After almost a 20-year production hiatus, Aston Martin is set to revive its Lagonda brand, a new report finds. Lagonda – which was named after a river near Springfield, Ohio – was established in 1906, but was acquired by Aston Martin in 1947. Since taking over the brand, Aston Martin has produced a selected number of sedans under the British marque – which confusing was started by an American – the last of which was produced in 1989.
The timing of the re-launch is quite interesting as it corresponds with Aston Martin’s launch of the Rapide four-door sedan. Although the Rapide is probably too far along to be badged as a Lagonda, Aston Martin says that it plans to have a Lagonda concept ready by next year, with a production launch scheduled for 2012.
“The Lagonda brand would allow us to develop cars which can have a different character than a sports car,” Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez said in a statement. “Lagonda will have its own niche with luxurious and truly versatile products suitable for both existing and emerging markets.”
Aston Martin is rapidly expanding in emerging markets such as Russia, which would be aided by a new lineup of more versatile cars.
Although no models have been earmarked for the Lagonda brand, it’s quite possible that the new models will have something to do with the reported tie-up between Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin. The last Lagonda models went head-to-head with the best from Rolls-Royce, which means a Maybach-shared Lagonda model is not out of the question.
09/02, 6:58 PM
posted by:
tyler_is_aero_tt
In a world with Aston Martin competing against Mercedes-Benz. Wow there’s some fireworks for you.
09/02, 10:26 PM
posted by:
qpt_dude
Sounds great. I love the Anglo-German collarboration here, but why would Mercedes help Aston build a rival to its Maybach brand? This is kinda like when Mclaren asked Mercedes for their next uber sports car engine and Mercedes refused because they were building their own.
09/02, 10:55 PM
posted by:
Catiadesigner
It’ll take Astons down when the financial markets go pop again, which will be soon.
Nobody in the automotive industry seems to be able to see a cyclic pattern in the world financial markets can they, its like 1989 all over again…
09/03, 12:47 AM
posted by:
Astonman12
I dont think Maybach has a replacement for the 57 and 62 and were possibly going to phase them out. So a Lagonda/MB collaboration could be good.
09/03, 5:32 AM
posted by:
El Aleman
I read the same thing on the German page auto-motor-sport.de a few days ago, but LLN missed a few things so I thought I’d mention them.
Here’s the link for those of you speaking german:
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/news/wirtschaft_-_handel/hxcms_article_515140_13987.hbs
Aston CEO Ulrich Bez said the Lagonda brand was especially for markets with lots of potential buyers and problems with the weather and infrastructure, such as Russia.
If you own a DB9 Volante in Moscow, you can only use it 3 or 4 months a year because of bad weather and terrible roads.
So the Lagonda is gonna get 4WD and also will be more spacious and comfort-oriented than the Rapide, which was explicitly mentioned to stay an Aston Martin, pretty obvious, as it’s basically a stretched DB9 and Aston isn’t GM who would sell the same car under X different brand names.
The first model is set to debut at the Geneva show next march. Hybrids, even possibly Diesel hybrids, are part of the agenda as well.