Aston Martin to invest between £80 and £100 million in Rapide development

[Gustav]

"Aston Martin's five models sell for between £82,000 and £177,000. It plans to introduce the DBS in October and wants to bring out a Rapide four-door sports saloon by 2010. Griffiths says: 'The development cost of the DBS will have been sunk in Ford. The challenge will come with finding the money to launch the Rapide.' He calculates that Aston Martin will probably have to spend between £80m and £100m. Aston Martin's chief executive, Ulrich Bez, hopes the DBS and Rapide will add 1,000 to 2,000 to sales. However, Rhys says: 'The problem will come in four to six years when they have to start thinking of new models. They could be making 10,000 cars by then, but that may not generate the kind of money they need.'"

http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t...nhWAk96JerM81w