Both Toyota and Aston Martin maintain a very close relationship between each other. Other than seeing Toyota’s President Akio Toyoda and Aston Martin’s CEO Dr. Ulrich Bez racing together at the annual 24 Hours of Nurburgring, the two companies were also involved in the rebadging move as demonstrated by the Toyota iQ being rebadged into the Aston Martin Cygnet. With this close cooperation, there are rumors going around that there might be a possibility for Toyota buying the stakes to Aston Martin.
As reported by Bloomberg, Aston Martin’s Kuwaiti owner Investment Dar Co. has a 64-percent stake on the British luxury car marquee, and is currently looking for a suitor to sell them off to. Of course, the close collaboration with Toyota does not necessarily mean that it is going to be sold to them as there was also word stating Aston working or possibly merging up with Lotus.
Toyota is brought into the picture as a possible candidate because they had already hired an auditor in conducting a one-week study on buying the stakes in Aston Martin. But for the time being, this move is more to a preliminary study rather than a full evaluation. Also showing interest towards Aston Martin is the Indian motor company Tata, while Mahindra & Mahindra are among those approached by Investment Dar Co. themselves to buy out Aston Martin in the same amount they had paid it for back in 2007; $800 million.
The outcome for this situation is very unpredictable for the time being, but it would be really impressive if Toyota were to own Aston Martin. We might be seeing the next-gen LFA to incorporate some of Aston’s technologies, making it a much more aggressive machine than what it is today. Or do you think the LFA should just be left to the hands of the Toyota engineers, and let them alone be in charge on the V10 monster’s development?
