Haha, no disrespect to Rolex or Porsche - they've set records in their own rights. Heck I love my CGT and a Holy Grail of mine is a Paul Newman Daytona 6263. But the fact is they are very common watches and cars. This is a testament to their superior marketing and branding as well. You and I are bitten by the Ferrari bug and others love Lambos and Porsches. These are all fantastic brands we are talking about. I still think the DBS is the most gorgeous design ever made of its era.

 

I love reading all your posts, any comment on the DBS vs. V12 Vantage? I was thinking of getting back into one after the F430 Spider.


Also, nice comparison of watches to cars.

 

Thanks CJ...how are you liking your 430 spider - such a great piece of automotive design. It's pretty interesting how the crowds are different between Ferrari owners and Aston owners. But they share one thing - passion. I've met some fantastic friends through ownership of many different cars from BMW, Lotus, Aston, and Ferrari. (I even have some cool Lambo friends )

So in a word, the DBS is a GT cruiser and the V12VS is a "True" sports car. I truly do believe the V12 VS wins in almost every category except maybe looks. I still believe the DBS is just Pure Sex in terms of design cues and curves and aggression. But once in the cockpit, the V12 hugs you and responds with sharp nimbleness in handling and amazing torque - I've got 6700 miles on mine and it's about time to change my tires because I'm constantly spinning my tires in 2nd and 3rd gear (tons of fun). It also multi-purposeful - I daily drive it and go through Starbucks frequently with comfort. The 3 different settings in suspension allow you to change the character of the car.
But where the car really shined for me is on the track. "Out of the box", it is the best car I have driven on the track - amazing handling, braking and power combined in a tight package - better than my 16M (due to massive understeer from factory settings) and obviously way more powerful than my previous Loti. Ohhh and the sound!!!! - exhaust elements from the One-77....Forget about it!!!!
Sorry for the long tangent off topic, but there is much to rave about....

 

Part of the reason the Scud took a nose dive was the timing of its release - 2008 when the market took a dump. The Scud didn't really have a chance in the economic downturn. The nadir of Scud prices dropped to near $160k but since the recovery, the prices have been steadily rising. You'd be hard pressed to find a Scud with decent miles (up to $10k miles) below $175k. Most are asking $180-$200k

 

~3500 DBS's were made...and is that worldwide distribution? I imagine most of them went to the US...

Wow. Not many cars. I am wondering if the DBS will at some point start "appreciating" in value. Is it a special enough Aston to become (at some point) a collector? Or is it to close to the DB9?

Obviously time is in that equation somewhere...

 

Yeah, just giving you a hard time. Agree that Porsche, Aston, Ferrari, etc., as well as Rolex, etc., are all great brands. We're all lucky to be able to afford such things.

BTW, my grail, which I'll never acquire, is the 5513 or 5517mil-spec sub. You can buy a pretty nice car for what one of those cost.

 

Yes, WW. Certainly not more than half to the USA/Canada. This model was very popular world wide.

DBS is far more special than DB9 in terms of looks, equipment, power, number sold. And being the top of the line by a huge price delta over DB9, and the link to Bond, will for sure make it collectible in the future. But don't hold your breath.

 

I drove a DBS for the first time a few weeks ago. '12 Carbon edition with 3 pedals. It was in pre-holiday rush hour traffic and I barely got it out of 2nd.

And it was brilliant!

In fact, driving it in heavy, stop and go, surface street traffic is what made it so attractive. It was easy and pleasant in what (to me) is the worst driving condition of all. I never drive on tracks. I've never had the pleasure of sustained speeds much over 100mph. Even though my AM is a second, fun car, I still drive it on normal roads and have to deal with normal road stuff. And the DBS was a dream.

Even the manual transmission was fun to use creeping forward from one red light to the next. I could blip the throttle and enjoy the sound. I could leave a gap and leap forward for a quick thrill. And the car made all of it sheer pleasure.

I know that it's not as sporting as a V12V or V12VS, but I suspect that it's more comfortable, more supple, quieter in the cabin.

I used to think my next AM would be a Rapide. Now I'm not so sure.

As for depreciation, our original topic, I have to think that of all recent Aston Martin models, the DBS has the greatest chance of leveling off and eventually appreciating in our lifetimes. And even if that's not true...

WANT

 

My next Aston is V12 Vantage S. Can't wait to push that puppy over 600hp. That would be the perfect vantage IMO

 

Definitely has more power that can be squeezed out.

 

I also think it's true ROM limit is much higher. One-77 was bore out and stroked and it's redline was 7,750 (I'm sure they did this bc of the name too). With a high flow x-pipe secondary cat bypass and an even more aggressive software tune I bet you could easily surpass the 600 mark

 

Hmm, I thought the V12V was too nose-heavy for you and the best option was the V8V after you extracted tons of power from it. Now the V12V is the "perfect Vantage"?

 

^^^^ you're bad.

 

The normal V12 is a pig. I flat out don't like it, the V12 vantage S fixed most of the original V12s flaws (lack of top end power, less than ideal suspension tuning, and lack of next generation paddle shift transmission)

 

Aren't these going for over $200k now?!? 😳