Ford is getting rid of Aston Martin

As a fan of chrysler vehicles (dodge/chrysler/jeep) hope that mercedes NEVER buys aston.

it would be decontented, left to rot, the bankroll stolen to fund the next horrible s-class concept.. and then kicked to the curb.
 
Errr..... what? Are you really trying to say that Mercedes ruined Chrysler?

Pre-Merc:
98_chrysler_concorde_lxi2.jpg


Now:
Chrysler-300C-002.jpg


Apart from that, Merc and Chrysler merged and I am pretty sure that without the merger and modernization of Chrysler they would be dead now, considering the crisis on the american car market.
 
umm.. chryslers plants are more efficient and advanced than most mercedes plants.. they are a high volume manufacturer with advanced flex lines in almost all their plants now, not to mention chrysler has been doing design and testing in catia since the mid 80's.. they virtually pioneered virtualized vehicle design in testing in co-operation with dassault systems.

300C is a sweet car.. don't get me wrong.. but look at the rest of the lineup.. mercedes bean counters are killin them.

you think the 4 door s-class convertible is actually mercedes engineering? or is it really chrysler LY platform.. or the new ML.. just don't ask mercedes if it has jeep dna under the skin.. nein they'll say.. jeep copied them.. BS.

Firepower cancelled.. perhaps because it's too competitive for the slk in america? would eat into mercedes sales? Even the challenger is rumored to be up for a possible no-go on production.. you could take that car.. price it at $50K USD and sell every one you could make.. but the german management doesn't know if it's a good idea to produce or not, but they think the new sebring is gonna be a great seller.. *puke*.. same deal with the jeep compass..

And if you want to compare.. the 300m vs the 300c is a more valid comparison.. fwd vs rwd.. but the interior was better appointed.. also a great car..

1595_1.jpg


If Aston went to DCX, it would be the death of Aston. It would be better if some russian millionaire college kid picked it up..
 
NO, NO, NO Chrysler was saved by Mercedes no questions. Why are you mad that they get all the benefits of Mercedes engineering, yes Chrysler came up with a lot of great design ideas but they don't have to money to do that. But I will agree that the performance cars like the Viper may have suffered.
 
NO, NO, NO Chrysler was saved by Mercedes no questions.
Saved? No I don't think so. Nobody buys a failing company (the size of Chryco) to "save" it. Not even Santa Claus is that generous (or stupid). Daimler bought Chrysler because they saw a great potential for making money, period. At the time Chrysler was coming out with some spiffy ideas, their cars went from bleh to hmmm-that's-kinda-cool so all was great. And let's not forget the Jeep brand that was lumped in with it. Also, IIRC, Chrysler was not exactly broke at the time, quite the opposite.

Hard to say what would have happened w/o Daimler in the mix but I must say, I see little to no benefit of this "merger". Yes there are some cool Chryslers on the market (300, Charger, Magnum, RAM etc) but I really don't see a supposed "quality" and engineering hand of Mercedes in any of them. Not that this was their intent in the first place. According to many they handle just as "bad", and the interiors have definitely gotten worse since the Chrysler's rebirth era, at which time, they have actually gotten noticeably better and nicer than a traditional American lump of molded, squeaky plastic throughout. We're clearly back to square one now as anyone who sat inside of one of these cars can attest. They do look pretty well appointed but feel like utter crap still.

I sincerely doubt that design-wise Mercedes is contributing anything either. Though fine automobiles, sans few gems, MB is probably one of thee most boring, bland and uninspiring cars made today (and for a long time before that). Maybe they themselves saw an opportunity to be more "adventurous" w/o meddling in their own affairs but benefits? Oh please. The benefits became quite apparent with the release of the Crossfire and continue on with the likes of Jeep Compass. I mean even puke gets sick at the sight of those fine examples.

I think Ford has proven a good and generous parent for Aston, Land Rover, Volvo and the likes. They clearly decided on the hands-off approach. Be a sugar-daddy but let them do what they do, 'cause whatever it is they're doing, they're doing it well. And it shows. Should Aston be sold to anyone else, I think they will suffer given the freedom to do their thing while "owned" by Ford. Similarly I think they would not survive being on their own.
 
