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Toyota HiAce

The Toyota HiAce is a motor vehicle produced by the Japanese manufacturer Toyota. First launched in 1967, the HiAce has since been available in a wide range of configurations, including minivan (MPV) and minibus, van, pick-up, taxi, and ambulance. In Japan the HiAce is exclusive to Toyo pet Store locations.

The fourth generation model appeared in mid 1989 and was available in standard wheelbase and long wheelbase variants; aGrand Cabin; standard wheelbase and long wheelbase van; long wheelbase and super long wheelbase high roof van. The latter shares a body design with the Commuter, which is a 15 seat minibus.

A range of engines were available in the 4th generation vehicles, ranging from 2.0-litre petrol engines to 3.0-litre turbo diesel engines. Most versions are rear-wheel drive, but part time or full time four-wheel drive versions were sold depending on specification level and market. The base model is typically the DX. Upmarket versions included CD, GL, and super GL models.

The facelifted fourth-generation HiAce was launched in May 1994. It was facelifted again during 1997 and once more in 2002.

In the Philippines, the HiAce was first sold in 1995 with a diesel engine, getting revamped in 1997 as it went from business status to family van status. In 1999, the HiAce Grandia and 2.0 GL gasoline HiAce variants were launched, as well as the HiAce Commuter, a HiAce meant for business, and the HiAce was facelifted again in that year. In early 2001, the top-of-the-line 3.0inline-4 diesel HiAce Super Grandia was launched. All came with a standard 5-speed manual transmission. These variants were all sold until early 2005, with the next generation being launched in June of that same year. A special edition HiAce Super Grandia J Japan edition was also sold together with the RAV4 J and Revo J from 2002–2003.

The HiAce rebadged with a luxury orientation, the Toyota RegiusAce, was introduced August 1999 with different versions called the Regius HiAce and Regius Touring HiAce sold at Toyopet and Vista dealerships. The RegiusAce uses a cab over setup, meaning that front seat passengers sit on top of the front axle and the 1TR-FE engine is located underneath the floor and between the front passengers.

When the Vista sales network was replaced by the NETZ sales network, the Regius Ace was sold exclusively at the Netz Store. The first generation H100 series was manufactured between 1999–2004.

Sold in the Japanese market between 1995 and 2002, the Granvia is a semi-bonneted van, with the front wheels positioned in front of the front seats for better safety. Available with seven- and eight-seater configurations and in two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, it is based on the regular HiAce. Because of tighter safety regulations, this model replaced the mid-engined HiAce in Europe and several other markets. The diesel engines for Granvia are either a 2.4 L or 3.0 L diesel, or 2.7- and 3.4 L petrol. The Granvia spawned into the HiAce Regius, the Grand HiAce and the Touring HiAce. The Granvia, Grand HiAce, and Touring HiAce are upmarket passenger vans only.

In Europe, the Granvia-based HiAce sold from 1995 was usually equipped with the 2494 cc 2KDdiesel engine in a variety of versions, with or without turbocharging. The HiAce underwent a facelift in 2006, with bigger "jewel-style" headlights, and continued to be built in this form until 2012, replaced by the Toyota ProAce.

The fifth-generation HiAce appeared in 2005 as a wide long-wheelbase wagon, wide super-long-wheelbase high-roof "Grand Cabin", long-wheelbase van, long-wheelbase high-roof van and a wide super-long-wheelbase high-roof van. In this generation the gear lever has been moved to the dashboard to enable easier movement in the cabin. Five-speed manual and four-speed automatic transmissions are available.

All of the models use a four-cylinder DOHC engine, in a variety of forms, a 1TR-FE 2,000 cc or 2TR-FE 2,700 cc petrol engine, or a 2KD-FTV 2,500 cc or 1KD-FTV 3,000 cc D-4D turbo diesel engine. Two of these engines are available in Malaysia, the 2.5 L turbo diesel, offered in a choice of panel van or window van; and the 2.7 L petrol, that comes only in the window van option.

Currently, the Hiace brand is assembled all over the globe, including Philippines, Japan, South Africa, Thailand, Pakistan, Malaysia and Vietnam. Pretty impressive, right? Another amazing thing about the Hiace brand is that it’s got a very high resale value. Just take some time and lurke around the first van-fan forum that pops up – you’ll see that Toyota’s van is very popular among car enthusiasts, even the very first generations.

