RE: Aston Martin Cologne
Monday 19th May 2003
Aston Martin Cologne
Engine production shifts to Germany
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Later next year, Aston Martin will be shifting engine production to Germany. Currently, the V12 motors for the quintessentially British car are made by Cosworth Technology (now an Audi subsidiary).
AM - owned by Ford - obviously isn't keen on being dependent on another manufacturer for its engine supply and has arranged for production to be brought in house.
Sadly for patriotic car buyers, the decision was made to build the monster engines in Germany rather than in the homeland of AM (cue Rule Britannia...).
Dr Ulrich Bez, Chief Executive Officer, said the move was no reflection on the company's current engine-building agreement but the time was now right to consider a move.
"From 2005 our annual production will increase three-fold and the switch to Cologne for our V12 engine will enable this to happen," said Dr Bez. "This production base will also be totally flexible allowing us to assemble modular engine concepts and variants.
"All the engines built within this facility will be unique to Aston Martin and a perfect fit in terms of technology requirements, quality control and lean production techniques."
The new facility, which is currently being prepared for Aston Martin engine production, is within the Ford engine plant in Cologne.
Discussion
This is what happens when the crown jewels of the British car industry (and a few other industries beside) are either put in the hands of people who don't care (Re: BAE and Rolls-Royce/Bentley), or sold off to foreign companies whose bottom and only line is the financial one. Predictable and utterly depressing. Feel both 
and 
and As an aston fan i dont think its too important where the engines are built. the fact that they ARE built is good enough for me.
Afterall, the "quintesentially British" DB5 had a German Gearbox (ZF), german Power steering (ZF), the vantage version had Italian Weber Crabs., the rear light is from a karmann Ghia, door handles from a "lesser quality car" (ie triumph) and the engine was designed by a Pole!
Later on the V8's had Bosch, then Weber/ Marelli fuel injection systems. (That engine was also designed by the same Polish man, by the way).
Its true that the DB4 had a "british and proud of it" David Brown gearbox, but its a horrible one to use. So Aston bought in the best: at the time, ZF 5 speed.
To have a really British Aston, you'd have to go back to the DB2 and DB2/4 range of the 1950's. And I bet no-one here owns one of those...
Its always been this way. What matters with Aston is HOW they are put together and THE REASONING behind them. This is what makes them unique, in my opinion...
Afterall, the "quintesentially British" DB5 had a German Gearbox (ZF), german Power steering (ZF), the vantage version had Italian Weber Crabs., the rear light is from a karmann Ghia, door handles from a "lesser quality car" (ie triumph) and the engine was designed by a Pole!
Later on the V8's had Bosch, then Weber/ Marelli fuel injection systems. (That engine was also designed by the same Polish man, by the way).
Its true that the DB4 had a "british and proud of it" David Brown gearbox, but its a horrible one to use. So Aston bought in the best: at the time, ZF 5 speed.
To have a really British Aston, you'd have to go back to the DB2 and DB2/4 range of the 1950's. And I bet no-one here owns one of those...
Its always been this way. What matters with Aston is HOW they are put together and THE REASONING behind them. This is what makes them unique, in my opinion...
Bruce Fielding said: So what? The V12 is only two mondeos strapped together anyway!
That was the popular line in the mainstream magazines, but as I said in my last DB7 review, it's bollocks. True, it shares some parts with the Duratec, but a hell of a lot of it was developed specially.
And it should NOT be built in Germany.
Ford is just faffing around with Aston the same way it faffed around with Jaguar.
Jag develops a replacement for the XJS - Ford makes it into the Aston DB7
Jag develops the XK180 then into the F-Type - Ford cans the project
They've also made a front-wheel drive Jag and are working on a diesel.
You can't help wondering if the X-Type is basically the new Sierra XR4x4 with more leather.
It's just not on old boy! The racing heritage is going down the pan.
Let's just pray that the AMV8 Vantage comes out looking like the prototype and not a focus group designed, marketing led, namby pamby interpretation.
What we need is car companies that give their chief designer x million and a basic format. They should then tell him to go away and not come back until it's ready for production.
Ian A.
Jag develops a replacement for the XJS - Ford makes it into the Aston DB7
Jag develops the XK180 then into the F-Type - Ford cans the project
They've also made a front-wheel drive Jag and are working on a diesel.
You can't help wondering if the X-Type is basically the new Sierra XR4x4 with more leather.
