Despite the successful launches of the new Vanquish and Vanquish Volante, all is apparently not so well with Aston Martin. In a somewhat surprising announcement, the UK carmaker has revealed a $39.3 million pre-tax loss for this year. Alarmingly, that's an increase from last year's loss of $33.9 million. So what the hell is going on here? Well, it turns out that Aston Martin sales aren't going so well. It has experienced a nine-percent sales drop this past year and a 50-percent drop since 2007.

The company puts the blame on a "market segment (which) has been severely affected by recession as well as weakness in European markets and vehicle launches occurring in the fourth quarter." This is definitely a disturbing piece of news considering the automaker is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Conversely, they also just announced that its Cygnet city car has been discontinued. So is there any hope to be found? Possibly. The new technical partnership with AMG could help to dramatically cut costs in many areas, and an Italian private equity firm recently purchased a minority stake that provided a badly needed cash infusion.