 In terms of safety, the new Hiace is a role model. Actually, it has always been one of the safest vans in the market. Toyota just recently introduced a lot of the latest safety equipment in the 2015 editions, and the official statement claims that all of that technological heaven will also be integrated in the 2016 model, including Vehicle Stability Control, Reversing Camera, Electrochromatic Mirror, Emergency Stop Signal, an Anti-skid Braking System (helps you hold control in an emergency event by not letting the van’s wheels lock up), as well as some new developments that are kept in secret for now.

TOYOTA old models

Toyota OLD CARS

Toyota Motor Corporation   is a Japanese 

automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. In March 2014 the multinational corporation consisted of 338,875 employees worldwide and, as of February 2016, was the 13th-largest company in the world by revenue. Toyota was the largest automobile manufacturer in 2012  ahead of the Volkswagen Group and General Motors. In July of that year, the company reported the production of its 200-millionth vehicle.Toyota is the world's first automobile manufacturer to produce more than 10 million vehicles per year. It did so in 2012 according to OICA, and in 2013 according to company data. As of July 2014, Toyota was the largest listed company in Japan by market capitalization worth more than twice as much as ranked SoftBankand by revenue.

Toyota is the world's market leader in sales of hybrid electric vehicles, and one of the largest companies to encourage the mass-market adoption of hybrid vehicles across the globe. Cumulative global sales of Toyota and Lexus hybrid passenger car models passed the 9 million milestone in April 2016. Its Prius family is the world's top selling hybrid nameplate with almost 5.7 million units sold worldwide as of 30 April 2016.

In 2001, Toyota's Toyo Trust and Banking merged with two other banks to form UFJ Bank, which was accused of corruption by Japan's government for making bad loans to alleged Yakuza crime syndicates with executives accused of blocking Financial Service Agency inspections. The UFJ was listed among Fortune Magazine's largest money-losing corporations in the world, with Toyota's chairman serving as a director. At the time, the UFJ was one of the largest shareholders of Toyota. As a result of Japan's banking crisis, UFJ merged with the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi to become the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.

In 2002, Toyota managed to enter a Formula One works team and establish joint ventures with French motoring companies Citroën and Peugeot a year after Toyota started producing cars in France.

Toyota ranked eighth on Forbes 2000 list of the world's leading companies for the year 2005 but slid to 55 for 2011. The company was number one in global automobile sales for the first quarter of 2008.

In 2007, Toyota released an update of its full-sized truck, the Tundra, produced in two American factories, one in Texas and one in Indiana. Motor Trend named the Tundra "Truck of the Year", and the 2007 Toyota Camry "Car of the Year" for 2007. It also began the construction of two new factories, one to build the RAV4 in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, and the other to build the Toyota Prius in Blue Springs, Mississippi, USA. This plant was originally intended to build the Toyota Highlander, but Toyota decided to use the plant inPrinceton, Indiana, USA, instead. The company has also found recent success with its smaller models—the Corolla and Yaris.

In 1936, Toyota entered the passenger car market with its Model AA and held a competition to establish a new logo emphasizing speed for its new product line. After receiving 27,000 entries, one was selected that additionally resulted in a change of its moniker to "Toyota" from the family name "Toyoda". The new name was believed to sound better, and its eight-stroke count in the Japanese language was associated with wealth and good fortune. The original logo is no longer found on its vehicles, but remains the corporate emblem used in Japan.

Still, no guidelines existed for the use of the brand name, so "TOYOTA", which was used throughout most of the world, led to inconsistencies in its worldwide marketing campaigns.

To remedy this, Toyota introduced a new worldwide logo in October 1989 to commemorate the 50th year of the company, and to differentiate it from the newly released luxury Lexus brand. The logo made its debut on the 1989 Toyota Celsior and quickly gained worldwide recognition. The three ovals in the new logo combine to form the letter "T", which stands for Toyota. The overlapping of the two perpendicular ovals inside the larger oval represent the mutually beneficial relationship and trust between the customer and the company, while the larger oval surrounding both of these inner ovals represents the "global expansion of Toyota's technology and unlimited potential for the future

Toyota has long been recognized as an industry leader in manufacturing and production. Three stories of its origin have been found, one that they studied Piggly-Wiggly's just-in-time distribution system, one that they followed the writings of W. Edwards Deming, and one that they were given the principles from a WWII US government training program Training Within Industry.