It's just not on old boy! The racing heritage is going down the pan.
Let's just pray that the AMV8 Vantage comes out looking like the prototype and not a focus group designed, marketing led, namby pamby interpretation.
What we need is car companies that give their chief designer x million and a basic format. They should then tell him to go away and not come back until it's ready for production.
Ian A.
IPAddis said: Ford is just faffing around with Aston the same way it faffed around with Jaguar.
They've also made a front-wheel drive Jag and are working on a diesel.
You can't help wondering if the X-Type is basically the new Sierra XR4x4 with more leather.
It's just not on old boy! The racing heritage is going down the pan.
Ian A.
Very true about the X-type. Pains me to say it, but they are p1ssing Jaguars heritage down the drain. Hard to believe the E-type came from the same stable. Also nice to see they decided to work on the diesel version before the performance version.
RobDickinson said: Have to give some credit to Ford tho, Jag are loosing a huge wedge of cash so its toe the line with cash producing desil x-types etc for now, no spare cash for extravegant limited sale sports editions.
But AM your paying for hand built british cars...
I'll give you some of that, but if they hadn't tied Jaguars hands behind their backs when it came to developing the X-type (which was a vital move, no question, to compete with Merc and BMW) by making them share a floorpan and hence the whole 4x4/fwd cock-up, maybe the X-type would be selling in much greater numbers and Jag wouldn't be having cashflow problems.
It's a crying shame but the truth is that Aston Martin has been rationalised, whereas before the DB7 the whole of the business was cost-no-object (and it nearly killed them.). The DB7 is the most beautiful car in the world, the new AMV8 looks to continue that, but it's unfortunate that they are built to be sold, rather than driven.
RobDickinson said: Have to give some credit to Ford tho, Jag are loosing a huge wedge of cash so its toe the line with cash producing desil x-types etc for now, no spare cash for extravegant limited sale sports editions.
But AM your paying for hand built british cars...
Maybe that is because Ford have diluted the Jaguar trademark to the point that it is now just a semi-luxury Ford model as opposed to a different make of car.
Of course we would all prefer British engineered cars to be 100% British.
Surely the point is that without Ford investing in Aston, they could have gone the same way as so many other traditional marques - think AC, Jensen.
Is Morgan any less British because it has used foreign engines (hell, they even used Fiat Twin Cams, long before they adopted BMW 4.4s)? Bristol has long used US power.
Just to rattle a few PH'ers, weren't TVR's powered by engines originally designed by Buick? Oh, come to think of it I recall they used a Ford engine, built in where else but Cologne... I still think of TVR's as true Brits. So will Astons.
It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it!
Surely the point is that without Ford investing in Aston, they could have gone the same way as so many other traditional marques - think AC, Jensen.
Is Morgan any less British because it has used foreign engines (hell, they even used Fiat Twin Cams, long before they adopted BMW 4.4s)? Bristol has long used US power.
Just to rattle a few PH'ers, weren't TVR's powered by engines originally designed by Buick? Oh, come to think of it I recall they used a Ford engine, built in where else but Cologne... I still think of TVR's as true Brits. So will Astons.
It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it!
Having dissed both Jag and Aston, I've just seen Jonny English in the cinema. The film was average but the dark blue DB7 Vantage looked awesome. I've decided that should I have 120 grand burning a hole in my pocket, I would probably buy one.
Not going to have a Vanquish though as I don't think it looks right. If it looks like the pictures, I would sell a kidney for the new AMV8.
Ian A.
Not going to have a Vanquish though as I don't think it looks right. If it looks like the pictures, I would sell a kidney for the new AMV8.
Ian A.
Jimmer said: Of course we would all prefer British engineered cars to be 100% British.
Surely the point is that without Ford investing in Aston, they could have gone the same way as so many other traditional marques - think AC, Jensen.
Is Morgan any less British because it has used foreign engines (hell, they even used Fiat Twin Cams, long before they adopted BMW 4.4s)? Bristol has long used US power.
Just to rattle a few PH'ers, weren't TVR's powered by engines originally designed by Buick? Oh, come to think of it I recall they used a Ford engine, built in where else but Cologne... I still think of TVR's as true Brits. So will Astons.
It's not what you do, it's the way that you do it!
There is no problem using parts from other manufacturers foreign or UK based, it is a question of whether the concept is British or not.
IMHO the new jags are not British inspired, they appear to be influenced by the corporate design-by-commitee that Ford uses.
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