Aston Martin

Round Two: Redesigned Aston Martin Lagonda SUV Concept Coming

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Remember the Aston Martin Lagonda Concept? If you don’t, be thankful. It is a vehicle who nobody liked in the first place, and its styling hasn’t worn well with time. Lagonda was a design study by Aston Martin, who was looking to launch Lagonda as a separate brand in order to sell luxury SUVs. The reception it received was strikingly similar to the way everyone reacted to the Bentley EXP 9 F Concept this past March.

While Aston expanded its reach with the Rapide (and hideous Cygnet…), building an SUV was ruled out under the Aston Martin name. The premise of the Lagonda made sense though; Aston did its research and concluded it would do very well in the United States and emerging markets. The research was spot on, and they apparently arrived at that conclusion earlier than Bentley and Lamborghini.

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But, the Lagonda SUV was never given the green light due to the horrible reception it received. The smart thing to do would have been to try again, but we haven’t heard much since – until now. Autocar says the Langonda SUV isn’t dead. The profits are proving too hard to ignore. When Porsche was independent, it made a similar decision to produce the Cayenne. The pressure is on to diversify when you’re an independent manufacturer. Much less so when you’re under a corporate umbrella (*cough* Lamborghini cough*), but we digress. Buyers in the U.S lap SUVs, as well as in countries like China and India. Chinese and Indian buyers apparently aren’t into super cars as much as SUVs, due to poor road conditions.

Also, IHS Automotive analyst Colin Couchman says: “The traditional markets for supercars — the US and Europe — are still depressed…although the Chinese market remains buoyant, that won’t feed through to Aston because the Chinese don’t yet see the value of displaying their wealth through owning an expensive sports car.” SUVs have a lot more potential for growth, that’s for sure. We aren’t opposed to the idea either – big, luxurious SUVs are cool. However, they need to be sold under the right brand and styled properly The Lagonda Concept didn’t do the trick in that regard. If they go back to the drawing board and produce something that looks good, we could see this thing working out. Ulrich Bez said the company is doing just that, with an updated concept “in the coming year.” We’ll have to see what transpires.