As described by external observers of Toyota, the principles of the Toyota Way are:

1. Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term goals
2. Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface
3. Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction
4. Level out the workload
5. Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time
6. Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment
7. Use visual control so no problems are hidden
8. Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes
9. Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others
10. Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy
11. Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve
12. Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation .

 As of April 2016, Toyota Motor Corporation sells 33 Toyota and Lexus hybrid passenger car models and one plug-in hybrid in over 90 countries and regions around the world, and the carmaker expects to achieve annual sales of 1.5  million units, and cumulative sales of 15  million units by 2020. The Prius lift back is the world's top selling hybrid gasoline-electric car, its sales reached the 3 million unit milestone in June 2013, and cumulative sales since 1997 totaled 3,732,700 units at the end of April 2016. The Prius lift back ranks as the top selling hybrid car in the U.S. market, and passed the 1 million milestone in April 2011.Cumulative sales of the Prius in Japan reached the 1 million mark in August 2011.As of April 2016, sales of the Prius liftback in both Japan and the United States had exceeded the 1.6 million mark. Cumulative TMC hybrid sales since the Prius introduction in Europe in 2000 passed the 1 million unit milestone in November 2015.

Worldwide sales of hybrid vehicles produced by Toyota reached 1 million vehicles by May 31, 2007, and the 2 million mark was reached by August 2009, with hybrids sold in 50 countries. The 5 million hybrid sales milestone was reached in March 2013, During 2012, Toyota and Lexus hybrid models sold more than 1 million units a year for the first time, with 1.219 million units sold. During 2013, TMC sold 1.279 million units, and the 6 million sales milestone was achieved in December 2013, just nine months after its latest million unit milestone. The 7 million sales mark was reached in September 2014, again, selling one million hybrids in ninth months, and the 8 million sales milestone was achieved in July 2015, just 10 months after the previous million-unit milestone. The 9 million sales mark was reached in April 2016, again, selling one million hybrids in just ninth months.Toyota estimates that up to 30 April 2016, its hybrids have saved about 6.6 billion U.S. gallons of gasoline (25 billion liters) compared to the amount used by gasoline-powered vehicles of similar size, and have emitted approximately 67 million fewer tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions than would have been emitted by gasoline-powered vehicles of similar size and driving performance.

In 1999 for the 2000 model year, Toyota replaced the T100 with the larger Tundra. The Tundra addressed criticisms that the T100 did not have the look and feel of a legitimate American-style full-size pickup. It also added the V8 engine that the T100 was criticized for not having. However, the Tundra still came up short in towing capacity as well as still feeling slightly carlike. These concerns were addressed with an even larger 2007 redesign. A stronger V6 and a second V8 engine among other things were added to the option list. As of early 2010, the Tundra has captured 16% of the full-size half-ton market in the US. The all-new Tundra was assembled in San Antonio, Texas, US. Toyota assembled around 150,000 Standard and Double Cabs, and only 70,000 Crew Max's in 2007. The smaller Tacoma (which traces its roots back to the original Hilux) was also produced at the company's San Antonio facility.

Official website

Mazda Motor Corporation

Mazda cars

                                                             Japanese automaker

Mazda Motor Corporation  commonly referred to just as Mazda, is a Japanese automaker based in District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.

In 2007, Mazda produced almost 1.3 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly 1 million) were produced in the company's Japanese plants, with the remainder coming from a variety of other plants worldwide. In 2011, Mazda was the fifteenth biggest automaker by production worldwide.

Mazda began as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd, founded in Hiroshima, Japan, in 1920. Toyo Cork Kogyo renamed itself to Toyo Kogyo Co., Ltd. in 1927. In the late 1920s the company had to be saved from bankruptcy by Hiroshima Saving Bank and other business leaders in Hiroshima.

In 1931 Toyo Kogyo moved from manufacturing machine tools to vehicles with the introduction of the Mazda-Go auto rickshaw. Toyo Kogyo produced weapons for the Japanese military throughout the Second World War, most notably the series 30 through 35 Type 99 rifle. The company formally adopted the Mazda name in 1984, though every automobile sold from the beginning bore that name. The Mazda R360 was introduced in 1960, followed by the Mazda Carol in 1962.

Beginning in the 1960s, Mazda was inspired by the NSU Ro 80, and decided to put a major engineering effort into development of the Wankel rotary engine as a way of differentiating itself from other Japanese auto companies. The company formed a business relationship with German company NSU, and began with the limited-production Cosmo Sport of 1967 and continuing to the present day with the Pro Mazda Championship, Mazda has become the sole manufacturer of Wankel-type engines for the automotive market mainly by way of attrition NSU and Citroën both gave up on the design during the 1970s, and prototype Corvette efforts by General Motors never made it to production.

 During 1968, Mazda started formal operations in Canada (MazdaCanada) although Mazdas were seen in Canada as early as 1959. In 1970, Mazda formally entered the American market (Mazda North American Operations) and was very successful there, going so far as to create the Mazda Rotary Pickup (based on the conventional piston-powered B-Series model) solely for North American buyers. To this day, Mazda remains the only automaker to have produced a Wankel-powered pickup truck. Additionally, it is also the only marque to have ever offered a rotary-powered bus (the Mazda Parkway, offered only in Japan) or station wagon (within the RX-3 and RX-4 lines for certain markets). After nine years of development, Mazda finally launched its new model in the U.S. in 1970.

Mazda's rotary success continued until the onset of the 1973 oil crisis. As American buyers (as well as those in other nations) quickly turned to vehicles with better fuel efficiency, the relatively thirsty rotary-powered models began to fall out of favor. Combined with being the least-efficient automaker in Japan (in terms of productivity), inability to adjust to excess inventory and over-reliance on the U.S. market, the company suffered a huge loss in 1975. An already heavily indebted Toyo Kogyo was on the verge of bankruptcy and was only saved through the intervention of Sumitomo keiretsu group, namely Sumitomo Bank, and the companies subcontractors and distributors. Fortunately, the company had not totally turned its back on piston engines, as it continued to produce a variety of four-cylinder models throughout the 1970s. The smaller Familia line in particular became very important to Mazda's worldwide sales after 1973, as did the somewhat larger Capella series.

 This partnership with Ford Motor Company began due to Mazda's financial difficulties during the 1960s. Starting in 1979 with a 7-percent financial stake, Ford expanded an existing partnership with Mazda resulting in various joint projects. The cooperation had begun in 1971 when the Mazda B-Series spawned a Ford Courier variant for North America, a version which was later offered in other markets as well. Mazda's Bongo and Titan cab-over trucks were sold with Ford badging in mainly Asia and the Pacific region beginning in 1976. These included large and small efforts in all areas of the automotive landscape — most notably in the realm of pickup trucks and smaller cars. Mazda began supplying manual transaxles to Ford in the spring of 1980. Mazda's Familia platform was used for Ford models like the Laser and Escort beginning in 1980, while the Capella architecture found its way into Ford's Telstar sedan and Probe sports models. During the 1980s, Ford gained another 20-percent financial stake, and in 2002 Ford gained an extra 5-percent financial stake. Particularly in the Asia-Pacific markets, Ford-badged Mazda products replaced much of their own lineup. The Ford Festiva, Laser, and Telstar were also sold in Japan alongside their Mazda-badged brethren.

The Probe was built in a new Mazda company plant in Flat Rock, Michigan along with the mainstream 626 sedan (the North American version of the Capella) and a companion Mazda MX-6 sports coupe. Ford also lent Mazda some of its capacity when needed: the Mazda 121 sold in Europe and South Africa was, for a time, a variant of the Ford Fiesta built in plants in Europe and South Africa. Mazda also made an effort in the past to sell some of Ford's cars in Japan, mainly through its Autorama dealer group.

Mazda also helped Ford develop the 1991 Explorer, which Mazda sold as the 2-door only Mazda Navajo from 1991 through 1994. Ironically, Mazda's version was unsuccessful, while the Ford (available from the start as a 4-door or 2-door model) instantly became the best selling sport-utility vehicle in the United States and kept that title for over a decade. Mazda has used Ford's Ranger pickup as the basis for its North American–market B-Series trucks, starting in 1994 and continuing through 2010, when Mazda discontinued importing its B-Series trucks to North America, due to costs associated with the chicken tax.

