We'd got rather used to positive Aston Martin news recently, what with the

Cygnet's demise

and the arrival of exciting products such as the

V12 Vantage S

.

But the jolly mood has been subdued rather by Autocar's news that Aston recorded a £24.9m loss in 2012. You can read the full story on it here, but a predictably large portion of the blame has been attributed to the recession. Aston has also rather ambiguously stated its revenues were affected by 'vehicle launches in the fourth quarter [of 2012]'.

It's therefore unclear whether this means Aston's own launches (see the Vanquish in November 2012) or those of its rivals; the Bentley Continental GT Speed, for example, arrived in October last year.