The end of the DB9 ?
Discussion
With the launch of the rapide it got me thinking as to where the DB9 now sits in the line up, If your after a two seater then the V8 or V12 vantage fits the bill, if you want an Aston which can take passengers then the Rapide, the DBS fits for the GT, So does this signal that the DB9 will now be discontinued, and if a replacement was being contemplated again where would it sit in the line up, it seems to me that between these three that there is just about an Aston that suits just about everyone,
That is my make on it. I think the Rapide is a replacement for the DB9 and I'm sure it will go once the launch Rapide is bumped up in terms of sportiness, handling and power etc..
The one fly in the ointment on this theory is however the fact that the Rapide is made in Austria. That would open up the plant capacity quite significantly and I cant see certainly the DBS filling that hole nor vast amounts of Vantages.
Perhaps it is a cunning plan by Dr Bez along the same lines as the recent paper on the Official EU Language by the mandarins in Brussels:-
The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has been accepted a five year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).
In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will reseive this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.
There will be growing public enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replased by "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20 persent shorter. In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expected to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the language is disgrasful, and they would go.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "0" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud, of kors, be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German lik zey vunted in ze forst plas...
...Aston Martin das uber-fabrik mit Deutschland....
The one fly in the ointment on this theory is however the fact that the Rapide is made in Austria. That would open up the plant capacity quite significantly and I cant see certainly the DBS filling that hole nor vast amounts of Vantages.
Perhaps it is a cunning plan by Dr Bez along the same lines as the recent paper on the Official EU Language by the mandarins in Brussels:-
The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has been accepted a five year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).
In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly, sivil servants will reseive this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.
There will be growing public enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replased by "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20 persent shorter. In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expected to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the language is disgrasful, and they would go.
By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "0" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud, of kors, be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.
Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German lik zey vunted in ze forst plas...
...Aston Martin das uber-fabrik mit Deutschland....
Edited by Guycord on Monday 8th February 10:13
I share Ricks thoughts re the DB9. How about this as an idea?
V12 V becomes the 2 seater of choice - yes a soft top does get launched! V8V gets a cleaned up lower emissions power plant.
DB9 relaunched with a smaller cleaner engine (could it be german?)as a GT for the more sedate tourer. DBS fills the performance end of the GT market for a few more years.
Rapide gets beefed up, next year's panoramic roof the precursor to some kind of convertible ala maserati.
This could be total rubbish but some idle thoughts for discussion.
V12 V becomes the 2 seater of choice - yes a soft top does get launched! V8V gets a cleaned up lower emissions power plant.
DB9 relaunched with a smaller cleaner engine (could it be german?)as a GT for the more sedate tourer. DBS fills the performance end of the GT market for a few more years.
Rapide gets beefed up, next year's panoramic roof the precursor to some kind of convertible ala maserati.
This could be total rubbish but some idle thoughts for discussion.
Having just ordered a new DB9 for delivery at the end of this week I dont agree with any of this.
The Vantage either 8 or 12 would be useless for me as we need the seat space for all our gear when we go to our boat in Devon.
As for the Rapide being a replacement, unless it comes with a can opener to allow the top to come off, again it does not quite fit the bill.
But hey! what do I know?
Hope the snow stops before friday
The Vantage either 8 or 12 would be useless for me as we need the seat space for all our gear when we go to our boat in Devon.
As for the Rapide being a replacement, unless it comes with a can opener to allow the top to come off, again it does not quite fit the bill.
But hey! what do I know?
Hope the snow stops before friday
The DB9 is the oldest Aston yuo can buy -its now, what 5 yeard old and I would agree that the DBS and rapride almost fill the gap left by the DB9.
As rick has shown in an earlier post, you can remove a DB9 body from the engine/drivetrain in about 10 bolts. Why havent the coachbuilders designed new bodies for the drivetrain? can yuo iamgine a Db9 Zagato? DB9 Touring? DB9 Pininfarina. There could be some really exciting designs out there
As rick has shown in an earlier post, you can remove a DB9 body from the engine/drivetrain in about 10 bolts. Why havent the coachbuilders designed new bodies for the drivetrain? can yuo iamgine a Db9 Zagato? DB9 Touring? DB9 Pininfarina. There could be some really exciting designs out there
The day that Aston Martin stop producing 2+2 grand tourers is the day that they can turn out the lights (Again). It perplexes me that the brand heritage apparently means little when that's a large part of what we are all buying when we buy an Aston.
I suspect that Rapide will be as attractive as a 612 Scalletti/Panamerica (or however you spell them), two of the fastest depreciating cars you can put your money into. I was told:
"If you want to buy a 612 we'll fly you to Maranello free to take delivery at the factory" by Ferrari and just today I was told that they had sold "a few" by a Porsche salesman who was in full on "business is great, there's no recession mode".
Aston Martin UK sales no.s are below.
I suspect that Rapide will be as attractive as a 612 Scalletti/Panamerica (or however you spell them), two of the fastest depreciating cars you can put your money into. I was told:
"If you want to buy a 612 we'll fly you to Maranello free to take delivery at the factory" by Ferrari and just today I was told that they had sold "a few" by a Porsche salesman who was in full on "business is great, there's no recession mode".
