RE: Aston Rapide Prices Announced
RE: Aston Rapide Prices Announced
Friday 4th December 2009

Aston Rapide Prices Announced

Gaydon asks nearly £140k for 'DB9 Saloon' - almost two Panameras



Ahead of its release early next year, Aston Martin has announced the pricing for the four-door Rapide. The base price will be £139,950 - nearly twice that of an 'entry-level' Porsche Panamera or Maserati Quattroporte.

Aston's chairman Ulrich Bez has been going to some lengths to distance the Rapide from its ostensible rivals, arguing that it has a different ethos and is not designed as a rival. The price may now offer a clue as to why.

But for that heavy chunk of change the Gaydon chaps will give you a handmade 6.0-litre V12 with 470bhp and 443 lb ft of torque. Only the flagship Turbo S version of the Panamera beats it, and even then only by 30bhp.


As standard the 1.9-tonne Rapide will also come with dual-cast brakes and Aston's Adaptive Damping System, along with a Bang & Olufsen stereo and heated memory seats.

The elegant Rapide will go on sale in around April/May of 2010, and Aston expects to build around 2000 of them in the first year. That is admirably ambitious, but it may run in to some trouble competing against a more powerful Panamera that's a full £40k cheaper even in full 'bells-and-whistles' form.



Author
Discussion

Johnpidge

588 posts

215 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
£139k for an Aston Rapide that looks the dogs or £70k for a Porsche that looks like a dogs arse!?!?!?!?!

JHS

Original Poster:

43 posts

211 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
£139.000
well its a bargain to me but i dont care about what others think to me that is the most beautiful 4 door car in the world if not century GOOOO ASTON

fathomfive

11,126 posts

216 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
It's a minor point, but those plastic rear vents look awfully gash.

lordlee

3,137 posts

271 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
Seems like a slightly high price to me when you consider the competition - achingly beautiful though.

soad

34,446 posts

202 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
Looks pretty sweet despite the pricing.

pd86

59 posts

259 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
costs 2x as much

looks 3x better

shirt

25,218 posts

227 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
its a 4dr db9, who here expected it to be cheap?

anonymous-user

80 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
Over £95k for the Panamera turbo, £90k for the Quattroporte S, £88k For the top Jag XJ, £169k for the Rolls Ghost, £137k for the Flying Spur! seams like Aston have priced it perfectly!

Zod

35,295 posts

284 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
Johnpidge said:
£139k for an Aston Rapide that looks the dogs or £70k for a Porsche that looks like a dogs arse!?!?!?!?!
Make that £120k for a Porsche with boxes ticked on the options list.

mainaman

428 posts

211 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
The price is high,but it looks better than the Panamera,has V12,(almost)everything is standard-doesn't have an option list that can raise the base price by 50 percent like the Porsche-and has all-aloy construction.

Of course it will cost more than the Panamera Turbo S,Quattroporte and Conti,apart from the lack of rear doors the most obvious rival would be Ferrari Scaglietti,not the Panamerareadit

Zod

35,295 posts

284 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
I find it amusing that people suggest this competes with the Panamera when the Panamera's defenders suggest that it is too haughty to compete with the M5, XFR, E63, RS6 crowd.

The Rapide is in a different league from the Panamera. I nearly said class, but I'm not sure the Panamera has any.

chevronb37

6,472 posts

212 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
I see this as being a bit like comparing an E92 M3 against an AMV8V. The performance is similar on paper, but the Aston is about so much more than numbers on a page. For the same reason I would buy a Quattroporte over a Panamera every time; no matter which is dynamically superior.

CampDavid

9,145 posts

224 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
It'll still depreciate at an epic rate, certanily after the first couple of years. 4 door super cars just do

pilchardthecat

7,483 posts

205 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
Johnpidge said:
£139k for an Aston Rapide that looks the dogs or £70k for a Porsche that looks like a dogs arse!?!?!?!?!
I like cars and everything but i think i'd rather pay off the mortgage and spend a couple of months in 5 star luxury in the carribean than have either.....

