Aston's everywhere

[Craig.]

No this isn't my idea of a dream garage but an observation of the current car makers.

Am I the only one who has noticed a lot of car companies are now leaning towards designing their cars like Astons?
It started with the Jaguar XJ, fair enough designed by the guy who did Aston's, and in all fairness they are two simmilar brands anyway so no big deal. Then Jag carried this over into the XF again using designs and styling from the aston brand. Starting to dilute the market in my opinion.
Next along came Ford, again no doubt spurred on by the Aston Martin design team, we now start filling the middle management car market with the Mondeo that has aston martin inspired designs. They carry on by adding these minor touches like Lights angles and designs on other new cars like the Ka, the Focus and the Fiesta. By this point it's starting to take away the specialty and general uniqueness of the Aston Brand.
However today it took the cake.
Renault and their new Megan I believe have once again taken a look at an Aston and thought, you know what, we'll p*ss on them by flooding the cheap saloon car market with poor quality rip offs.

The horizon for Aston looks great, the truely yummie (oh yes I said yummie. ) looking one 77 due out this year, and their new 4 door coupe which looks better than the DB9 But I cant help but think with all these cheap rip off's now on the market it's taken away some of the pop.

[Mushroom_Farmer]

Yeah, I hate copycats too. Psst, aren't Jaguar and Ford still the same company?

[Craig.]

Yaeh, I hate copycats too. Psst, aren't Jaguar and Ford still the same company?

I believe so.
The differance being, Jaguar as a prestige company can get away with styling like Aston. Ford just cant.

[Mushroom_Farmer]

I thought they still were, but wasn't positively sure. I kinda lost respect for Jag in the 90's after one of my aunts showed up in one and upon looking inside I noticed Ford parts in the instrument cluster.

[Hagar]

I thought Ford sold Jaguar last year. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7313380.stm

[Craig.]

Cheers Doug, I wasn't 100% sure on that I never really followed the story lol.

[eno]

Craig ....... I think you need your eyes testing  ;D

There may be some small details that are similar to Astons in some of the cars you mentioned. Apart from the Jags the rest look nothing like them.
As for the latest Megane it is by far and away the ugliest car I've seen even managing to beat the older model in the ugliness stakes. There's absolutely nothing on it that relates in any way shape or form to an Aston.

[expat]

Yeah, I hate copycats too. Psst, aren't Jaguar and Ford still the same company?

Not just that, but with the XJ, they are the same car. It has a Mondeo chassis.

Matt

[Craig.]

Sorry Eno. I meant the Laguna not the megan. And it does take several of the Astons features. The strip tail lights that go round the rear corners. The entire rear half is simmilar in design.
I'm not saying we have a bunch of clones, but just a lot of the specific features that you'd identify an Aston with are being ripped off.
Sort of like Fiat's being stuck with Ferrari tail lights and then head lights. Yes its the parent company, but theres no need.

[eno]

I can see where you are coming from ....... but it's only details at the moment. With things the way they are in the car industry at the moment we're going to see a lot more cloning in order to keep manufacturing and tooling costs down.

[Mushroom_Farmer]

Yeah, I hate copycats too. Psst, aren't Jaguar and Ford still the same company?

Not just that, but with the XJ, they are the same car. It has a Mondeo chassis.

Matt

Why, those Barbarians!!!!!

[C]

Am I the only one who has noticed a lot of car companies are now leaning towards designing their cars like Astons?
It started with the Jaguar XJ, fair enough designed by the guy who did Aston's, and in all fairness they are two simmilar brands anyway so no big deal. Then Jag carried this over into the XF again using designs and styling from the aston brand. Starting to dilute the market in my opinion.

I think you've answered you own question. At the conceptual design stage, even for the XF, they were all Ford products.

Not just that, but with the XJ, they are the same car. It has a Mondeo chassis.

That'd be the X-Type, which is the Jaguar Mondeo, as opposed to either the larger XJ family or S-Type, and later XF family.

[Ivan]

you know about the bugatti row... some uae bloke discovered audi logos on his veyron and sent an angry letter

Ever looked closely at VAG group A/C units? they are the same for the 'lower segment' vehicles (skoda, vw, seat)

[pete]

Well, until recently Ford also owned Aston Martin ... and the same designer for the Jag as Aston --- all in house design, same office, same time, same person/team

[Omag 2.0]

The Astons do have an amazing, classical, yet modern design. You see their detail popping up everywhere, Jaguar surely taking first place when it comes to cpoy creatively. But, as always, the original is hard to beat... nothing comes close to the elegant design of the DB9 and Vantage... that's why I'm a true fan...