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Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

ir.teslamotors.com

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Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#11

Post by gigabytejack »

Could have something to do with a pending deal with AMG which would lead to a very different development cycle. http://www.leftlanenews.com/aston-martin-in-talks-for-amg-en...

From a reliability standpoint there have been more problems with them than their German counterparts (ie: Lamborghini - engineered by Audi with Italian design, or Porsche). From an engine perspective this move makes a lot of sense with the rising cost of compliance with EU emission standards.

Cars will continue to look awesome, will be more reliable and cheaper (relatively) to service.

Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#12

Post by joshu »

sliverstorm wrote: post #8
beat wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their direct competitors are Porsche and Ferrari, not Ford and Toyota. They're GOOD.

"good" is a very murky term here. They are certainly more high-tech, but are they as simple? As reliable? As easy to service? You really need to define "good" in this context.

you're asking if something is as simple as a ferarri?

Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#13

Post by [deleted] »

sliverstorm wrote: post #8
beat wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their direct competitors are Porsche and Ferrari, not Ford and Toyota. They're GOOD.

"good" is a very murky term here. They are certainly more high-tech, but are they as simple? As reliable? As easy to service? You really need to define "good" in this context.

[deleted]

Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#14

Post by joshu »

kmfrk wrote: post #3

As someone who's anything but a greasemonkey, how good are Aston Martin from an engineering standpoint compared to the competition?

That really depends.

They do sound way, way better though.

I got to drive a Vantage GT4 on the racetrack recently: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshu/8368748201/in/set-7215763...

Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#15

Post by ryanhuff »

joshu wrote: post #12
sliverstorm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"good" is a very murky term here. They are certainly more high-tech, but are they as simple? As reliable? As easy to service? You really need to define "good" in this context.

you're asking if something is as simple as a ferarri?

I think he was trying to argue that "good" is subjective. That Ferrari/Porsche aren't necessarily good, as it depends on what you value. If you value simplicity and reliability, perhaps you would view Toyota/Honda as superior.

Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#16

Post by nlh »

kmfrk wrote: post #3

As someone who's anything but a greasemonkey, how good are Aston Martin from an engineering standpoint compared to the competition?

So here's the thing - they're not actually that good. Let me preface this by saying that a) my perspective isn't a normal consumer one -- my business has put tens of thousands of miles on various Aston Martin models (we rent them) and b) the last model I've dealt with extensively is an '06 DB9, so things may have changed a lot in the past few years.

But that being said, despite being IMHO the most gorgeous cars on the road, Astons are not particularly well-engineered.

First, we had an '02 Vanquish and an '03 Vanquish, both of which had a very fundamental and deeply expensive flaw in the transmission design. Without getting too deep into it, they used a "auto manual" style transmission, which was basically a 6-speed manual combined with hydrolic actuators to shift automatically. No manual clutchwork required (same design, basically, as BMWs SMG). On just about all similar cars, after a while (i.e. 12k - 15k miles) the clutch needs to be replaced. On Ferraris and Lamborghinis, it's a simple job that costs a few $thousand - drop the transmission, replace clutch and flywheel, and you're good. On both the Vanquishes, the way in which the clutch would fail would literally destroy the entire transmission, and we TWICE had to spend $15,000 to rebuild the entire transmission after a failed clutch (one on each car). I've never seen another car with design like that, and since it happened the exact same way on two different cars, we're pretty sure it's endemic to the design.

Move to the later models - we had a bunch of 05 & 06 DB9s, and they just weren't great. The brakes were notoriously bad, the bodyflex was particularly bad on the convertibles, and they suffered repeated electrical gremlins.

So from my purely technical perspective as a heavy user of Astons, I'd say I'm not impressed with their engineering.

NOW - that all being said, I'm not going to make any judgment about this guy and his work at Tesla and what this means about that. There is far too much that goes into the production of a car to make any real judgment call about things to come -- Astons could have been beautifully engineered and then ruined with bad supplier decisions, that were outside this guy's control. Etc. etc.

So them's my $0.02.

Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#17

Post by alan_cx »

sliverstorm wrote: post #8
beat wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their direct competitors are Porsche and Ferrari, not Ford and Toyota. They're GOOD.

"good" is a very murky term here. They are certainly more high-tech, but are they as simple? As reliable? As easy to service? You really need to define "good" in this context.

Reliability has always been a criticism of Aston Martins. Apart from that though, stunning cars to both look at and drive. A friend is a car dealer and he lent me a Vantage V8 for a while. This was the cheapest, most base level Aston Martin, but still a stunning piece of kit in every department. Have to say, despite the reliability criticisms, it didn't fail in any way.

One thing that I didnt expect was how easy it was to drive. Im a rubbish driver and one thing I hate is changing cars. I get used to my car and other cars a like aliens to me, until I get used to them. But I was at home in the Vantage with in a mile. So, so easy to drive.

Quite what Tesla will get out of it though, Im not sure. Perhaps its a quality / value / production thing. I do think that in context Aston Martins are very good value.

Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#18

Post by joshu »

nlh wrote: post #16
kmfrk wrote: post #3

As someone who's anything but a greasemonkey, how good are Aston Martin from an engineering standpoint compared to the competition?

So here's the thing - they're not actually that good. Let me preface this by saying that a) my perspective isn't a normal consumer one -- my business has put tens of thousands of miles on various Aston Martin models (we rent them) and b) the last model I've dealt with extensively is an '06 DB9, so things may have changed a lot in the past few years. But that being said, despite being IMHO the most gorgeous cars on th…

My neighbor used to have an F430 or F360 (I forget) and told me that he allocated $25k a year for maintenance and clutch replacement.

The DCT on the 458 is rated for the life of the car, though.

Note that Aston was sold in 2007 and I believe engineering quality changed after that.

Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#19

Post by kiba »

mrkmcknz wrote: post #9

Tesla also recruited Henrik Fisker from Aston Martin. Those who don't know of Fisker, he went on to found his own company after a couple of years at Tesla( http://www.fiskerautomotive.com/ ). Looks like Aston Martin have some serious talent working on those machines.

Fisker then left Fisker Automatives, and that company is now in the process of dying or dead.

Re: Tesla Hires Aston Martin's Vehicle Engineering Leader

#20

Post by gcv »

nlh wrote: post #16
kmfrk wrote: post #3

As someone who's anything but a greasemonkey, how good are Aston Martin from an engineering standpoint compared to the competition?

So here's the thing - they're not actually that good. Let me preface this by saying that a) my perspective isn't a normal consumer one -- my business has put tens of thousands of miles on various Aston Martin models (we rent them) and b) the last model I've dealt with extensively is an '06 DB9, so things may have changed a lot in the past few years. But that being said, despite being IMHO the most gorgeous cars on th…

Were they any fun to drive? After Ford bought Aston, I always assumed the cars would feel like souped-up Tauruses with Connolly leather interiors, but I've never actually sat behind the wheel of an Aston.
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