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Thread: Aston Martin Cygnet 2011-2013

  1. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by LeonOfTheDead View Post
    Sure, an original 500 or Mini could be as much practical and glamorous.
    Or just a Smart, an iQ, whatever.
    They just lack of an AM level of luxury, but there already are several offers from coachbuilders based on the same Smart, 500 and Mini, so it seems there really is a market.
    This is just an official product, and not a coachbuilt one.
    As you said before the fact there's a market doesn't make it a good idea.
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  2. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ferrer View Post
    As you said before the fact there's a market doesn't make it a good idea.
    There is a difference. If you do something which isn't in your DNA, something just because it will raise a lot of money, then you are playing the whore game.
    If you do something your customers, the one you already have, ask, it can make more sense (if it isn't a MB GL styled after an X6 with the Lagonda moniker, but I doubt someone asked for that thing).

    Such customers continuously buy 500s and Minis, then carry them to Carrozzeria Castagna, Aznom and others to have them finished at the level they are used to.
    Personally I think the iQ is too young (and too ugly) to be the object of such a desire, but it's pretty smart too.

    If my customers ask for something somehow sensible, I don't see why not to satisfy them. Surely I'm making money out of it, it's the main purpose of whatever brand, but if rumors are correct and this baby AM will cost 20.000 £, the profits are going to be very low per each car, and about the overall figure, probably the car isn't going to be available if you aren't an AM customer already.
    Ferrari/Fiat did a special edition 500 as a courtesy car for when you are servicing your Ferrari, just adding a plate a some stickers. That's BS.

    Here we have a car rebodied and fitted upon your requests. Can't see why not, despite the fact I'm also asking "why yes?".

    This could be offered, by my point of view, to satisfy a demand from customers, not out of a statistic saying it will sell like hot cakes and make a huge profit.
    When they decided to built the Rapide it was because there was a market for that. The V12 Vantage? People wanted it 8and then changed their minds). The DBS? the DB9 wasn't "enough".

    Someone asked for a raised fat heavy ignorant tacky Porsche? No, but they did it, knowing it would have been the success we know.
    Someone asked for another chromed Veyron?
    a Lamborghini in Audi clothes?
    an expensive Golf with 4 rings?
    or even a smaller Bentley/RR?

    Some points/examples could be debatable, it's subjective and somehow we don't have a real clue of what's behind each project apart from marketing tales.
    I don't really read press releases usually, and so this time.
    Personally I wouldn't be a customer of this car for what I'm given to know atm, and personally I couldn't care less of having a tailored mini car.
    At the same time, I can't say this is "wrong" even "ethically", something I think about a lot of other cars like the obvious and long-time enemy Cayenne in all its forms.

    AM is a pretty active brand right now, and I think it didn't dilute itself in the process. Yes the Lagonda Concept was arguably a good idea, and despite some good bits and bites, the actual form or final result could have been so much better I can't say that's comprehensible.

    I don't know another somehow large manufacturer being so active and connected to its heritage, tradition and soul.
    Yes, Lamborghini is giving us more and more special editions and toys, but they quite often lack of a soul, or better, they are just a commercial product, and the main issue is the too close relationships with Audi and its image.
    Cars like the Superleggera and the LP670 SV aren't simply enough to state "we are still kicking asses", it's just the spoon of sugar to swallow the bad pill. It's not that bad actually, but it rather average, being Lamborghini.
    The Revntòn could have been so much more, while in the end it was just a stylistic experiment, a concept car, produced in limited edition.
    Not bad really, but I don't think the GTbyCitroen would change that much our/your/their preception of Citroen in first place.
    It's a bit selfish.

    AM is doing exactly what it always did, probably even more than Ferrari which on the other hand got a bit too much F1-nut imo.

    This project is quite a news for sure, but can be tracked done in AM heritage, or even better, in AM's customers' heritage.
    I'm sure no V8 Vantage will be interested in this too.

    If I was so desperately rich to want a small car bespoke-ly designed, which brand would I choose for the job?
    I don't know if AM is the right answer or the one I'd end up with, but I'm sure, once again, that if I ever dreamed for an uber fast and perhaps even "comfortable" off roader, I wouldn't have chosen Porsche.
    If I was dreaming for new Mini, I'd have asked for something different for the actual result, despite being a good (or excellent, points of view) result. Surely it isn't so connected to the original, and the same goes for the 500, another marketing designed product.

    To answer all the questions and have a good idea of what's going on, we/I definitely need to know, see, understand more about this project.
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  3. #18
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    You see, AM makes me passionate. I like them just for what they manage to provoke inside of me.
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  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by 2ndclasscitizen View Post
    ffs aston.
    QFMFT. WTF.

    WTF UCP parser? I can't have all caps responses?

    Ahh, so questioning it is ok..
    Last edited by pimento; 06-29-2009 at 08:49 AM.

  5. #20
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    I think this is a terrible idea, but at the end of the press release it says
    “The offering of a ‘Cygnet’ with a DBS, DB9 or Vantage is a unique combination of opposites and a novel transport solution allowing intelligent and sensitive mobility on an exclusive and innovative level.”
    and that makes me wonder if they will only be selling this w/ larger models in an effort to look green and/or offer transport for when they aren't tearing up back roads.
    However, that is all just wishful thinking and if this is really mass produced its the worst idea ever and it ruins Aston's image in my eyes.

