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How chasing Ferrari improved Aston Martin, with help from Mercedes-Benz

GAYDON, England — After decades of ups and downs, British carmaker Aston Martin Lagonda is charting a more efficient and profitable way forward, leaning on technology from shareholder Mercedes-Benz to make the costly leap to electric vehicles (EVs). Less than two years after billionaire Lawrence Stroll drove to the rescue of James Bond's car brand of choice, Aston Martin has undergone a manufacturing makeover to lift margins and help it become more like rival Ferrari. Stroll, Aston Martin's largest shareholder and executive chairman, who is also an avid fan of Ferrari, says after vehicle sales jumped 82% in 2021 the carmaker's transformation to long-term profitability is well under way, with new cars coming and funding secured through 2025. But analysts say Aston Martin, which has gone bust seven times since it was founded in 1913 and has flirted with death as often as Agent 007, is still burning through piles of cash. Some question its ability to generate Ferrari-like sales to fund the vast cost of electrification. "It's precarious and it is possible for this company to go bust," said Redburn equity research analyst Charles Coldicott. "I don't think it's a controversial thing to say even though Aston wouldn't like to hear it." Asked to comment on perceptions of a shaky future, an Aston Martin spokesman reiterated Stroll's view that the carmaker is well on the way to long-term profitability and that it has adequate access to cash. On a tour of the carmaker's Gaydon factory, Tobias Moers, formerly head of Mercedes' high-performance AMG brand and Aston Martin chief executive since August 2020, rattles off a list of moves including cutting one of two assembly lines and bringing more bespoke items like seats in-house. Perhaps the biggest shift has been to focus on higher-value customer-driven and customized orders — a big part of Ferrari's success — rather than over-producing and churning out sports cars wholesale, which then had to be discounted. "When I came in, the company was manufacturing-dominated instead of engineering-led, which for an auto luxury business is insane," Moers said. "In a company this size, you need maximum flexibility and agility." Moers has cut Aston Martin's inventory to 600 sports cars from 2,000 — its cars sell for an average of around 150,000 pounds ($195,750) — and customized orders now account for 50% of sales versus 6% when he joined the firm. At that point, the carmaker was in trouble after a disastrous 2018 public listing.

2021 Aston Martin DBX First Drive Review | A crossover that makes you forget it’s a crossover

Many times we test high-powered crossovers but view them through the same lens as their performance-oriented siblings. Is this a Mustang? Is this a Porsche? Is it worthy? The list of crossovers subjected to navel-gazing and hand-wringing is long. Rather than fretting over the badge or the shape, it’s helpful to simply judge these vehicles on their merits. After all, the 2021 Aston Martin DBX was created because crossovers are essential, not because Aston ran out of sports-car ideas. The DBX is the first and assuredly not the last crossover in Aston MartinÂ’s 108-year history thatÂ’s filled with glittering sports cars and financial unease. The latter is the reason the DBX exists, so as to allow for the former to continue to endure. Put another way: ItÂ’s 2021. Ya gotta have a crossover, and it needs to be able to do stuff. The last time I reviewed an Aston, the DB11, I piloted it through the sun-drenched Tuscan countryside at high speeds. Five years later I find myself measuring another Aston under vastly different circumstances on vastly different merits. ThatÂ’s actually perfect.  The DBX is a crossover that can run, but my first order of business is strapping my sonÂ’s rear-facing car seat in the back. It fits pretty well, and even with him right behind the driverÂ’s seat, I still had a decent amount of room. Despite the dramatic roofline, I was able to get him in and out of the DBX with reasonable comfort. A minivan with sliding doors and a low ride height is easier, but the Aston is about as fit for toddler duty as any coupe-styled crossover can be. My sonÂ’s reaction? He loved the blue leather with its white stitching and noted the car “yelled.” ThatÂ’s what an AMG-built turbo V8 sounds like, son. The DBXÂ’s cabin is worth our test car's nearly $211,000 sticker. ItÂ’s interesting and stylish, rather than decadent. The all-Aurora blue leather looks and feels expensive. The sea of blue is broken up by a camel-colored Alcantara headliner, the ivory seatbelts and a light olive aspen overlay that accents the center console. The contrasting white stitching is subtle but intricate on the seats and door panels, and the seatbacks and large steering wheel proudly display the Aston badge. ThereÂ’s no shifter, but the paddles are large and easy to use, returning a satisfying clack.

Aston Martin confirms DP-100 for Gran Turismo 6 and Goodwood debut

Gran Turismo 6 is set to come to life this weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. That's where Mercedes-AMG will run its Vision Gran Turismo and Nissan will show a full-size mockup of its Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo. Now Aston Martin has announced it's getting in on the action as well with its Design Prototype 100. Aston has released a video two teaser images to give us a hint at what it's working on, but will reveal the finished product in the Supercar Paddock at Goodwood tomorrow, although we don't know if that will be in the form of a scale model, a full-size show car, a series of design sketches or a virtual rendition existing only in the game. From the look of the two images, though, it appears that we're dealing with an LMP-style racer with Aston's ubiquitous V12 mounted in the middle of a carbon-fiber chassis. What we do know for certain is that, when it's released for download next month, it will be the latest (but certainly not the last) in a long line of concepts designed specifically for driving on the PlayStation 3.