[Gibbo]

I have been invited to go on the Factory tour at the end of the month.

Has anyone been around the factory? I will have to brush up on the difference between a DB9 and a DBS.

[Black Sapphire]

Is that at Gaydon Gibbo?

Sounds cool the new place looks awesome.

I know they moved from Newport Pagnell, think they are building flats and houses on the old site!! Just got a service centre there now as far as I know.

[Gibbo]

Originally Posted by Black Sapphire

Is that at Gaydon Gibbo?

Sounds cool the new place looks awesome.

I know they moved from Newport Pagnell, think they are building flats and houses on the old site!! Just got a service centre there now as far as I know.

I assume so and will find out more this week. I will take the camera and if it's fair game will take pics and post if anyone is interested.

[squeezebm]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

I assume so and will find out more this week. I will take the camera and if it's fair game will take pics and post if anyone is interested.

INTERESTED feck me, can i carry your camera

[Black Sapphire]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

I assume so and will find out more this week. I will take the camera and if it's fair game will take pics and post if anyone is interested.

Would have thought it would be, it would be nice to see some decent photo's of the DBS, it's got gorgeous lines as with every Aston (except that Lagonda thing years ago!) but with an aggressive bodykit.

[DaveC]

Lucky lucky chap! I'd love to walk around drooling...

[Gibbo]

Originally Posted by DaveC

Lucky lucky chap! I'd love to walk around drooling...

I think we could all get to go to the factory and others if we use this site as are key to the door.

I am going with friends who are part of a motorcycle club and they contact manufacturers through the club for events.

2006 they did Bentley and Rolls Royce
2007 Mini
2008 Aston Martin

They have had some fantastic days out and the cost is minimal to organise. They have had some fanstastic insights at Bentley they have been in the studio where you can personalise your car whilst a German banker was there buying a Conti GT for himself and was so impressed by the factory decided to treat his 3 best friends to a car as well.

They said the leather works was just amazing seeing the attention to detail on these truly bespoke products and other fantastic stories to numerous to mention.

The point is E90 Post I am sure could organise similar I will find out exactly how they have done these tours and then are leader Viv may be able to approach from a UK perspective.

[- Paul -]

C'mon Viv - pull your finger out!!

[M3-FAST]

Originally Posted by 1stnewcar

C'mon Viv - pull your finger out!!

goooo VIV gooooo VIV

[dxb335d]

Gibbo my uncle went before he bought his and he loved it!!

Have a great time. Wish i could go...

[Gibbo]

Originally Posted by dxb335d

Gibbo my uncle went before he bought his and he loved it!!

Have a great time. Wish i could go...

Was it Gaydon and could he take pictures??

[dxb335d]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

Was it Gaydon and could he take pictures??

I aint sure, ill have to ask him but i think he was not allowed but again i will have to ask him.

[vivekk]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

..The point is E90 Post I am sure could organise similar I will find out exactly how they have done these tours and then are leader Viv may be able to approach from a UK perspective.

If you pass on those details to me Gibbo, once you know, I'll see what I can do, ok.

Viv

[ShereKhan]

No been anywhere that high profile

I Don't think you'll be able to take pic's.

One of my uncle's worked for Jag design offices in the 80's 90's no cameras were allowed in then. Because someone took some photo's and sold them to a magazine - but he forgot to mask his reflection in the gear knob!

So Jag found out who the mole was!

I've been to the MINI press plant last month - Again no photo's allowed.

The no photo rule is usually to prevent new production processes being leaked to other vendors or suppliers.

Some of my colleagues have been to Bentley Crewe, Land Rover Solihull, Hams Hall etc..

[Bumps]

Nice one Gibbo - enjoy!

[e90fanatic]

Originally Posted by Black Sapphire

Is that at Gaydon Gibbo?

Sounds cool the new place looks awesome.

I know they moved from Newport Pagnell, think they are building flats and houses on the old site!! Just got a service centre there now as far as I know.

that's where the DBS is being produced!!! How did you get invited to it?

[E90SLAM]

Congrads!
Go before the Indian Company starting to ruin it....

[e90fanatic]

i doubt Prodrive will sell it.

[ShereKhan]

Originally Posted by E90SLAM

Congrads!
Go before the Indian Company starting to ruin it....

I think you'll find Kuwait is not in India. Maybe you are thinking of Jaguar & Tata.

What do you mean by Indian companies ruining? For example I think you'll find Tata is one of the most successful companies from South Asia and have a growing power worldwide.

[e90fanatic]

lol...nah Tata will try to squeeze all the costs out to increase profit margins....plus...to build a great car, you have to have passion for the car not the money.

[Bumps]

Originally Posted by e90fanatic

lol...nah Tata will try to squeeze all the costs out to increase profit margins....plus...to build a great car, you have to have passion for the car not the money.

I'm with Sherekhan on this. Tata didn't get where they were by being stupid....

Anyone taking on AM (and Jag, LR etc) will be very aware of the heritage of the brand and will act accordingly. These manufacturers have hardly been financial powerhouses in the past so a multi-billionaire will probably be aware of how they got to where they are today (money and a passion for the cars - none of them currently make a duffer). Prodrive are a pretty good bet for AM IMHO. Ford were aware of all the issues and did a good job with the PAG cars themselves I think. PAG was only offloaded because they were haemorrhaging money everywhere else.

In any case, Tata bought Jaguar/Land Rover, not AstonMartin. Sherekhan's point was the broad brush way you dismissed "the Indian company". The days of poking fun at Indian and Chinese companies will soon come to an end. Look at how far Korean cars have come. Tata are clearly pretty clever - just watch them go.

[e90fanatic]

you do know PAG group is all failures except Volvo? (financially?) and yet, they already lost the quality and heritage of Volvos. The fact is that they kept trying to get every cent out of the production cost. You can see it on the S60 models. (I had a S60 T5) Much of the safety features were stripped off becuase Ford wanted to save costs. And you can see cheap plastic in the cabin.

As in your example, yes, Hyundai has become very successful but keep in mind they aim at value. Yet they're still copying designs from other manufacturers to save costs.

These "Asian" companies are built by saving costs and selling cheap cars. They'll naturally use their strategy on any other company they acquire. Chinese cars are just a bunch of joke. Logo copied from BMW while design is obviously a CLK. They might become very reliable but as in Aston Martin, they got more to deal with. Jag and LR already lost most of their heritage. (Ford totally screwed it). X-type?? With a Ford V6? And that's not the only failure. Essentially, any Jag or LR that you buy has a "Ford" aspect to it. Look at the baby LR. It's a Ford Escape.