Prettiest Aston... Is It The DB7?

[Jon39]

Jon39 said:

An AM pub quiz question.
Aston Martins have been 'Hand built in England' and now 'Hand built in Wales'.
Have any been built in another country?

Answer - the Vantage concept car unveiled in 2003, was 'Hand built in India'.

Emilio Largo said:

It´s a shame that our Austrian friends (with their great technical input) have become so silent here in recent years. How soon can a country be forgotten?

Castrol for a knave said:

The Rapide was originally built in Austria by Steyr

Well done both.
So sorry, I forgot Austria.
Did the early Rapides have sill plaques stating 'Hand made in Austria'?

Dr Bez made the decision to have the new Rapide model built in Austria. Gaydon was close to maximum capacity having achieved a record output of 7281 in 2007. We should not knock his optimism, but with hindsight that was a most unfortunate decision. There were certainly clues that the boom would end, but no one knew when it would happen. Northern Rock were doing self-certified income mortgages, with 125% loan to value. Those became know as cheater loans and what more of a clue was needed? When the financial crisis did arrive, AM production fell to under 4000 cars, so Rapide could have been built at Gaydon after all.

Interesting how history sometimes repeats, because Dr Palmer decided that Gaydon would not cope with DBX production, so a new factory would be needed. Combined production of 14,000 vehicles could then be handled. He said Aston Martin was no longer a car manufacturer, but a luxury goods business and consequently would not be subject any more to boom and bust production variations. The City financiers believed him, but now there appear to be two factories, both working at about half capacity.

[Speedraser]

Jon39 said:

I don't know any more.
If you have not seen this video, you might be interested. There is some information from Ian Callum about the Vantage.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=llzQ1RqIacM
Vantage mentioned starting at 28:00 mins.


An AM pub quiz question.
Aston Martins have been 'Hand built in England' and now 'Hand built in Wales'.
Have any been built in another country?

Answer - the Vantage concept car unveiled in 2003, was 'Hand built in India'.

Edited by Jon39 on Tuesday 2nd February 09:32

Jon, thanks for the link -- hadn't seen that. Verdict remains elusive. It would be interesting to hear Fisker's take...

[ukkid35]

[RMDB9]

Amazing....4 pages, and instead of discussing the question of the OP, the thread has ended up in the usual Zagato/V12V/whatever worship drivel as always

[Throttle Body]

I do think that the DB7 is the most beautiful car of its era. However, I don't think it is all that great to drive, in spite of the fantastic V12.

BTW, I run a DB7 coupe V12 Vantage as a daily driver.

[RMDB9]

but BTT - maybe the DB7 is just the most well-rounded, acceptable, nicely aged AM - the Vanquish too much DB9-prototype, the Virage and its brothers too Schirocco, the older ones too oldish, the Gaydon Vantage too petite and everything newer too diamond cut wheel GQ magazin-ish.