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Hmmm. I guess I was wrong. Still, it is a known fact that exotic car manufacturers are almost never profitible.
But yeah, I have heard about Land Rover and Jaguar. I don't think they have been profitible since Ford bought them. And selling them would be a bitch, just look at DaimlerChrysler trying to sell Chrysler. Volkswagen, Hyundai, Ranault and Nissan have all declined to buy them, simply because it seems that they would be making a bad move by buying them, as they have been losing money all year. THey lost about 1.6 million last year. (or was it billion?)
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[Quote=Prius]I guess I was wrong. Still, it is a known fact that exotic car manufacturers are almost never profitible.[/Quote]
Some research may help before you start posting about economics (or anything for that matter).
Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Noble, Caterham, Pagani were all sports car manufactures last I checked and all are profitable - the 1st two especially so.
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Porsche are also independent, which is always important.
Chris... can we buy Aston Martin, please? I'll give you $500 towards it.
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Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche are obviously profitible. How else have they been able to stick around this long?
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That's contradicting what you're saying. Read your last post in this thread.
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[quote=IWantAnAudiRS6;679693]Porsche are also independent, which is always important.
Chris... can we buy Aston Martin, please? I'll give you $500 towards it.[/quote]
You can give me that $500 towards the price of the 'Stang ;)
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Why does everyone think they need to have AM in F1 now? It's so bloody boring there is little point in watching now days. Plus aston martin if at all; has no history racing in formula one, which is why they should stick to sports cars. If im not mistaken the DBR9 is the first car to stick it to the corvettes in a few years in alms and elms. they have the perfect formula they don't need to ruin it.
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I did investigate the purchase, but at a final agreed price of US$927m is more than I thought it was worth, although it is far below the originally desired US$1.4-2b hinted at by Ford
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[QUOTE=speednine;679704]Why does everyone think they need to have AM in F1 now? It's so bloody boring there is little point in watching now days. Plus aston martin if at all; has no history racing in formula one, which is why they should stick to sports cars. If im not mistaken the DBR9 is the first car to stick it to the corvettes in a few years in alms and elms. they have the perfect formula they don't need to ruin it.[/QUOTE]
AM raced F1 in the 50s with the DBR4 and 5s.
Unfortunately Sir David's main interests and money were in sports car racing and so he delayed the racing of the car till he had Le Mans and the world sports car championship in the bag several times. This left the car to finally take to the track too late and up against the mid-engined cars.
The reason for the rumours of a F1 appearance is due to ProDrive winning the licence to run a team from 2008.
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[QUOTE=Cyco;679712]AM raced F1 in the 50s with the DBR4 and 5s.
Unfortunately Sir David's main interests and money were in sports car racing and so he delayed the racing of the car till he had Le Mans and the world sports car championship in the bag several times. This left the car to finally take to the track too late and up against the mid-engined cars.
The reason for the rumours of a F1 appearance is due to ProDrive winning the licence to run a team from 2008.[/QUOTE]
I thought the DBr4/5's where there le mans cars??
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[QUOTE=Prius;679682]Hmmm. I guess I was wrong. Still, it is a known fact that exotic car manufacturers are almost never profitible.
But yeah, I have heard about Land Rover and Jaguar. I don't think they have been profitible since Ford bought them. And selling them would be a bitch, just look at DaimlerChrysler trying to sell Chrysler. Volkswagen, Hyundai, Ranault and Nissan have all declined to buy them, simply because it seems that they would be making a bad move by buying them, as they have been losing money all year. THey lost about 1.6 million last year. (or was it billion?)[/QUOTE]
Not all 'losing money' manufacturers are not worth buying, and not all 'earning money' companies are worth buying. Economics doesn't only work on looking at the end of the balance sheets themselves. You have to probe into it. I'd buy a company that losses 10 million because the CEO made a fraud than a company that used to earn 200million but now it's only earning 30million annually.
Last i checked, i do think Land Rover is a marque worth buying. (If their shares did not bloated up)
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[QUOTE=Prius;679637]Since exotic car makers like Aston are almost never profitible, it will have to go.[/QUOTE]
Exotic car makers like Aston are almost always profitable because the margins are better.
What is so different between a V8 Vantage and a DB9 that costs £20,000?
Then you have jokers like Ferrari charging an amount of money that would actually buy you a small car, for trivial options like a painted stripe, coloured brake callipers, wing mirror finishes; again, do you really think it costs Ferrari £1,000 to paint a line on a car?
To succeed you need good investment, a good product and good management - if you get that right, even with an unknown brand like Pagani or Koenigsegg you can make money.
The problem is keeping profitable enough to develop new cars to a high enough standard, and avoiding recessions that can cull your order book.
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I guess options is where the guys like Ferrari and Porsche (I never realized Porsches had so many options till I checked out their site) make a killing. You have that totally right, Coventrysucks, it makes no sense for a line on a car to cost £1 000 but that is simply the price that people are willing to pay I guess.
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[url=http://www.astonmartins.com/racing/dbr1.htm]DBR1[/url]
[url=http://www.astonmartins.com/racing/dbr2.htm]DBR2[/url]
[url=http://www.astonmartins.com/racing/dbr3.htm]DBR3[/url]
All are obviously enclosed body work Sports cars, as was traditional at the time, with minor variations as rules changed and development progressed.
[url=http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/frame.php?file=car.php&carnum=17]DBR4[/url] is clearly very different, and DBR5 was a development of this