The same dream

I have to say I loved the ‘Living the Dream’ article (evo 288), in particular Peter Tomalin’s story of his purchase of an Aston Martin V8 Vantage. His story arc nearly matches my own except that I bought my Vantage as a retirement present to myself rather than for a big birthday coming up.

In reality it was my third retirement present: a Mercedes 350SL (a disaster, with faulty electronics and water flooding the boot), then a Jaguar XF (a lovely car but too big for my needs), then the Aston.

There is a long story regarding how I came to buy an Aston, which involves my wife saying ‘Well go and buy one’ after I quoted from a magazine article, and hence my fulfilment of a dream. I too went to Mcgurk’s, who proved enormously helpful in providing advice about Aston ownership and of V8 Vantages in particular.

I chose a 2007 facelift model in black, with 28,000 miles on the clock. A lovely car, and beautiful to drive with a manual ’box. My wife liked the look of a DB9 until I pointed out a) how big it is, and b) it is an automatic, something she really hates!

Like Peter, I also smile when I fire up the engine or look out at the car, framed by our sitting-room window. My first action in the morning is to open the curtains just to look at it!

On a separate note, I concur with the letters addressing the stupidity in decisions made for electrification of cars, and the government’s failure to examine alternative fuel sources. The other point about going electric is where is the power going to come from?

Neil Davey, Newport, South Wales