Back From The Dead, Again

OVER THE COURSE OF THE automobile industry’s six score and 10 years, thousands of car brands have launched. Yet few have flourished, and today almost all have come and gone, save a handful. The car business is murder.

- Jamie Kitman

Faced with this fact of perpetual marque death, the coldhearted realist brigade has been content through the years to tsk, tsk, tsk. But car lovers mourn each loss. For there can never be too many car brands. With so few automakers left and barriers to entry for startups as plentiful as they’ve ever been, the sacrosanct, irreplaceable nature of the brand only becomes more so.

This is one reason we’re here to celebrate the new Aston Martin DB11 I just drove up and down the mountains outside of San Diego. I knew it in an instant: It’s excellent—a genuine across-the-board improvement over what came before it. And to the extent that the company’s survival rides on its products, it’s welcome news for fans of automotive diversity.

Once again with the launch of its new car, the fate of Aston Martin hung in the balance. And once again, the noble firm that’s been at death’s door more times in its long history than most—having been declared bankrupt seven times in the 20th century—has sprung back. Maybe we should wait for more data points. But as far as I’m concerned, the car is the most important data point. This one makes me think Aston is saved.