£900 Aston Martin DB5, £10k manuals...

... and the most embarrassing cars you've owned

By Cam Tait / Tuesday, 16 December 2025 / Loading comments

Good news! Actually, at this time of year, ‘hark’ seems more befitting, because today’s episode of The Gassing Station gets underway with news that yet another EV may be getting the combustion treatment. Having spilled the beans about a potential petrol A110 being under consideration at Alpine, Sam’s found out from the horse’s mouth that Abarth has conducted a study into what engines would fit into its electric platforms in the wake of Fiat introducing a hybrid version of the formerly EV-only 500. Admittedly, it’s not quite as exciting as a piston-powered A110, but an ICE’d up Abarth 500 wouldn’t go amiss, would it?

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, we have a remarkable story about an Aston Martin DB5 Vantage that was purchased by its current owner at the age of 19 for just £900. Granted, that was back in 1972, but even adjusted for inflation that’s just a smidgen under £10k in today’s money. The only problem is that its owner, John Williams, had to move out of the country for work just a few years into owning the car, which naturally meant its condition quickly deteriorated. Now, five decades on, the car has been treated to a full and comprehensive restoration by Aston Martin Works, recently emerging in immaculate condition. A fantastic outcome for a car that richly deserved saving, but it does make you wonder if you could buy anything that’d warrant a no-expenses-spared restoration for £900 these days.

Fortunately, we’ve got a bit more budget to play with for this week’s buying challenge. PHer northandsouth is on a lookout for the best manual gear change in a car for £10,000, after a rental Kia Picanto reignited their love for cog-shifting. Having scoured the auction listings and classifieds, I came across this impeccable BMW Z4 3.0 Roadster with only 40k miles and one previous owner. Annoyingly, it has sold since we recorded the episode (no surprise, because look at it), but this VW Golf GTI Edition 30 serves as a neat runner-up. Sam also went down the sports car route with this Honda S2000. It may have ticked over 100k miles but, because it’s a Honda, it’ll no doubt double that with ease, and make a right racket while doing so. Think you can do better? Drop your own suggestions into the topic here.

Our final stop is ‘the most embarrassing car of my past to drive now’ topic started by RDMcG. There are real gems in here, ranging from alorotom’s old Chrysler PT Cruiser, a car they sold an RX-8 to get hold of, and wiliferus’s ‘soulless turd’ of a Rover 216SLi. However, wjb says that driving a blue Ford Fiesta RS Turbo at 40 ‘probably raise more questions than answers’, but as a blue Fiesta ST owner and a couple of laps away from my mid-30s, I see no shame in driving an ill-tempered hot hatch around as a daily driver. My old Hyundai Accent, however, fits the bill to a tee, and is going straight into the topic here once I’ve gone digging for some old snaps of it. All that and much more on today’s episode right here.

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