In the Second Century…

Aston Martin. British motoring at its finest. Popularity came with the one and only (or several) 007: James Bond. The stunning looks and epic performance is what adds Aston Martin to bedroom walls and laptop backgrounds. Who doesn’t love Aston Martin?

image

Ok so for me, my first experience with the automaker came in Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, in the heyday of the PS2. When you had to drive the V12 Vanquish. Not to mention, Handsome Rob in The Italian Job with his famous line “…I suppose I’ll get the Aston Martin Vanquish.” I have also had other moments with Aston Martin like seeing a DB9 on a trip to Alabama and of course watching a few James Bond movies, and my personal favorite, the Vanish…er….Vanquish.

So upon research from a few sources, Aston Martin is planning on this plan dubbed the “Second Century” which involves a complete overhaul of its entire line by 2020. Now…I know what you are thinking…Why are they doing that? What are they thinking? I can answer those questions and Mr. CEO, Andy Palmer, has an aggresive yet completely logical plan.

image

First of all, I love the beauty Aston Martin’s are known for. I also admire the classic timeless design. However, the main issue is that timeless design. The brand seems to be stuck in the PS2 days with the original Vanquish. Aston Martin needs to bring that timeless design to the future. Not to mention, a little differentiation between its models would be welcome. After seeing a few of the new ideas that were revealed at the Shanghai Motor Show…its a step in the right direction.

The whole point of the “Second Century” plan is most likely to 1) expand Aston Martin’s lineup and 2) bring Aston Martin design to the future. I think that the addition of the DBX crossover which completely shocked me and the revival of the Lagonda, which is also shocking considering how the original looked, is a nice start. The Taraf, which is slated to be a limited production model, will probably give us the same feeling that a One-77 did, in the sense of rarity and exclusitivity. Also, a continuation of the Vanquish/Vantage/DB9/S lines would be welcome as long as these can be merged into one sports car. Then again a supercar from Aston Martin would be a welcome addition seeing as we have a better chance of seeing a real pot of gold under a rainbow than a One-77.

image

Now here’s the problem, how do you revamp the whole line without offending the diehard Aston Martin owners/fans? Well..the answer is…they will love it regardless. Not to mention, I know that I’d rather see a different set of cars than Aston Martin ending up dead because they didn’t get with the times. Either that or reduced to something like Morgan. All that has to happen which judging from concept designs is, retaining the classic, stealthy looks with a future edge. That my friends is the simple formula for success.

I believe that the new plan to bring Aston Martin to another level, will prove to be successful. Let’s not forget that Bentley is planning their SUV and for the expected price range, it might be a good idea to give it some competition. Aston Martin with the Second Century plan can step up and out-bling the Bentley. Who knows? James Bond might be driving a Taraf in his next movie…given MI6 approves.

image

Comments?

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: