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AMG's partnership with Aston Martin won't extend past engines, for now

There's been talk of late about the technical partnership between Aston Martin and the AMG division of Mercedes-Benz going beyond engines to include Mercedes sports car and SUV platforms for the English brand, perhaps as a way to kickstart the development of a Lagonda SUV. But AMG CEO Tobias Moers, speaking to Top Gear, said that's effectively out of the question because, "No one has the time to discuss any more involvement than that for now."
Moers believes Aston Martin will be so busy "for the next two to three years" integrating its AMG-sourced engine and electronics that it won't have the resources to devote to working out a platform-sharing deal; Daimler sources have already said that Aston Martin's development budget "just isn't enough" to even consider a whole new model, and that greater cooperation would require something like a larger ownership stake in the boutique sports car maker.
AMG, in the meantime, is busy with the recent launch of the GLA45 AMG, the coming C63 AMG and its rumored 4.0-liter V8, the Mercedes-AMG GT and its assault on the Porsche 911 among who-knows-what other skunkworks projects. Moers said the technical partnership is about profit for AMG, clear and simple, and, "All these rumors about platform sharing are nice but no one at Aston or Mercedes has the time to discuss them."

Aston Martin Vantage V12 Zagato goes back into limited production

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato in 2011, Aston Martin worked with Zagato Milano to create the Vantage V12 Zagato. Aston Martin made 101 of the special editions, available only as a coupe. This year, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Milanese design house, Swiss motorsport company AF Racing has commissioned 38 examples of the Vantage V12 Zagato, consisting of 19 coupes and 19 roadsters. The official name of the redux is Aston Martin Vantage V12 Zagato Heritage TWINS by R-Reforged. When Aston Martin originally announced production they planned to build 150 units, but for unknown reasons that number fell to 101 units. Since no specs have been mentioned, our guess is that the 6.0-liter V12 with 510 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque goes unchanged. As far as we can tell, the only differences between these new versions and the previous builds is that the coupe omits the rear spoiler, there's a wider selection of colors, and you can alternatively choose to take the top off. As for the entities behind this, the press release lays out a web of connections we're not totally clear on. The relevant matters are that AF Racing is a Swiss motorsport company that's a project partner on the Aston Martin Valkyrie, and it has a sub-brand called R-Reforged devoted to production-car projects. AF Racing owns a subsidiary in Germany called Vynamic that oversees four Aston Martin Vantage race cars competing in the German DTM Series. Vynamic will actually build the new V12 Zagatos. The rest of the tangled web doesn't matter. AF Racing says deliveries of the new coupes and speedsters will commence at the end of this year. No price has been mentioned, but the original coupes went for 330,000 pounds at the time, which would be $429,000 right now, and probably a good place to start.

Aston Martin wants to be the Hermes of the car world

Aston Martin doesn't want its wealthy potential customers to perceive the brand as just another sports car maker. The company wants to transform those perceptions so that buyers see its products as luxury goods on par with high-end accessories. If this change can successfully bring in more cash, the business could consider an initial public offering in the coming years. "We seek to position ourselves as the automotive equivalent of Hermes, not as the counterpart of Ferrari." CEO Andy Palmer explained the change to Bloomberg, referencing the boutique French brand. The desire to change buyer impressions comes as Aston Martin pivots away from a focus predominantly on sports cars and more towards high-performance luxury vehicles. For example, the company already has sedans in the lineup like the Rapide and Lagonda Taraf. The future range will also reportedly include an electric Rapide and another Lagonda. The production version of the DBX crossover (concept above) will add one more segment around 2019. However, Aston Martin won't completely abandon coupes because the DB11 will arrive in 2016, and a new Vanquish and Vantage will eventually follow. For Aston Martin to have a future, Palmer believes the company needs to look in new directions, especially with models like the DBX. According to Bloomberg, execs there hope that appealing to more customers could help the business see a net profit in the next three years, which hasn't happened since 2010. To save even more money going forward, the business recently cut 15 percent of its workforce mostly from white collar employees. Featured Gallery Aston Martin DBX: Monterey 2015 View 16 Photos News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Copyright 2015 Drew Phillips / AOL Aston Martin Crossover Luxury Performance Sedan aston martin rapide aston martin lagonda aston martin dbx