT. #AstonMartin #INTENSITYDRIVEN".

www.instagram.com

 

[Syris]

No new DBX so far