'Keep smiling, for gawd's sake...'
A PH O'meter score of just over four suggests that perhaps
Sir Stirling Moss's choice of car for his lady wife
wasn't what we would have chosen.
Now it's just possible that some PR people somewhere were given the gold key to the Aston Martin (Toyota..?) executive lavatory when Mr and Mrs Moss posed in front of the new Cygnet recently at the RAC Club in London. But PR stunt or not we couldn't help but think about the kind of Astons we could acquire for the same outlay... for the missus of course.
So, setting the upper limit at the £39,995 list price of the 'Launch Edition' Cygnet, here are just a few alternatives. Sadly, like the Cygnet, none are C-charge exempt - but they'll still all definitely look the part around town.
The DB7 might be getting a little long in the tooth now, but with only 8,800 registered miles this Vantage Volante looks like a good little-used alternative if the Cygnet's charms just aren't quite winning you over. It's in a good colour too, although the bulky tonneau cover spoils the graceful lines a little. |
£38,950
|
£39,850 is outer-orbit money though, so if you don't mind sacrificing 12,000 more miles this one looks much better value at £31,945. In fact, Sir Stirling could have paid the asking price and still had almost enough budget left to buy Mrs Moss a brand new Toyota IQ as well... |
£31,945
|
With a bit of haggling the Moss's might have just been rolling in this Vanquish from the same dealer. Of course, to get yourself into a Vanquish for the £40,000 mark means that you'll have to put up with a higher mileage - and this one's showing 58,500 - although being an ex-works car with an impeccable service history since the factory sold it there's no reason why that should be a problem. |
£41,995
|
We looked briefly at a £34,000 05 V8 Vantage on 44,000 miles recently as an alternative to a two-year-old 650i, but if you were to absorb all of your 40k budget on a V8 Vantage you'd still only be looking at something like this which is just one year and 17,000 miles younger. Personally I think I'd be more inclined to lace-up my hobnail boots and see just how much more I could shave off the £34k asking price of the 05 car. |
£38,500
|
Last but not least I reckon that the sweet-spot in the £40k used Aston Martin market is something like this DB9 . Opinion seems to be split on the 'Iron Ore' leather, but I think it works well with the Mercury Silver paintwork. Like all the cars here it boasts a full main dealer service history and marque experts think that the DB9 will go down as one of the best all-round Aston Martins ever made. |
£41,990
|