Aston Martin still gorgeous at 100
I pull a white Aston Martin Vantage S roadster out of a Manhattan garage and the rumble of the V-8 reverberates, vibrant and animalistic, down the crowded street.
I get less than a block before a woman leans out of her SUV and asks, “Is it a sixspeed?” I tell her it is. She sighs. “Good. A car like that should have a stick shift.”
Two more conversations ensue before I hit the highway. People like Aston Martins.
This year marks the brand’s 100th anniversary. It began life in 1913 as Bamford & Martin Ltd., and has endured a steady turnover of owners, including an oil company, Ford and Kuwait-based investors.
I can think of few other brands that remain as rooted to their beginnings as Aston Martin. After a century, we’re still getting more of the glorious same. I’m not convinced this is entirely by design — some of it comes down to benign neglect and ongoing financial struggles — but the company continues to build about 4,000 cars a year for drivers who like their sports cars both simple and spectacularly beautiful.
Today it offers four model lines: the Vanquish coupe ($280,000), the four-door Rapide S ($200,000), the DB9 coupe and convertible ($185,000 and up), and the two-seat Vantage coupe and roadster ($118,000 and up).
In the past few months, I’ve driven almost the entire line. Because the Astons are so full of personality and almost doggedly old-school, it’s natural to compare them with other cars I’ve tested recently, such as the Tesla Model S.
The differences in approach are stark. If the Tesla is the harbinger of the new automotive order — electrically powered, relentlessly digital — the Aston Martins are shamelessly analog.
At times this can be vexing. These cars are exorbitantly priced, and a modern driver expects everything to actually, you know, work. Just try programming a destination into an Aston’s GPS unit and you’ll soon make a detour to a gas station to buy a map. And I spent an entire road trip fiddling with the air-conditioner unit in the Vantage ($152,820) and never got the temperature to a comfortable level.
The technological gap extends to the engines and transmissions, which are not as advanced as their supercar brethren’s. The V-12 engines found on the Vanquish and DB9 sound amazing, but they produce only comparable horsepower to a Nissan GT-R’s twin-turbo V-6. And none has an advanced double-clutch automated manual transmission like you’ll find on Ferraris. Instead we get a clunkier six-speed, single-clutch unit.
I used to think those things should be fixed, but I’ve recently changed my mind. Completely. It is exactly these quirks and kinks that make Aston Martin one of the most interesting brands in the supercar market.
This hits home as I upshift from third to fourth in the Vantage
Meanwhile, Ferrari and Lamborghini no longer offer a single car with a manual transmission. They argue, correctly, that it would severely hamper the performance of the car.
But I’m not racing. I’ll happily give up a whole second or two for the pleasure of rowing through gears in the Vantage. It’s fun.
Meanwhile, the auto industry as a whole is moving relentlessly to making cars that, in part, drive themselves. Aston, I trust, will not be releasing a self-driving car anytime soon. Part of the reason is that it simply doesn’t have the cash to devise such technology.
But I believe Aston Martin’s reluctance also reflects a unique philosophy. It builds cars for people who actually love to drive. In another 100 years, I hope that won’t have changed.