Monday, April 13, 2009

Aston Martin Lagonda Concept


My British blogging friend Hilary Melton-Butcher with Positive Letters mentioned the Aston Martin Lagonda one day. A new and controversial Lagonda concept was announced, so I thought it would be an appropriate post. The new Lagonda concept is controversial since Aston Martin has produced only sports cars with the exception of the original Lagonda. The new Lagonda appears to be an crossover SUV.
The original Lagonda was a luxury four-door sedan (saloon in Europe) built by Aston Martin between 1976 and 1989. An example is shown in the photo below, 645 examples of this model were produced at an average selling price was £150,000.

Lagona was established by Wilber Gunn, an American from Ohio, who went to England to setup a European branch of his brother in laws steam engine manufacturing company. Lagonda is the name of a district close to Lagonda Creek in Ohio.

Aston Martin was about to go out of business in the mid-1970s and needed something to bring in some much-needed cash. Traditionally, Aston Martin had developed 2+2 sports cars, , but the Lagonda — the model being named after a grand sporting marque — was a four-door sedan(saloon) with a brand new V8 engine. As soon as it was introduced, it drew in hundreds of deposits from potential customers, helping Aston Martin's cash reserves.
Throughout the history of the Lagonda, these hand-built Lagondas were among the most expensive sedans in the world. The only other "production" cars to approach its lofty price tag were the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirt/Silver Spur, Bentley Mulsanne, and the Maserati Quattroporte.
A number of "series" was produced during the lifetime of the model, including a face lift in the 1980s which attempted to round off the car's razor-like lines and removed the troublesome pop-up headlights, which had proved unreliable.

The Lagonda was the first production car in the world to use computer management and a digital instrument panel, although the computers in many of the original cars are failure-prone. The development cost for the electronics alone on the Lagonda came to 4 times as much as the budget for the whole car. The second series used cathode ray tubes for the instrumentation, which proved even less reliable than the original model's LED display.


The Lagonda's striking design and opulent, club-like leather interior, together with its then-state-of-the-art instrumentation, contrasted starkly with its decidedly "old world" 4-cam V-8 carbureted engine and Chrysler 3-speed "TorqueFlite" transmission, which combine to provide a single-digit mpg. rating.


Information on the original Aston Martin Lagonda provided by Wikipedia!

10 comments:

  1. Peter, thank you for the great look at this car. Wow. It is something. Great Photos. What a good post. Wonderful information on how it all got started. Have a good day.
    Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"

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  2. Hello Pete,

    I always remember Aston Martin is the car for 007, James Bond. New Lagonda looks to be very good candidate for new movie. Thank you for your information and sharing.

    Shaw Funami
    Fill the Missing Link

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Dan and Deanna,

    Aston Martin builds exceptional cars! This is totally new market for them. Apparently, they are going after Range Rover.

    Thank you for commenting on my post!

    Best Regards

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Shaw,

    Aston Martin are such exceptional vehicles, they have a mystic that is appropriate for the movies.
    The Lagonda should be a successful vehicle for them.

    Best Regards

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Pete .. I appreciate the positive link! I've never been in an Aston Martin - a friend's husband had one .. but it was locked away for a rainy day .. not sure what happened to it - but they got divorced .. he got the car!

    My goddaughter lives in Newport Pagnell and after 50 years of Aston Martins being built there .. the plant was closed 21 months ago (July 07) .. it was a sad day for the market town. The last Aston Martin Vanquish S Ultimate Edition was driven off the line.

    The Lagonda looks pretty special though & should be good for their top end market.

    I'll be interested to read more about Wilbur Gunn .. it's interesting he came back to England to set up a branch .. thus opening Lagonda in the UK and establishing Lagonda as a British car.

    Thanks for an interesting post .. & for the cross reference ..

    Hilary Melton-Butcher
    Positive Letters

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  6. Hello Hilary,

    This post is for you Hilary! I thought of you when I noted the name Lagonda. Perhaps you should drive a Aston Martin, after driving a DB9 I was entralled!

    This is a high end car to compete with Land Rover and Rolls. I personally did not care for the styling, besides I am not an SUV kind of auto enthusiast! You know that I love the other Aston Martin cars!

    The Wilbur Gunn story was very interesting!

    Thanks for reading my blog and posting comments!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete
  7. Peter, Thank you for visiting our blog. I think this SUV will do very well against the Land Rover and the Rolls. Thank you for the post. Love the reference to Hilary's blog that was great. Hello to Hilary as well.
    Dan and Deanna "Marketing Unscrambled"

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Deanna & Dan,

    Your welcome...I enjoyed the article on companies that do SEO. Hilary was mentioning the Lagonda so I thought it would be appropriate to reference her blog.

    Thanks for posting a comments to my blog!

    I agree that Aston Martin will probably be successful, they build exceptional cars.

    Best Regards

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete
  9. how much do you think the concept would run for?

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  10. HelloAnonymous,

    Aston Martin has not published any information on the Lagonda. Previous models of the Lagonda were the most expensive cars produced by Aston Martin.....so my bet is that they will be $200,000 USD or more.

    Thanks for your comment!

    Pete Baca
    The Car Enthusiast Online

    ReplyDelete