  6. #21
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    I honestly don't see in any way how a tarted-up Toyota city car fits with Aston's DNA. Astons are supposed to be superbly tailored grand tourers and sportscars not some posh Toyota with a ridicolous price tag. Of all the stupid, money making ideas, which include the Porsche Cayenne, the Bentley Continental series and the whole of the Audi range, this seems to me by far the worse.

    These, while bad, were products engineered for their respective brands with unique traits, be it engines, chasis body or whatever. This seems to be nothing more than a Toyota with an Aston badge, the photocopier set to 10% and the price tag labeller set to 8 million of a percent. And regarding profit margins, I'm sure this thing will have fat ones, since the iQ probably costs about 3p to make. You mention the 500 specially built as courtesy cars for Ferrari dealers, but this was still a Fiat, not a Ferrari and with no prentension of being one either.

    They pretend us to believe this is an Aston? Come on, we are not that stupid. Even from the my point of view the Lagonda could be considered as less bad since it's more unique than this turd. And you raise the question of sales, but seeing the success of premium luxury SUVs I'm sure the Lagonda would sell like hot cakes. Altough that doesn't make right either.

    I understand your point about Aston's costumers wantin a small luxury car to shop around in the cities and that's fine by me. But then, if there's demmand for these sort of arrangement why not make a deal with Castagna (or another coachbuilder company) and then offer some sort of supermini, like a Mini or a 500, to team up with your DB9 or V8 Vantage? It certainly would be much better than trying to make us believe a Toyota is an Aston Martin.
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  7. #22
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    No one is trying to convince you this is an Aston, or otherwise it wouldn't be so clearly and repetitively stated it's an iQ.
    Damn, even Toyota issued a press release about this.
    I don't see the difference between an in-house developed offer, or one obtained from a partnership with Castagna (or others).

    And I don't think the iQ is so cheap to produce. Small cars don't have huge profits, and they always count in massive sale numbers, that's why MB is richer than other mass producers of minis, as a stupid and not to be developed example.
    Given this as a fact in my opinion, would make AM's iQ much more expensive than Toyota's if not just for the personalizing activities, and considering the much lower sales, I can't see this being a cash cow, really.
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  8. #23
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    How aren't they trying to convince us it isn't an Aston when it's called the Aston Martin Cygnet, it has an Aston badge and as Aston front end (probably an Aston rear too)?

    The 500 for Ferrari dealers was still a Fiat 500 shaped like a Fiat 500. Not a Ferrari-shaped "Ferrari 500".
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  9. #24
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    My understanding is since fuel regulations are becoming much stricter, AM needs a car like this with a very high mpg rating to boost the overall brand average, since they don't have a parent company to leverage the fuel efficiency rating like Ferrari or Lamborghini does.
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  10. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ferrer View Post
    How aren't they trying to convince us it isn't an Aston when it's called the Aston Martin Cygnet, it has an Aston badge and as Aston front end (probably an Aston rear too)?

    The 500 for Ferrari dealers was still a Fiat 500 shaped like a Fiat 500. Not a Ferrari-shaped "Ferrari 500".
    What I meant is that it's clearly stated it's a Toyota.
    Unlike an A3 not being even remotely referred to as a Golf, or a 500 being a Panda, a BLS being a 9-3 and so on.

    Quote Originally Posted by switters78 View Post
    My understanding is since fuel regulations are becoming much stricter, AM needs a car like this with a very high mpg rating to boost the overall brand average, since they don't have a parent company to leverage the fuel efficiency rating like Ferrari or Lamborghini does.
    I think they don't need this because they are much smaller than Porsche for instance, and they sold just 7.500 cars in 2007 as opposed to Porsche's more-than-100.000 cars.
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  11. #26
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    Pointless. Aston-Martin should not be trying to rebrand itself as anything economy oriented, its a niche auto maker and that's what people like about it. Its for GT type cars. They're never going to be successful if they try to make A-M directly compete in the mainstream market.
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  12. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by LeonOfTheDead View Post
    I think they don't need this because they are much smaller than Porsche for instance, and they sold just 7.500 cars in 2007 as opposed to Porsche's more-than-100.000 cars.

    I haven´t been listening but I think it´s an average fuel consumption thing. If you sell 3 cars, and which do 1 mpg, you do worse than a company thay sells 3 million cars which do 40 mpg.
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  13. #28
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    it looks cute but what an Aston should look like. it looks like a round pokemon character (jiggly.... something, forgot the name). change the headlights coz no matter how they style it, it still looks like the iQ
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  14. #29
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    Yeah, I agree with everyone here except LeonOfTheDead.

    Sorry man, I think you're on your own here.

    It's totally not cool. If you want a mini car, you start a new brand. You don't cheapen it. I mean, I didn't think they could do any worse than introduce a SUV.

    Apparently, there is. Worst move ever.

    Who the hell wants a luxury super compact car anyway? The whole point of luxury is not to drive a shoebox lined with leather on the inside.

  15. #30
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    ...front wheel drive, 3 cylinder aston....right...

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