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Official: Aston Martin gets its hands on Mercedes AMG engines & Electronic Architecture

Aston Martin & AMG confirm they’re getting in bed together Back in December we reported that Aston Martin had new investment from Investindustrial and wondered if that would mean – thanks to an existing relationship between Investindustrial and AMG – if we’d see Aston Martin finally getting access to AMG’s engines and platforms. By May, things had moved on and it was clear that Aston Martin and AMG were in talks for Aston Martin to get access to their engines for the next generation of AML’s cars. Now those talks have borne fruit and AMG and AML have signed a letter of intent for Aston Martin to “access significant Mercedes-AMG GmbH and Mercedes-Benz Cars’ resources, allowing the development of bespoke V8 powertrains and the use of certain components of electric/electronic (e/e) architecture.” Interestingly, there’s no talk of V12 engines – which could mean Aston Martin are going to move from the current Ford V12 for the DB9 and Vanquish to a powerful V8 from AMG – and nor is there talk of sharing platforms.

Facelifted Lexus GX 460 gets price cut for 2014

Lexus has just released pricing for its refreshed GX 460 SUV, or LUV as Lexus likes to call it, for Luxury Utility Vehicle. The most noticeable change on the outside is the updated corporate fascia in the form of the Lexus spindle grille, though the freshened GX 460 also gets LED headlights, along with daytime running lights and available LED fog lights. More importantly, the GX 460 will get a $4,710 price cut.

BMW i8 Concept Spyder

BMW has released images and information about its i8 Concept Spyder, which follows on from the i3 and i8 concepts. This open-top two-seater car features upwards-swiveling doors that pivot forwards around the A-pillars, a transparent glass panel at the rear and is based around the LifeDrive architecture, which fusing independent units together using a lightweight modular construction. A two-section roof is planned for less favorable conditions.