Aston Martin: How Recycled Platforms and Eight-Year-Old Tech Could be the Brand’s Downfall

Unlike Bentley, Lamborghini, Ferrari and Rolls-Royce – who are owned by highly successful mainstream brands Volkswagen, Audi, Fiat and BMW respectively – specialist manufacturers such as Aston Martin have a hard time in the market.

Whereas a company like Mercedes-Benz can afford to spend €5 billion (US$7.1 billion) in one year on research and development, the Gaydon-based manufacturer of performance/luxury coupes is planning its next models on the eight-year-old platform that first underpinned the DB9 coupe in 2003!

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Aston Martin DBX: Two Poles Envision Aston’s Future

In terms of coolness, Aston Martin’s are ice cold, baby. You have proper classics like the DB5 and the DB4GT Zagato and modern classics like the Vanquish and DBS. The less said about the Cygnet the better. So now there’s a new kid on the block, the Virage, for those who want something a little faster than the DB9 but not quite as fast as the DBS.

So that’s that, then? Well, no quite. You see, it’s getting to the stage where you need a trainspotters guide to tell one Aston model from another. They’re great cars, though without a tape measure and an eye for subtle differences in head- and taillights and body vents, they’re very similar looking. Too similar, one might say.

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