Aston Martin

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:30 am

Aston Martin is back in British ownership. . . . The expensive cars have been struggling for a quite a few years but I hope that the new company owners (Prodrive) do well with this car. Apparently they are going to bring out a 4 seater version of the car. Interesting. . .

Fez · Post by **Fez** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:33 am

i'm still surprised by ford's decision to sell the company because aston was the only branch of their organization that was turning a profit - hopefully you're patriotism for it returning to british ownership wont go the same way as rover and mg have.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:56 pm

I did not know that Aston Martin was the only profit making part of the business. I suppose that the decision revolves around potential profit though. The main business must have a higher profit potential as it tap's into a bigger market.

Hopefully the big difference between the MG / Rover deal and the Aston Martin deal is to do with long term plans. MG / Rover was an asset stripping exercise. BMW took Mini, MG and sold Land Rover and left the rest to rot. Personally, I don't think it was a bad business decision for them. It was an horrific PR choice though, making loads of people redundant is never good for image.

John Knight · Post by **John Knight** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:24 pm

I am pretty sure they sold off Aston to help cover the $23b mortage they had to take out to pay for the re-structuring of the company after they lost $12b last year.

Anyway Yay for having a British sports car again. I wonder how long till Ford sell Jaguar and if TVR will ever make it out of the hands of that russian scrote.