LuS1fer

43,349 posts

271 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
Aston is a premier designer brand up there with Bentleys and Rollers. It is nothing as crass as the Panamera which occupies the glorified 7-series segment of the market. Porsche used to have a lot of status but now, IMHO, it's more "mainstream".

In this day and age, with a burgeoning population of new and ugly mostrosities trading on the allure of their premium brand badges and past glories, Aston should not only be applauded for producing a beautiful car (hell, not even Ferrari can manage that) but also for not being afraid to charge for style. It's as much a statement as Jimmy Choo shoes or a designer dress and has to be priced to maintain it's exclusivity. If Jimmy Choo shoes were £20 a pair, who would want them?

The man who buys a Panamera and parks it next to a Rapide will be the man wishing his pockets were deeper....assuming he is allowed to park next to the Rapide owner's yacht, of course wink - yes, it's that sort of car. It's Katherine Jenkins compared to Susan Boyle.

You can keep your bloaters with their fat bonnets and lantern jaws and you can even keep your ultimate ability as I'm sure the perfiormance of this car will be more than adequate.

jamoor

14,506 posts

241 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
Aston is a premier designer brand up there with Bentleys and Rollers. It is nothing as crass as the Panamera which occupies the glorified 7-series segment of the market. Porsche used to have a lot of status but now, IMHO, it's more "mainstream".

In this day and age, with a burgeoning population of new and ugly mostrosities trading on the allure of their premium brand badges and past glories, Aston should not only be applauded for producing a beautiful car (hell, not even Ferrari can manage that) but also for not being afraid to charge for style. It's as much a statement as Jimmy Choo shoes or a designer dress and has to be priced to maintain it's exclusivity. If Jimmy Choo shoes were £20 a pair, who would want them?

The man who buys a Panamera and parks it next to a Rapide will be the man wishing his pockets were deeper....assuming he is allowed to park next to the Rapide owner's yacht, of course wink - yes, it's that sort of car. It's Katherine Jenkins compared to Susan Boyle.

You can keep your bloaters with their fat bonnets and lantern jaws and you can even keep your ultimate ability as I'm sure the perfiormance of this car will be more than adequate.
I think porsche still has it's status, but it's slowly disappearing.

S3_Graham

12,835 posts

225 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
fathomfive said:
It's a minor point, but those plastic rear vents look awfully gash.
Agreed the vents look gash.

i want a job a chauffeur frown

CampDavid

9,145 posts

224 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
Aston is a premier designer brand up there with Bentleys and Rollers. It is nothing as crass as the Panamera which occupies the glorified 7-series segment of the market. Porsche used to have a lot of status but now, IMHO, it's more "mainstream".

In this day and age, with a burgeoning population of new and ugly mostrosities trading on the allure of their premium brand badges and past glories, Aston should not only be applauded for producing a beautiful car (hell, not even Ferrari can manage that) but also for not being afraid to charge for style. It's as much a statement as Jimmy Choo shoes or a designer dress and has to be priced to maintain it's exclusivity. If Jimmy Choo shoes were £20 a pair, who would want them?

The man who buys a Panamera and parks it next to a Rapide will be the man wishing his pockets were deeper....assuming he is allowed to park next to the Rapide owner's yacht, of course wink - yes, it's that sort of car. It's Katherine Jenkins compared to Susan Boyle.

You can keep your bloaters with their fat bonnets and lantern jaws and you can even keep your ultimate ability as I'm sure the perfiormance of this car will be more than adequate.
It'll be bought by people who want others to think they have a yacht, not yacht owners. Astons these days are very, very "new money" which is why they've been hit hard by the financial crisis

kma

959 posts

220 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
Looks good but I would have prefered it if they had tweaked the rear end slightly instead of what looks to be a straight copy and paste job. Just getting a bit boring now and I doubt I could tell what it was from behind until I was close enough to read the badge, if I ever got close enough lol.

Flumpetboy

21 posts

202 months

Friday 4th December 2009
quotequote all
If I paid £140k for a house I'd expect it to stay that value or creep up over the next 4 years.
However, once the Aston Rapide is launched I will probably choose to wait 4 years then pick it up for, hmmmm... let me see...... £65k?
Who on earth buys these things new?!?!?!?!