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Its really amazing how blind some people can go. Chrysler being ruined by Mercedes bean counters? right. Mercedes is highly profitable and that way they fund most of Chryslers bigger projects which wouldn't even be possible without the Mercedes money. They had to build a lot of new platforms and modernize a lot of stuff, because after the merger it turned that Chrysler wasn't in as good shape as they presented themselves before.
I don't like people who always try to find something negative in everything. To me the lineup of the Chrysler group looks A LOT more appealing than some years ago, and also looks a lot better than what GM and Ford USA offer. It may be that the interiors are not on par with their european competitors but you have to see that cars are way to cheap on the US market to make a real quality product. People wont buy Chryslers when they get as expensive as Mercedes. As I said in some other thread before, you can start with quality as soon as the war on the US market is over, with one side being dead.
Some people here don't seem to realize that most expensive cars are expensive for a reason: It costs a lot of money to make them. Some people might call it over-engineering, but most car enthusiast appreciate what that does for the quality of a car.
And posting Fords PAG as an example of how to do it right is a somehow bad idea, because they produce HUGE red numbers.
 
It is not really amazing how arrogant and ignorant some people can be.

Quality does not always cost money (Japan has proven that), so your assertion that expensive cars are expensive because more goes into them is quite simply dead wrong. Ferrari being just one, but a fine example. Mercedes in Germany is known as a full line-up company. Everything from the A-Class to the SLR, MB services every price point.

That is though, when they were still making quality cars unlike their recent lineup of expensive cars with shoddy workmanship. MBs are expensive in the West on snob appeal alone. Otherwise, their years of a lack of quality would have perhaps irrovocably damaged their repuatation.
 
Instead of insulting me you could have spent your time researching how much money goes in R&D of modern cars like an A-Class or VW Golf, they're very complex products, for example the Multilink rear axle on a Golf is way more modern than what you will find on most American midsize cars, because what people demand is different. But then a basic Golf with 100hp petrol engine costs about 18.000-19.000?, with some options or a Diesel engine you are easily at 25k. Thats as much as a Mustang costs, a 300hp V8 Sportscar. Most "standard" cars on the US market seem to be A LOT cheaper than the cars here, and of course thats due to a reason, they are simpler constructions. Believe me if you like, don't if you don't like, but accept the fact that most of the time you get what you pay for.
 
I didn't insult you. I just pointed out how wrong you are. The Japanese have proven that you don't need to spend a lot of money to get quality. You don't have to believe it if you choose not as reality trucks along just fine without you.
 
That comment accurately reflects how un-dee presented himself and so could not be an insult.
 
Why is Ford selling a brand that's making money? Do they really have no confidence in keeping AM profitable? That would seem like the only reason to sell. But if it does gets sold tho, I hope Toyota would buy it, then we would really have hope of getting a new Supra (based on the Vantage) or even a V12 supercar (engine based on DB9).
 
Why is Ford selling a brand that's making money? Do they really have no confidence in keeping AM profitable? That would seem like the only reason to sell. But if it does gets sold tho, I hope Toyota would buy it, then we would really have hope of getting a new Supra (based on the Vantage) or even a V12 supercar (engine based on DB9).

No BMW the last thing we need is another car that is as cheap and fast as the Z06
 
Why is Ford selling a brand that's making money? Do they really have no confidence in keeping AM profitable? That would seem like the only reason to sell.

Ford needs cash, big time - selling a profitable brand like AM is a great way to generate cash immediately.
 
It was pretty clear that Porsche wouldn't buy them, its too risky and doesn't really fit the company profile. They don't wanna build up a worldwide empire, just focus on what they can do good.

plus the engines are in the wrong place... 8)
 
Ford needs cash, big time - selling a profitable brand like AM is a great way to generate cash immediately.

On theory I have seen presented a couple of times is that Ford wants to go private at least for a time to rebuild the company. Right now there are a little less then 2 billion outstanding Ford shares around. They would need to buy those shares back to go private and they don't have the cash to do it.

Ford needs at least 14 billion dollars to buy back all of the shares and if they can sell Aston for a couple of billion dollars then that just makes it easier.
 
Why is Ford selling a brand that's making money? Do they really have no confidence in keeping AM profitable? That would seem like the only reason to sell. But if it does gets sold tho, I hope Toyota would buy it, then we would really have hope of getting a new Supra (based on the Vantage) or even a V12 supercar (engine based on DB9).

This could backfire and they could give us Aston Martin hybrids. :p
 
This could backfire and they could give us Aston Martin hybrids. :p

Yeah... or worse, a FWD V8 Vantage with a plastic interior :lol:

/toyota aurion reference

200kW + FWD = BAD

Damn, I never want to be in one of those TRD versions when they come out.. 240kW and they still say it's going to be FWD. That's over 300HP people.

GM should buy them and put Holden in charge of them ;)

But thinking about the other brands, Jaguar could do a lot better without AM being in the same family. I remember hearing about how they couldn't build the XKR-R because it would kill the DB7 a while back. That was in TG, I believe.
 
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