RE: Aston Martin to stop Virage production

[bakerstreet]

Captain Beaky said:

You'll be wanting a V12 Vantage then

Actually no. Being a fan of the of the old twin charged Aston, my ideal Aston has to have a V8

Also, I don't like the vents on the V12 bonnet. However, from what I have read on here they have to be there.

[Twincam16]

myhandle said:

Bill Carr said:

Ah, but the DB9 was 2 better than the DB7. Spinal Tap anyone?

They missed out DB8 because there were concerns some (principally the US market) would think it was a V8 powered car, not a V12. Just as with the film The Madness of King George - it was initially meant to be The Madness of King George III but there were concerns some would think there had been two previous films.

Also, there was technically a single DB8 - it just predated the DB7 Vantage and it was a DB7 fitted with a V8 engine. It was only a prototype in the end although I have seen it burbling around Rickmansworth once.

A similar thing happened in the Fifties when the myriad DB2 range (culminating in DB2/4 MkIII) jumped straight to DB4. There had been a DB3 and a DB3S, but they were competition-only cars built in tiny numbers. As far as customers of road cars were concerned, it jumped straight from DB2 to DB4.

IMO the current Aston Martin has lost the plot with names. It's become fixated with re-using names from its past to the point where it's easy to forget which car people are talking about sometimes and it wreaks havoc with search engines.

For example, a V8 Vantage can be this:



or this:



A DBS can be this:



Or this:



And a Virage is this:



Or this:



It's not like a Porsche 911 or a BMW saloon, where the various models sharing the same name have been evolved over time, or Rolls-Royce where certain names carry certain connotations so you know that 'Phantom' represents the pinnacle of luxury motoring. It's almost as though they have a jumble of limited names and they pull them out at random and slap them on cars.

[900T-R]

That's a Vantage on the last pic, Twink.

[Twincam16]

900T-R said:

That's a Vantage on the last pic, Twink.

Still a Virage Vantage though isn't it, before the V8 Coupe.

[900T-R]

't Was based on the Virage alright, but it was always names just 'Vantage'...

[wormburner]

Oddball RS said:

wormburner said:

anniesdad said:

I think see where you're going with this:

Sentimentally casting back to former glories with no recent success?
Objectively not up-to-scratch, but lovely to look at?
Anachronistic and silly?
Grossly expensive, but justifiable with man-maths and romance?
Nice noise, but not really that quick?

Aston Martin Vulcan. For reasons your accountant/wife (DAO) doesn't understand.

I take it that group of comments was a joke right?

Just in case it wasn't, design started in 1946, it flew like a fighter, was much more versatile than an equivalent B36/47/52 yes it covered this entire USAF period and flew the longest combat mission on record and in the lkast two years of its service life in 1982.

I think you missed my point a little.

Lovely, cool and beautiful though the Vulcan is, how would it fare against the opposition today? That's the parallel I was drawing between Aston and....never mind.

[LewisR]

Twincam16 said:

900T-R said:

That's a Vantage on the last pic, Twink.

Still a Virage Vantage though isn't it, before the V8 Coupe.

It's not a Virage Vantage (there was never such a name for a car), or any Vantage for that matter. It's the 6.3 litre Virage upgrade before the Vanatge was launched. It was a stop-gap to bridge the years where there was no Vantage available ('90-'93 or there abouts).

[JonX2C]

Hey all.

So my Dad bought a Virage approx 3 months ago direct from the local AM dealer. He managed to get 15% off the list price in the end which was amazing.

So after reading this news after the weekend we were wondering what would be best.

Truely shocked that they only Sold 1,000 and wondering if there are any more locked away waiting to be picked up.

So the question now stands what to do with it.

He loves the car to death, however he was also looking at a 458 and also a McClaren.

Now he has a feeling that he could sell it on the open market and probably get the same money back for it, if not a little bit more, either now or in the next year or so.

Would be intresting to find out what people think will happen.

Will they shoot up in price in the next few years or what?

Any other owners loking to sell up allready?

[anonymous-user]

JonX2C said:

Hey all.

Now he has a feeling that he could sell it on the open market and probably get the same money back for it, if not a little bit more, either now or in the next year or so.

There is more chance that in 5 minutes, when I go to the gents, I will lay a giant gold egg. There are a thousand of them in circulation, and it's effectively a DB9 "special edition" anyway so it has zero rarity value. Maybe in literally 100 years it'll be worth what he paid for it, but for now it's one of the fastest depreciating cars you can buy.

[V8LM]

LewisR said:

Twincam16 said:

900T-R said:

That's a Vantage on the last pic, Twink.

Still a Virage Vantage though isn't it, before the V8 Coupe.