Further financial difficulties at Mazda during the 1990s partly caused by losses related to the 1997 Asian financial crisis caused Ford to increase its stake to a 33.4-percent controlling interest in May 1996. In June 1996, Henry Wallace was appointed President, and he set about restructuring Mazda and setting it on a new strategic direction. He laid out a new direction for the brand including the design of the present Mazda marque; he laid out a new product plan to achieve synergies with Ford, and he launched Mazda's digital innovation program to speed up the development of new products. At the same time, he started taking control of overseas distributors, rationalized dealerships and manufacturing facilities, and driving much needed efficiencies and cost reductions in Mazda's operations. Much of his early work put Mazda back into profitability and laid the foundations for future success. Wallace was succeeded by James Miller in November 1997, followed in December 1999 by Ford executive Mark Fields, who has been credited with expanding Mazda's new product lineup and leading the turnaround during the early 2000s. Ford's increased influence during the 1990s allowed Mazda to claim another distinction in history, having maintained the first foreign-born head of a Japanese car company, Henry Wallace.

In the racing world, Mazda has had substantial success with both its signature Wankel-engine cars (in two-rotor, three-rotor, and four-rotor forms) as well as its piston-engine models. Mazda vehicles and engines compete in a wide variety of disciplines and series around the world. More Mazdas are raced every week than any other car brand (a large part of this statement speaks to the success of the MX-5/Miata and its widespread embrace by grassroots motorsports). As of 2014, Mazda remains the only Japanese automaker to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans overall.

watch out the history

Aston Martin

                                                                    OLD IS GOLD

Aston Martin Lagonda Limited is a British manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. It was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford.

The firm became associated with luxury grand touring cars in the 1950s and 1960s, and with the fictional character James Bond following his use of a DB5 model in the 1964 film Goldfinger.

The company has had a chequered financial history, including bankruptcy in the 1970s, but has also enjoyed long periods of success and stability, including under the ownership of David Brown, from 1947 to 1972 and of the Ford Motor Company from 1994 to 2007.

In March 2007, a consortium of investors, led by David Richards, purchased 92% of Aston Martin for £479 million, with Ford retaining a £40 million stake David Richards became chairman of Aston Martin. In December 2012, the Italian private equity fund Investindustria signed a deal to buy 37.5% of Aston Martin, investing £150 million as a capital increase.

Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford.The two had joined forces as Bamford & Martin the previous year to sell cars made by Singer from premises in Callow Street, London where they also serviced GWK and Calthorpe vehicles. Martin raced specials at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton, and the pair decided to make their own vehicles. The first car to be named Aston Martinwas created by Martin by fitting a four-cylinder Coventry-Simplex engine to the chassis of a 1908 Isotta-Fraschini.

They acquired premises at Henniker Mews in Kensington and produced their first car in March 1915. Production could not start because of the outbreak of World War I, and Martin joined the Admiralty and Bamford the Royal Army Service Corps. All machinery was sold to the Sopwith Aviation Company.

 After the war, the company was refounded at Abingdon Road, Kensington and a new car designed to carry the Aston-Martin name. Bamford left in 1920 and the company was revitalised with funding from Count Louis Zborowski. In 1922, Bamford & Martin produced cars to compete in the French Grand Prix, which went on to set world speed and endurance records at Brooklands. Three works Team Cars with 16-valve twin cam engines were built for racing and record breaking: chassis number 1914, later developed as the Green Pea; chassis number 1915, the Razor Blade record car; and chassis number 1916, later developed as the Halford Special.

Approximately 55 cars were built for sale in two configurations, long chassis and short chassis. The company went bankrupt in 1924 and was bought by Lady Charnwood, who put her son John Benson on the board. The company failed again in 1925 and the factory closed in 1926, with Lionel Martin leaving.

Later that year, Bill Renwick, Augustus (Bert) Bertelli and investors which included Lady Charnwood took control of the company. They renamed it Aston Martin Motors and moved it to the former Whitehead Aircraft Limited works in Feltham. Renwick and Bertelli had been in partnership some years and had developed an overhead-cam four-cylinder engine using Renwick's patented combustion chamber design, which they had tested in an Enfield-Allday chassis. The only "Renwick and Bertelli" motor car made, it was known as "Buzzbox" and still survives.

The pair had planned to sell their engine to motor manufacturers, but having heard that the Aston Martin was no longer in production realised they could capitalise on its reputation to jump start the production of a completely new car.

