A new Lagonda, which is really a Mercedes M-Class, but with the heart, and XXL clothing of an Aston Martin. Confusing, but wait, it gets worse.
A quick overview for those unfamiliar. Lagonda was a car company, founded in 1899, was the first production car, built in 1909 by an American in England. David Brown, owner of Aston Martin in 1947, bought Lagonda, because he wanted to use the Lagonda engine, designed by Bentley. Confused? Well, me too.
This is the car industry, of course, so unless you've been living under a rock for the last decades are probably at least somewhat familiar with "badge engineering", which, from my perspective, is not the villain make some be. It's just a fact, in our global market for this kind of platform sharing should go and still largely Aston Martin has been able to side step the practice. There are people who say Aston rebadges his own cars, and with their latest offering, the Virage, I could not agree more. However, the biggest "cheat" without doubt, the Cygnet. Basically a Toyota iQ that you start running around $ 50,000.00. Emissions Compliance? Should be, but who buys these? Moving on.
Aston Martin, some would say, can be a bit of an identity, and the appearance of the Lagonda does not seem to be better. With a glance at the Lagonda, it seems that Aston is a firm grip on their current design of idealism, and while many would regret that fact, it would be a welcome fact, if for no other reason than to be able to point Aston, and certainly know what it is. For those who love them, she could never change its mind, but the pulse of the industry really looking Astons, bar perhaps the One-77, such as getting a bit long in the tooth. There is little doubt, they are nice cars, but they were the same kind of beautiful 10 years ago.
Aston is bringing back the Lagonda name, and they join forces to do it. No crime there, and I Aston give an "A" for effort, but they can get people to buy an SUV, which costs as much or more than a DBS, but looks more like a Cygnet on steroids? That's the real question. I am sure I am not alone in hoping Aston could pull it off, most of us want to see Aston wins at the end, and who knows, with an influx of money, but they would design something that does not look 10 years past its "sell by" date.
The last word is Aston have taken onboard a lot of criticism about the proposed Lagonda and put it on hold, with plans instead a Lagonda Rapide sedan based on the current model building. If this is true and they do indeed scrap the plans they currently have for the Lagonda, they will save themselves a lot of time, money and reputation, and hopefully build something much more sympathetic.
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