Keep a close watch on launch-year Aston Martin DB9S

With prices of modern high performance stuff falling, you can now buy an early Aston Martin DB9 for the price of a DB7. The graphs of appreciation and depreciation have crossed and £32k gets a fine example of either.

But while Ian Callum’s DB7 is a card-carrying classic, the V12 DB9 is in a different league. With 186mph and 60mph in 4.9 seconds the DB9 is quicker, more refined and infinitely more desirable than a DB7 and – if you can find one of the rare six-speed Graziano manuals – it’s becoming collectable.

Designed by Henrik Fisker with an alloy body and the 5.9-litre V12 from the Vanquish, the DB9 was launched at the 2003 Frankfurt show. Modern, cool and sexy, it took Aston into a new era and was a significant shift away from its long heritage of building dated and unprofitable supercars. Find a 2004 DB9 and you’ll own just one of 468 built for the European market. Its these launch year cars we should be looking at while prices tumble. As Classic Cars went to press, Silverstone Auctions was offering a 2004 auto in Silver with 53k and full history for an estimated £26,000. Runnymede Motor Co in Windsor has another 2004, a rare manual in blue, with 51,000 miles and 14 stamps in the book, for £32,950. While the market is going wobbly it’s possible we’ll see reasonable-mileage DB9S with history fall below £30k. The sat nav may be hopeless, the rear seats useless and the instruments hard to read, but the DB9 has enormous desirability. Watch that Silverstone auction car carefully – if it sells for less than £30k it’s a new benchmark which will make all early DB9S tantalisingly affordable.