Sorry for the delay in joining this thread. Really fascinating.
Firstly, for any manufacturer today, quality must be paramount. My new Aero8 was clearly hand made with all the nuts and bolts hand tightened ! Consequently, on receipt, most were loose or missing. This meant unaligned doors and mirrors, paint worn, trim damaged, etc.
While I love the car, I did expect a higher quality of finish, especially given the price. Also, I don't have the luxury of going back to the factory for some hands-on attention.
For any car over GBP80k, I do expect a high attention to detail.
The Aero 8 is not just for the trust account wallies - it was at the very top of my budget and almost went over, but our dollar rallied in time. I certainly won't be considering an Aero SS or AeroMax, purely on a price basis.
We are all aware that the pricing of the Aero 8 meant MMC were really only breaking even on sales. Obviously, this needed to change hence the move to limited production runs of cars over GBP120k.
My concern is there is nothing in the 'Aero 8 bracket'. I believe the ideal for MMC would be for 3 production types - Trads, Aero 8's (priced profitably), and high end limited run productions.
Manufacturing is always a challenge balancing profitability and being a high quality provider. I've spent to last 20+ years helping manufacturers trying to be both.