Thursday 18th December 2014

Aston Lagonda: Catch It While You Can

Can't wait for the new Lagonda? Turn the clock back and set the digital dash for the heart of the wedge

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Spangles, platform shoes, Noddy Holder - if I had to go back to one decade, it's the 1970s all day long. And I'm not alone: plenty of chaps of a certain age now have the wherewithal and freedom to indulge in nostalgia, and it's the 70s that are growing in grooviness.

Brave enough for this?

Call it the thin edge of the wedge. Chock-shaped machinery is suddenly cool. Such formerly unloved slices of 70s cheese as Bertone's Ferrari 308 GT4 are very much 'in', with prices to match. Could the same thing be happening to that most unappreciated of 70s wedges, the Aston Martin Lagonda?

Oh yes. As Aston's all-new Lagonda threatens to march into a showroom near you (well, assuming you live in a Gulf state), now seems a good time to celebrate the four-door fantasy that is the 1976-1990 Lagonda.

No market-watcher can have missed the storming increases in Aston Martin values recently. The DBS/V8 has been ballooning to such an extent that this 1970 DBS is actually looking splendid value now at £67,950, as does this £69,995 1974 V8. V8s can go as high as - wait for this - £235,000 (for this low-mileage V8 Volante X-Pack).

But for so long, the William Towns-penned stretch Lagonda has resolutely refused to follow suit. Collectors have regarded it as naff, louche, hideous, ill-conceived, not a proper Aston, etc. It may be all of those things, but just look at it: from the pop-up-lamped front end, isn't this just the coolest slice of origami you've ever seen?

There's no mistaking it for anything else

A heavy old crate at 2,100kg, the Lagonda ain't quick (143mph and 0-60 in eight-point-something seconds is beaten by today's humdrum diesels), but it has quirkiness written all over it. The handling is respectable (understeer ultimately dominates) but it's a great motorway tool, if you can put up with the cacophonous road and wind noise, that is. It's the dashboard that grabs all the attention, though. On a good day, it'll light up like an old Casio watch, red digits all aglow. Although on a bad day it may just decide to blank out.

Rarity (only 645 were built) means prices for good 'uns are going north. This stunning ex-Prince Saud low-mileage example is up for £59,995, although I'm not too sure about its Almond Green leather cabin... This even lower-mileage (13,769) two-owner Lagonda is even pricier at £64,995.

Look hard and Lagondas can still be found for lowish money, though, especially on the continent. This LHD Lag' (mmm, white...) is up in Belgium for 29,950 euros, or around £23,650.

Could it rise from the £60K being asked now?

Eye-watering restoration costs have kept a lid on prices of poor Lagondas, but even old sheds are starting to attract palatial rents, if this 1986 black example is anything to go by. It seems far from a bargain at £29,500, advertised as "to restore" and an "excellent original car". Just check out the state of the cabin first, though...

Still don't believe that four-door Lagondas are capable of making serious money? Check out this old-school, 1964 Lagonda Rapide which is now deep in exotic territory at £220,000. And the last time one of the very rare V8-shaped Series 1 1975 Lagonda four-doors came up at auction, it made £337,500.

[DoctorX]

Probably rubbish, but deeply cool.

[Burwood]

just dreadful. EOM

[daveco]

Full of character and very interesting design. Aston Martin really had some balls back then.

[0a]

Wonderfully ugly - I love it!

[unpc]

I don't have enough brave pills for this but it's massively cool in a vulgar kind of way.

[Lightningman]

Awful looking in the metal and not brilliant to drive.

A good example of car dealers trying to cash in on the surge in classic values, plundering the current nostalgic trend, and pimping any old rubbish as 'collectable'.

Yes it sold in small number and yes it has an AM badge but that doesn't make it a great car, nor desirable (imho).

[MyCC]

Lightningman said:

Awful looking in the metal and not brilliant to drive.

A good example of car dealers trying to cash in on the surge in classic values, plundering the current nostalgic trend, and pimping any old rubbish as 'collectable'.

Yes it sold in small number and yes it has an AM badge but that doesn't make it a great car, nor desirable (imho).

This.

Regards,

MyCC.

[sjc]

Strange how to my eyes it's better looking now than it was then.

[anonymous-user]

I think it looks fantastic!

[The Leaper]

For many years I worked at an office where we sub-let part of the building to a global firm who set up their exclusive senior executives suite there. The chairman (a reasonably well known business personality) had one of these for several years. He loved it and there's no doubt it's an eye-popping car. It was great to see him park it into a standard sized space which he always managed to do without any ceremony!

R.

[Zigster]

unpc said:

I don't have enough brave pills for this but it's massively cool in a vulgar kind of way.

I've only seen one once that I can recall - at a petrol station in Stoneleigh (? just outside of Coventry) in about 1991 - I can date it because I was at university there at the time. I immediately knew what it was and it must have been 15-20 years old at the time - but I recognised it from Top Trumps.

Agree with you - cool in a faintly ridiculous sort of way. In some ways I would love one, but I think it would be far too much grief in practice.

[anonymous-user]

Looks like a Gerry Anderson creation that's escaped into real life.

If money was no object I'd have one, if for no other reason than to marvel at what they dared to design and build in the days before ever-stricter EU regs. I couldn't give two hoots about the dynamics on the road - just look at those knife edge lines and CRT-laden dash. Stunning, in every positive and negative sense of the word.

[daytona365]

I'd imagine it looks like this because they didn't have the facilities to, not design, but to fabricate anything better, for anything like an acceptable price. Hence straight lines and slightly cartoon like from some, (all?) angles.

Edited by daytona365 on Thursday 18th December 11:17

[LittleEnus]

I do love these. Anyone driven one on here? Just the 80's personified in one car (I know it was technically 70's ).

Edited by LittleEnus on Thursday 18th December 11:44

[Sampaio]

Honestly, I quite like it. Being born in the 90's this is actually the first time I see one... The 70's must have been mad!

[JamesMK]

Daft but wonderful. I want one.

[johnnymaestro]

If you can stomach the looks, and fuel costs, they really are nice to drive. I miss driving it now. A really nice car for wafting along in.

Edited by johnnymaestro on Thursday 18th December 11:33

[StuartHP]

I can remember seeing one in my local Quick Fit in the early 80's and the guys couldn't work out how to get to the exhaust let alone replace it

[Galsia]

IF I had the money I would buy every one had have them all crushed. Horrible.

[Strawman]

LittleEnus said:

I do love these. Anyone driven one on here?

I know someone who has one, I've not driven it just sat in it. Actually surprising how small it is inside given the length of the car, but definite feeling of luxury.