Between 1926 and 1937 Bertelli was both technical director and designer of all new Aston Martins, since known as "Bertelli cars". They included the 1½-litre "T-type", "International", "Le Mans", "MKII" and its racing derivative, the "Ulster", and the 2-litre 15/98 and its racing derivative, the "Speed Model". Most were open two-seater sports cars bodied by Bert Bertelli's brother Enrico (Harry), with a small number of long-chassis four-seater tourers, dropheads and saloons also produced.

Bertelli was a competent driver keen to race his cars, one of few owner/manufacturer/drivers. The "LM" team cars were very successful in national and international motor racing including at Le Mans and the Mille Miglia.

Gauntlett bought a 12.5% stake in Aston Martin for £500,000 via Pace Petroleum in 1980, with Tim Hearley of CH Industrials taking a similar share. Pace and CHI took over as joint 50/50 owners at the beginning of 1981, with Gauntlett as executive chairman. Gauntlett also led the sales team, and after some development and publicity when it became the world's fastest 4-seater production car, was able to sell the Aston Martin Lagonda in Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar.

In 1982, Aston Martin was granted a Royal Warrant of Appointment by the Prince of Wales. The company holds the warrant to this day.

Understanding that it would take some time to develop new Aston Martin products, they created an engineering service subsidiary to develop automotive products for other companies. It was decided to use the name of the coachbuilding company Tickford which Aston Martin had owned since 1955, the name being already associated with quality cars in the public perception. Products included a Tickford Austin Metro, a Tickford Ford Capri and even Tickford train interiors, particularly on the Jaguar XJS. Pace continued sponsoring racing events, and now sponsored all Aston Martin Owners Club events, taking a Tickford-engined Nimrod Group C car owned by AMOC President Viscount Downe, which came third in the Manufacturers Championship in both 1982 and 1983. It also finished seventh in the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans race. However, sales of production cars were now at an all-time low of 30 cars produced in 1982.

As trading became tighter in the petroleum market, and Aston Martin was requiring more time and money, Gauntlett agreed to sell Hays/Pace to the Kuwait Investment Office in September 1983. As Aston Martin required greater investment, he also agreed to sell his share holding to American importer and Greek shipping tycoon Peter Livanos, who invested via his joint venture company with Nick and John Papanicolaou, ALL Inc. Gauntlett remained chairman of the AML company 55% owned by ALL, with Tickford a 50/50 venture between ALL and CHI. The uneasy relationship was ended when ALL exercised options to buy a larger share in AML; CHI's residual shares were exchanged for CHI's complete ownership of Tickford, which retained development of existing Aston Martin projects. In 1984, Titan the main shipping company of the Papanicolaou's was in trouble, so Livanos's father George bought out the Papanicolaou's shares in ALL, while Gauntlett again became a shareholder with a 25% holding in AML. The deal valued Aston Martin/AML at £2 million, the year it built its 10,000th car.

 To demonstrate the V8 Vantage's durability across hazardous terrain and promote the car in China, the first east-west crossing of the Asian Highway was undertaken between June and August 2007. A pair of Britons drove 12,089 km (7,512 miles) from Tokyo to Istanbul before joining the European motorway network for another 3,259 km (2,025 miles) to London. The promotion was so successful the company opened dealerships in Shanghai and Beijing within three months.

On 19 July 2007, the Newport Pagnell plant rolled out the last of nearly 13,000 cars made there since 1955, a Vanquish S. The Tickford Street facility was converted to Aston Martin's service and restoration department. UK production is now concentrated at Gaydon on the former RAF V-bomber airfield.In March 2008 the company announced a partnership with Magna Steyr to outsource manufacture of over 2,000 cars annually to Graz, Austria, reassuringly stating: "The continuing growth and success of the company is based upon Gaydon as the focal point and heart of the business, with the design and engineering of all Aston Martin products continuing to be carried out there.

More dealers in Europe and the new pair in China brought the total to 120 in 28 countries.

In 2013 Aston Martin signed a deal with Daimler AG to supply new Mercedes-AMG power plants for the next generation line up. Daimler AG now owns 5% of Aston Martin.Mercedes-AMG will also supply Aston Martin with electrical systems. This technical partnership will support Aston Martin’s launch of a new generation of models that will incorporate new technology and V8s. The first model to sport Mercedes technology is the DB11, announced at the 2016 Geneva Motor, sporting Mercedes electronics for the entertainment, navigation and other systems.

Official website


Official Aston Martin Owners Club