2011 Aston Martin Rapide Production review and pictures

Aston Martin Rapide Production review:

Aston Martin today confirms that production of the four-door sports car; Rapide will move to the company's Gaydon headquarters in Warwickshire, UK in the second half of 2012.

In 2008, due to constraints at Gaydon and after conclusion of a six-month feasibility study, Aston Martin appointed Magna Steyr as a partner to produce the car at its facilities in Austria. A dedicated facility - AMRP - at Magna Steyr's facilities was then established with pre-production of the Rapide starting in Q4 2009 before the car reached full production in 2010. Since then Aston Martin and Magna Steyr have enjoyed a very positive working relationship with production of the Rapide reaching benchmark quality standards and the car proving a strong success with customers and critics alike.

Aston Martin Chief Executive, Dr Ulrich Bez said: "In 2008 we had facility restrictions at Gaydon which indicated that production of Rapide at Gaydon would likely compromise production of our other cars. We were not prepared to do this.

"Now, three years on things are very different - Gaydon is more established, more flexible and more efficient. While our overall volume has not changed significantly, we now produce a far richer model mix - eight model lines (plus five variants) compared to three model lines (plus two variants) in 2008 - so Rapide production is now possible.

"I would like to place on record our gratitude to Magna Steyr and their team of dedicated employees who have become part of the Aston Martin family in the last few years and met all our requirements and expectations."

Work on readying Aston Martin's Gaydon headquarters for Rapide will begin immediately with a view to production commencing in the second half of 2012.