Aston Martin is abandoning plans for the Lagonda SUV in order to focus on their traditional GT and four-door platforms.
Speaking to Piston Heads about the ill-received SUV concept, Aston Martin’s director of design Marek Reichman said, “That was a different time. It was [former CEO of Aston Martin Ulrich Bez's] time. And now we’re in a very, very different time, with a different plan and with a different projection of what that brand should become.”
Reichman made no secret of the fact that the marque hopes to win over China’s enormous market. “China is historically a four-door market,” he said, “Our most successful model there is Rapide.”
However, the Lagonda name isn’t dead yet. “We still have plans for the brand,” Reichman stated. Without spilling the beans completely, he indicated that it’s beyond just a limited-edition model or Jaguar Land Rover’s new Special Operations division for building bespoke one-off commissions: “It’s more. It’s the reinvention of the marque, the brand, but done in a very, very limited way. It’s not something we believe that is a mass product.”
Lagonda was a British car company founded in 1906 and purchased by Aston Martin in 1947. From 1974 to 1990, Aston Martin built a high-end model called the Lagonda, which sold only 645 units. It was plagued with mechanical maladies and polarizing styling, but it was a four-door sedan much like the type Aston Martin now hopes to sell in China.
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