NEW NHTSA SIDE-IMPACT REGULATIONS WOULD BAR DB9 AND VANTAGE SALES
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| The DB9 and the Vantage have both been on sale for about a decade, and would need a special exemption to comply with the impending rules. |
Aston Martin dealerships could reach unprofitability in the near term due to new impeding crash safety standards,Bloomberg reports, citing a top dealer. By September 2015, new side-impact crash rules will come in effect which will prevent new unregistered examples of the the Aston Martin DB9 and the Vantage from continuing to be sold in the U.S. The Vantage and the DB9 make up a large chunk of annual sales in the U.S. in coupe and convertible form. In September of this year, U.S. regulators will begin using an additional crash test which is meant to protect occupants from side impacts with narrow, fixed objects such as trees and telephone poles.
"The financial viability of Aston Martin dealers is very much in question," wrote James Walker, chairman of Aston Martin's U.S. dealer group in a letter to the NHTSA. "If dealers make the decision to shutter the franchise, a very likely outcome, the impact on employment is significant."
Walker commented to Bloomberg that if these two models were prevented from being offered for sale, all U.S. dealerships would face huge losses. The convertible models currently have an exemption until September 2015, by which time they would either have to obtain another exemption or be withdrawn from the market. The possibility of the withdrawal of those models from the U.S market would cause issues even before the rule is implemented, as customers would be unwilling to put deposits on those two models months in advance. The prospect of withdrawal of those models from the market would surely affect the rest of the lineup as well well before the rule goes into effect, chilling sales as customers fear the brand's wholesale withdrawal from the market.
The current-generation Aston Martin DB9 has been in production since 2004 with very minor changes, while the Vantage has been in production since 2005. In addition to the two aforementioned models, the marque also offers the Rapide sedanwhich went on sale in 2010, and the Vanquish, which in current guise has been in production since 2012. The remaining two models are the more expensive pair, and may not sustain dealerships in the U.S if they were the only two left. Aston Martin has also recently announced that the upcoming Rapide-based Lagonda sedan would not be offered in any marketsother than the Middle East, though that decision is not believed to have been based on crash safety legislation but rather market demands.
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