It's not a Virage Vantage (there was never such a name for a car), or any Vantage for that matter. It's the 6.3 litre Virage upgrade before the Vanatge was launched. It was a stop-gap to bridge the years where there was no Vantage available ('90-'93 or there abouts).

^ this ^

Only the door skins and roof (and basic engine block) are shared between the Virage and the Vantage.

The V8 DB7 was never going to be a production car. Built to order (and recently didn't sell at the Revival auction). A couple of V8 race DB7s were built too. Uncle Ford wouldn't have allowed Aston put its own V8 in a production car (the Vantage engine was made to run on Ford ECUs, and later further development of the engine 'wasn't encouraged'). Numerous stories as to why there was no DB8; two of the more convincing are that it would be too confusing for our US colonials to distinguish from the XK8, and that it sounds too much like deviate.

Maybe Aston are trying to lose the DB link altogether (not sure if they have to licence it) and Bez is reverting to a Porsche strategy that he knows and loves all too well : cars are called Vantage, Virage, Vanquish, Rapide. Variants are then given suffixes/preffixes: V8 Vantage, Rapide S, Virage RS, Cygnet GTRS2.

[JonX2C]

dme123 said:

There is more chance that in 5 minutes, when I go to the gents, I will lay a giant gold egg. There are a thousand of them in circulation, and it's effectively a DB9 "special edition" anyway so it has zero rarity value. Maybe in literally 100 years it'll be worth what he paid for it, but for now it's one of the fastest depreciating cars you can buy.

Really im shocked to think that these will sink like a lead ballon.

I know the AM never hold their value but would of thought they would hold osme value for a bit.

[wormburner]

JonX2C said:

Really im shocked to think that these will sink like a lead ballon.

I know the AM never hold their value but would of thought they would hold osme value for a bit.

If your dad could buy a new one for 15% off, what will that do to the value of a used one (which is what his now is)?

The young used car that should have been 15% off has to reduce to 30% off to sell.

And that means the older car that should have been 30% off has to drop to 45% to sell.

The manufacturer (and dealers) are fking all their customers when they sell new at a discount. Guaranteed residual disasters all-round.

Your dad didn't get an amazing deal at 15% off. He just started the depreciation plummet from a lower point. If the dealers were staying firm at 100%, then perhaps he'd have bought used, and thus propped-up the values. Buying new at a discount pushes every car down in value.

When they lop £20k off the RRP to make a sale, they lop that value off every single car in the market, new and used. Poor form.

Edited by wormburner on Monday 17th September 15:29

[anniesdad]

wormburner said:

Oddball RS said:

wormburner said:

anniesdad said:

I think see where you're going with this:

Sentimentally casting back to former glories with no recent success?
Objectively not up-to-scratch, but lovely to look at?
Anachronistic and silly?
Grossly expensive, but justifiable with man-maths and romance?
Nice noise, but not really that quick?

Aston Martin Vulcan. For reasons your accountant/wife (DAO) doesn't understand.

I take it that group of comments was a joke right?

Just in case it wasn't, design started in 1946, it flew like a fighter, was much more versatile than an equivalent B36/47/52 yes it covered this entire USAF period and flew the longest combat mission on record and in the lkast two years of its service life in 1982.

I think you missed my point a little.

Lovely, cool and beautiful though the Vulcan is, how would it fare against the opposition today? That's the parallel I was drawing between Aston and....never mind.

Nah...it's the greatest thing ever to come out of Great Britain with a name beginning with a "V".

[Zod]

JonX2C said:

So my Dad bought a Virage approx 3 months ago direct from the local AM dealer. He managed to get 15% off the list price in the end which was normal.

I've fixed that sentence for you.

[JonX2C]

Zod said:

I've fixed that sentence for you.

Thanks Zod, what was i thinking!

[anniesdad]

dme123 said:

There is more chance that in 5 minutes, when I go to the gents, I will lay a giant gold egg.

[killingjoker]

900T-R said:

That's a Vantage on the last pic, Twink.

That's a VIRAGE on the last pic, sigh

[williamp]

Yes its a Virage, although it does have the "6.3" bodywork and possibly engine from works service.

There was no such thing as a Virage Vantage. It was known simply as the Vantage, and was built alongside the V8 Coupe.

[killingjoker]

Lovely old DBS you have there. Lucky man

[LewisR]

williamp said:

Yes its a Virage, although it does have the "6.3" bodywork and possibly engine from works service.

There was no such thing as a Virage Vantage. It was known simply as the Vantage, and was built alongside the V8 Coupe.

As I mentioned above !!

The Vantage was produced alongside the Virage for a numbr of years but the the Virage took over the styling of the Vantage albeit ess aggressive and so became the V8 Coupe.