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The first car to be produced under Aston Martin’s revival of Lagonda could be based on a Mercedes S-class, if a proposed partnership between Aston and Mercedes goes ahead.
Due in 2012, the car (a large luxury saloon) would be conceived, developed and produced alongside the next-gen Maybach, which will also use the W222 platform from the next Mercedes S-class.
The new Lagonda will be engineered to s...Read the full article

How do you make an S-CLass interesting? Make it look like an Aston of course.

I hope they're starting from scratch with the Maybach's- there's no helping those cars. Even Aston couldn't find a silk purse in there.

Astons are supposed to be a true British car.  Using an S-Class chassis is a disgrace, not something to be proud of!!

Brooklands:

Astons are supposed to be a true British car.  Using an S-Class chassis is a disgrace, not something to be proud of!!

- give over. The current engines are made in Cologne(Ford), and future ones apparently in Affalterbach(AMG).

Brooklands:

Astons are supposed to be a true British car.  Using an S-Class chassis is a disgrace, not something to be proud of!!

Aren't they owned by some conglomerate from the Middle East - they are no more British than Mini. Lets be honest here, if we insist on them being "British" we will end up with a business that builds a handful of cars like they used to before the Ford takeover and eventually goes bust like TVR because they do not change to meet customer demands, needs or expectations. This is business, if that means they survive and continue to make interesting cars who cares what is underneath.

 

 

well said Koyaa

Welcome to the post 1970s...

 

It'd be nice for it to be British, but they could never compete on the world stage without external collaboration, unless they remained a quirky and at-risk manufacturer such as Bristol (who use American engines). The previous 6.0 was cosworth developed (based on ford v6) however so did have a British angle to it. Yet even that didn't really have the balls to make the cars interesting and compete with the power units coming up in BMWs, Ferraris, 911s and even Mercedes.

 

I find this interesting - collaborating with a manufacturer whose bits are a bit more worthy of being in an Aston; with Ford on the other hand you get the feeling they didn't know how to run such an upmarket marque. I think they tried hard and did a good job overall. The deal with Mercedes should take it to the next stage. To have the grunt of the 6.0 V12 turbo will make them a whole deal more interesting to many, although I'll miss the sound of the Aston V12, and it's was probably lighter and able to be mounted lower?