For Aston Martin to build a city car is quite a step. For Aston Martin to re-skin the Toyota iQ is a galactic leap. In Britain and the United States, the idea stirred up a storm on enthusiast forums. Calm down, everyone -- there's sense to the idea. In Europe's city centers, congestion has a whole different meaning than in the U.S. It's not just traffic. The streets were laid down centuries before the automobile was invented. They're a narrow maze of tightly angled junctions, lined with obstructions, and awash with pedestrians. A standard delineated parking spot is about 185 inches long, but many unmarked curbside spaces are smaller. So across the Atlantic, owning a small car isn't just a money-saver. It can be an actual luxury. Driving is easier, and you can more easily squeeze into a parking space. The rich cherish those assets as much as the rest of us. It's not uncommon in London, Paris, or Rome to see Brabus-trimmed versions of the Smart that doubles that car's base price. The Aston Martin Cygnet can multiply the 1.3-liter iQ's entry price by a factor of three, without any mechanical changes. That means it's similar in price to a seriously optioned Mini Cooper S John Cooper Works.
It does have bespoke Aston panels, except for the roof, and the interior is upholstered by Aston's artisans. The metalwork, from the radiator grille to the finishers around the transmission lever, is lovely solid sculpture. Many Cygnet buyers already own Aston's other models; they tend to get their Cygnets built in a color scheme to match. And many One-77 buyers are ordering up to four coordinated Cygnets. So if forum trolls think the Cygnet is heresy, many actual Aston owners disagree. They're fed up with trying to thread their long-nosed, small-windowed GTs through tight streets. Performance in this environment isn't about 500-odd horsepower; it's more about rapid parking. A 121-inch overall length allows owners to do that.Get a free and easy new car price quote in minutes.
That said, if I were a savvy collector, if I were a man with the bankroll and foresight to make a move, I’d grab one of these with low miles just off lease and warehouse it somewhere for the next couple decades. Because the Aston Martin V12 Vantage is absolutely incredible and will only age well. Serious, it’s glorious. A borderline-inconceivable if not preposterous if not absurd notion of a car, yet an oh-so-classic concept all the same. We’re going to stuff a real humdinger of a motor into a small car and give it three pedals. Yes please!
I liked the V12 Vantage so much that I started calling people I hadn’t talked to in years just because they had to know. We’re talking real and serious car guys, who even though we hadn’t said boo to one another in 18 months, had no problem carrying on a 30 minute conversation because that’s how special this big-motored Vantage is. Remember, since the demise of the Murcielago, Aston Martin is the only company left on earth attaching manual transmissions to V12s, and the Vantage is the smallest car they make. Meaning that I’m driving the lightest three-pedal V12 automobile you can buy. I had to let everyone capable of grokking that fact’s significance know all about it. Maybe most telling, is that the V12 Vantage made me think of my father, the man who drilled into me the inherent superiority of all things automotive and British, and why you most look past all their imperfections to spot the perfections. He would have absolutely loved this top rung Vantage; I wish there’s someway I could give him a ride.
If you have to ask whether the new Aston Martin Virage is really worth roughly 30 grand more than the near identical-looking DB9, here's a tip: Don't ask Ulrich Bez. The mercurial German, who's headed Aston since 2000, has little time for those who don't appreciate the subtle nuances that define the individual models in the company's 14-car lineup, all of which, apart from the stubby Toyota iQ-based Cygnet, look remarkably similar. "Our cars look like Aston Martins," he says defiantly. "If you don't like the look, buy another car." As Aston Martin design director Marek Reichman walks you around the new Virage, showing you a new surface here, a new line there, and all the fresh detailing in the new headlights, grille, and front and rear fascias, it is possible to appreciate how different this car is from the DB9 and DBS models that bracket it in terms of price, power, and performance. But in today's ADD-addled world, you can't help but wonder whether anyone will notice. To all but the aficionados, this new Aston looks pretty much like every other new Aston of the past 10 years.
It's much the same when you drive it. If you've spent a lot of time in Astons recently, you'll immediately appreciate that the Virage is a little quicker and a little more athletic than the DB9, yet feels smoother and more refined. It's like a DBS dipped in molasses; the underlying edginess is coated with a sweet layer of tactile linearity that is truly delightful. A new inlet manifold has liberated an extra 20 hp compared with the DB9, pushing the output of the hand-built 6.0-liter V-12 under the hood to 490 hp at 6500 rpm. The extra power has come at the expense of some torque -- it's down 23 lb-ft compared with the DB9's V-12 -- but the shorter final drive ratio appropriated from the DBS helps make the most of the engine's appetite for higher revs. Aston Martin claims the Virage will cover the 0-60-mph sprint in less than 4.5 seconds, and on the road it delivers smooth, elastic thrust right through the rev range.Get a free and easy new car price quote in minutes.
