Ford to sell Aston Martin ...

[yg60m]

http://www.autocarmagazine.co.uk/news_article.asp?na_id=222184

Each week a new possibility, selling Jaguar and Land Rover or Aston Martin :?:
Ford saved Aston and now it makes money, I'm not sure it's the good decision.

[5vz-fe]

BMW, please buy it!!

[thepest]

^
I 2nd that...please

[Tommaso]

Ford saved Aston and now it makes money, I'm not sure it's the good decision.


Me too :?

[HeilSvenska]

BMW, please buy it!!

Now that is a logical move, they would do so much for Aston and likewise, they would compete right with the Italian Goliaths, and would be a great addition to Rolls-Royce, Mini, Aston Martin and BMW! Lets just hope the cars stay pretty! :)

When hell freezes over. No German car maker should be allowed to buy more companies. BMW-owned Jags will be nothing more than cheap BMW alternatives, nothing more. And they'll fade away into oblivion. That goes the same for Daimler Chrysler and Volkwagen which already have brands that compete with Jaguar in the same classes.

[DeMoN]

that would b great if BMW did get it. McLaren + BMW was great, this wil OWN!

[Fleischmann]

I saw it coming, just didn't expect it to happen so soon. Jaguar isn't doing very well and Ford needs money to keep it alive. And since one of the PAG companies has to go, it will be Aston as the supercar maker will be much easier to detach from the rest of the range. On one hand it's sad, because Ford was the one who made Aston what it is today, on the other I hope it will be sold to an investor of English nationilty to bring back the firms "Britishness".

[Fleischmann]

Why sell Aston, Jag seems to be a much bigger problem.

Ulrich Bez has ended the era of Ford parts in Aston Martins, which isn't the case with Jaguar. Fords and bottom of the range Jaguars share many components. Basically it would be cheaper...

[Sir_GT]

Man... M-tuned V12's in the Astons?

Mad.

[nickthaskater]

Land Rover has pretty much the worst reliability in the business, and Jaguars are just... Blah. Ditching those two would be much better than getting rid of the now profitable, and highly respectable, Aston name.

[5vz-fe]

Jag got more reliable these days after Ford picked them up. Land Rover I don't know, but their LR3 seems to be selling alright

[nickthaskater]

Jaguar have indeed improved, but JD power results continually have Land Rover right at the very bottom, which is pretty fucking bad considering they're not exactly selling like Civics.

[nickthaskater]

Why sell off a profitable company just to lose the money you made by trying to bring up two other companies? In the long run getting rid of Aston would just be shooting themselves in the foot IMO.

[fsandys]

Nooooooo not BM please :(

This could signal the end of some of the most beautiful cars in the world :roll:

[nickthaskater]

Taking a gamble like selling an already profitable company, which you (Ford) made profitable and respectable, just to attempt to save two other brands which are languishing is not a smart move to me. Jaguar just can't compete these days, their name is pretty much meaningless compared to what it used to be, and they're being outclassed in essentially every catagory they're in. Land Rover is pretty niche, and I can't ever see them being a volume seller, especially when Ford already has Lincoln to fill the luxury area with the Navigator, Mark LT, and new MKX.

No matter which way I look at it, ditching Aston to try and save Jag and LR just seems stupid.

[CMonakar]

What a pathetic company. The fact that they couldn't make Jag profitable in the 8 or some odd years that they have had control is a reason to fire the entire product planning team. Most luxury car companies have been making money hand over first for years and they apparently can't even get Jag out of the red! How difficult is it to crank out an entry level luxury car? The first time I saw the X-type I knew it was going nowhere.

Speaking for my demographic, the company in general has no sense at all of what the market really wants. The Ford brand cars all look completely unoriginal and dull. Unfortunately for them Toyota does a better job at that and they've really stepped up their efforts in the SUV/Truck segment recently.

The reason they’re thinking about selling AM is simple, they place little value on brand pedigree, and the cash will allow them to sit on their hands and wait for their deeply flawed business to recover on its own a little bit longer.

[5vz-fe]

Yep, the news is for real

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/09/01/aston.martin.ap/index.html

[gobs3z]

Well J.P. Morgan and Chase Company are the prospective buyers of Aston Martin right now, this will mean that Aston will become a private company.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=13296917&src=rss/businessNews

[fsandys]

Nooooooo not BM please :(

This could signal the end of some of the most beautiful cars in the world :roll:

I beg to differ, for 98 year Rolls-Royce said "they made the best car", in 2003 the Phantom came out (built by BMW), suddendly that statement became truthful. Yes it uses a lot of BMW parts BUT they did a great job, and is very British, hell look at the Mini Cooper best resale value in the world! BMW knows how to execute, this would put AM head-to-head with Porsche.

Don't quote the mini cooper to me please since it doesn't work, I am not bothered by re-sale values or things like that, my comment was about design, and they successfully ruined the 'Mini' and turned it into a female only car! plus it no longer deserves that name really.

Secondly, head-to-head with Porsche? In my book AM are already waaay ahead of Porsche and there would be no contest for which equivalent model of those brands I would choose!

[/end]

Well J.P. Morgan and Chase Company are the prospective buyers of Aston Martin right now, this will mean that Aston will become a private company.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=13296917&src=rss/businessNews

This is slightly better news I suppose.