1) DOWN-MARKET DOOR HANDLES

The Aston Martin DB7 will be featuring on this list again, which is not surprising given its origins; at the time of its development Aston was owned by Ford which also owned Jaguar and wished to develop a new Aston Martin grand tourer on what was, by industry standards, a tiny budget. So the DB7 sat on a modified version of the platform from the Jaguar XJS and components from the Jaguar and Ford parts bins abound. These days manufacturers will spend millions of pounds fettling the tactility of their door handles – as one of the first and most frequently-used parts of the car they’re crucial to creating the desired wellengineered and hefty feel of a premium product.

In the early 1990s Ford had no so such compulsions and sourced the DB7’s interior door handles from the Mazda MX-5 sports car and the external ones from the Mazda 626, since Ford had a one-third holding in the Japanese firm. Sourcing the parts in a Mazda box rather than an Aston Martin one can save over £100 – especially since they’re prone to getting brittle with age and breaking!