ASTON MARTIN RAPIDE ON THE MOVE

ASTON Martin will move production of its four-door Rapide to the company's Gaydon headquarters in Warwickshire UK in the second half of 2012.

Due to constraints at Gaydon Aston Martin appointed Magna Steyr as a partner to produce the car at its facilities in Austria in 2008.

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.

Aston Martin chief executive Dr Ulrich Bez says in 2008 there were facility restrictions at Gaydon which indicated that production of Rapide at Gaydon would likely compromise production of other cars.

"Now, three years on things are very different,” he says.

“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.