Aston Martin UK sales no.s are below.
williamp said:
The DB9 is the oldest Aston yuo can buy -its now, what 5 yeard old and I would agree that the DBS and rapride almost fill the gap left by the DB9.
As rick has shown in an earlier post, you can remove a DB9 body from the engine/drivetrain in about 10 bolts. Why havent the coachbuilders designed new bodies for the drivetrain? can yuo iamgine a Db9 Zagato? DB9 Touring? DB9 Pininfarina. There could be some really exciting designs out there
Perhaps becasue it's difficult to improve on it? The modern day Zagato certainly wouldn't manage it.As rick has shown in an earlier post, you can remove a DB9 body from the engine/drivetrain in about 10 bolts. Why havent the coachbuilders designed new bodies for the drivetrain? can yuo iamgine a Db9 Zagato? DB9 Touring? DB9 Pininfarina. There could be some really exciting designs out there
f328nvl said:
The day that Aston Martin stop producing 2+2 grand tourers is the day that they can turn out the lights (Again). It perplexes me that the brand heritage apparently means little when that's a large part of what we are all buying when we buy an Aston.
Marketing men are getting younger and YouTubey and can't see back past 2009. In an admittedly pale shadow of Aston, TVR forgot what its core values were and expired very quickly afterwards. The DB9, chaps, is the absolute mainstream Aston GT, and as such I see no possibility of it being replaced by anything short of a DB10.
The Rapide is a foray into another market sector - hopefully a very successful one, though Aston have tried this before with cars that just weren't sufficiently well developed and come a real cropper. I would love a DB9 but could never justify a Rapide to myself because a. It's just not as good looking as the 2-door coupe, and b. There are superb Jags which already do the job for half the cost or less. The DBS occupies the ground the 80's Vantage used to own - to even greater effect. The Vantages are for a smaller sports car market which however exclusive is just not the same as the GT. A V12V is out against the 911, Gallardo, F430 and F458 for those who want the Aston cachet and front engine, and has the equally glamorous little brother for 40k less.
So I have to say this entire thread comes across like a fairly poor work of fiction. How wonderful it would be to pull onto the forecourt of some grand hotel in the Italian Lakes having just creamed across France and Switzerland in 24 hours, and head inside for a glass of champagne (with a porter following behind carrying your bespoke leather luggage) and leave your 2010 MY Sport Pack equipped Aston hot and ticking outside. Is ANYTHING better for that than a DB9? I really don't think so. Game, set and match. Effortless cool superiority.
The Rapide is a foray into another market sector - hopefully a very successful one, though Aston have tried this before with cars that just weren't sufficiently well developed and come a real cropper. I would love a DB9 but could never justify a Rapide to myself because a. It's just not as good looking as the 2-door coupe, and b. There are superb Jags which already do the job for half the cost or less. The DBS occupies the ground the 80's Vantage used to own - to even greater effect. The Vantages are for a smaller sports car market which however exclusive is just not the same as the GT. A V12V is out against the 911, Gallardo, F430 and F458 for those who want the Aston cachet and front engine, and has the equally glamorous little brother for 40k less.
So I have to say this entire thread comes across like a fairly poor work of fiction. How wonderful it would be to pull onto the forecourt of some grand hotel in the Italian Lakes having just creamed across France and Switzerland in 24 hours, and head inside for a glass of champagne (with a porter following behind carrying your bespoke leather luggage) and leave your 2010 MY Sport Pack equipped Aston hot and ticking outside. Is ANYTHING better for that than a DB9? I really don't think so. Game, set and match. Effortless cool superiority.
Edited by cardigankid on Tuesday 9th February 19:21
NoooooooooI'm in the Rapide-is-not-a-replacement-for-the-DB9 camp. While the prices are similar, I think they occupy two different markets (I'm sure there'll be some overlap, but I'd be surprised if it's a lot). One is a two-door and the other a four-door, and I think that renders them sufficiently different that each can stand on its own. The Rapide is also quite a bit bigger. The DB9 is a wonderful car in its own right, and it's not THAT old yet.
In my mind there is no way that Aston would drop the DB series, it is the center point of the company and has been since day 1, it really would be suicide. As for fit, take a look at Merc and BMW. They have always had the coupe version of their main car, 3 series and 3 series Coupe, Merc took this to the next stage with CL. Maser have been through the 4 door exercise as well with the quadroportte, at no point was this ever going to replace the GT.
As for the DBS taking the name, I give you AMG, XKR, M3 etc etc all just high performance variants of the real car and the real car always comes first.
All manufactures try to expand their range to fit the various verticals, Aston are no different. Will they drop one of, if not THE most iconic cars in the world.
I really don't think so.
As for the DBS taking the name, I give you AMG, XKR, M3 etc etc all just high performance variants of the real car and the real car always comes first.
All manufactures try to expand their range to fit the various verticals, Aston are no different. Will they drop one of, if not THE most iconic cars in the world.
I really don't think so.
Gassing Station | Aston Martin | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff