HOW MUCH FOR ASTON MARTIN?

Reuters is reporting reactions to the announcement by Ford Motor Company (tm) that its premium sports car brand Aston Martin is for sale.

The real questions are: (1) what potential buyers may be interested? And (2), how much will they pony up for the privilege of taking over the storied brand?

"'Anything is possible,' said Stephen Cheetham, car sector analyst at Sanford Bernstein.'If anybody decides they want it, the prices start to get extremely silly. Rationally, it is worth less than $1 billion and quite a lot less than $1 billion. Irrationally, it may be worth as much as $2 billion,' he added. 'It is one of those assets where you might be surprised where the interest comes from' said one investment banker who follows the auto sector closely. He called Aston Martin an unusual and rare asset that combines elements of luxury and engineering. He thought a buyer intent on expanding the brand could pay around $1 billion for it." www.autonews.com

Of course, the real value of Aston Martin isn't in the bricks, mortar, machinary, designs or even in the brand's exclusive dealer network. It's in the intangibles of market perception and brand positioning. Any number of industrial concerns could probably duplicate the tangible assets of Aston Martin for a relatively reasonable investment. But to duplicate the brand's international awaremess, exclusivity, panache, heritage and "halo appeal" would be much harder.

Purchasing Aston Martin would give the buyer an immediate place among the panoply of ultra-luxury and high performance sports cars. It's like purchasing a premium membership to an exclusive ocean-front golf and country club in that it buys access to the "movers and shakers" served by such club. It carries a cachet that few nameplates can match. And it provides the opportunity for an enterprising industrial concern to have an elite division for showcasing technical and design prowess.

Of course FoMoCo gives all this up in the short-sighted pursuit of cash. But then FoMoCo often fails to take the "long look." Many times FoMoCo has failed to appreciate the symbolic and intangible costs and benefits of its penny-pinching decisions.

Selling Aston Martin isn't a "car guy's 'Bold Move.'" It's just another "bean counter's" gimmick calculated to give a fleeting "crack pipe" hit to a quarterly report and a temporary bump in share prices.

It's just another sad step in the slow dismemberment of the Ford Motor Company empire.

(Now if FoMoCo's William Clay Ford, Jr. would just sell the Lincoln-Mercury division to someone with a clue . . . .)