Aston Martin-Maybach Concept Coming

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Talk about a blast from the past: TTAC first took note of talks between Aston Martin and Daimler nearly three years ago, and the Maybach connection first shows up a few months later. But all this time later it doesn’t sound like a whole lot of progress has been made. The FT reports that the two sides are still

sounding out a partnership in which Aston Martin could take engine technology from the German carmaker in exchange for building the cars“Aston Martin needs engines and nobody at Daimler wants to let the Maybach brand die,” said one industry insider.The problem is that the only fruit of these years of rumored Aston-Daimler flirtations has not been AMG-engined Aston sexiness, but rather the unloved GL-based Lagonda Concept. But Automotive News [sub] cites German media reports that say Daimler hascommissioned a mock-up of a new Maybach limousine that would use know-how and parts from Aston Martin. The new Maybach could debut at the 2011 Frankfurt auto showWe always thought this deal would be as easy as bunging a 6.3 into the Vantage and calling it good (OK, we knew it wouldn’t be that easy), but Daimler’s inexplicable desire to revive Maybach complicates things considerably. Especially considering that Aston’s only recent four-door is actually contract built in Austria by Magna. Still, given Aston’s other tie-ups, this partnership could be a lot worse.



Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Robert.Walter Robert.Walter on Dec 23, 2010

    Boring car. What do I see: - A-pillar cribbed from the Chrysler Norseman; - front maul stolen from Audi. Not enough original design language for me.

  • Daga Daga on Dec 23, 2010

    Well, the first Lagonda also looks 'technically' ugly, so why not have a swing with this one. Sad though.

  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh A prelude is a bad idea. There is already Acura with all the weird sport trims. This will not make back it's R&D money.
  • Analoggrotto I don't see a red car here, how blazing stupid are you people?
  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
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