Daimler and Dar, the Kuwait-based investment firm that holds a 50-percent stake in Aston Martin, are reportedly in talks to explore investment opportunities between the two automakers. The folks from Mercedes-Benz' parent company paid a visit to Dar on Tuesday, and the Aston Martin contingent is expected to spend some quality time with its investment firm in the next few weeks, as well.
While the term "investment opportunities" is a far cry from joint vehicle development, we'll leave the pontification about what the outcome of these talks will be up to you in the comments below. However, we'll start the rampant speculation with Aston Martin's engineers working on the chassis development of Mercedes' new SLC supercar.
[Source: Market Watch via eGMCarTech]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Robert @ Dec 7th 2007 5:17PM
Could be good kinda
john @ Dec 7th 2007 5:54PM
I thought the Aston Martin chassis engineers worked for Lotus?
rgseidl @ Dec 7th 2007 5:56PM
Mercedes needs to replace its A- and B-classes before 2012 simply because they are expensive and getting long in the tooth. Sales of the smart fortwo will likely suffer now that the cheaper, prettier and more practical Fiat 500 is a runaway success in Europe. Discussions with both BMW and Fiat presumably centered on sharing platforms to reduce costs on the low CO2 emissions cars Daimler will have to sell in order to keep selling its profitable premium products.
Aston Martin could benefit from Daimler's DiesOtto gasoline HCCI engine technlology. Mercedes could do with a few design pointers, especially if the fugly lines of the F700 concept represent the brand's future optics.
LeRobert @ Dec 8th 2007 1:09AM
The two avantgarde car companies of the day: one in aesthetics and the other in technology, any partnership between them would be orgasmic.