23 May 05
I have always believed that when you write an assessment of the car, you should always judge a car not for whether it strikes a chord with you personally, but for how well it does the job for which it was designed. 'Fitness for purpose', I think it's called. And in the case of this new Aston Martin DB9 Volante this enables me to do something I've never done in well over a thousand car tests. For my next trick I shall tell you how good this car is without reference to a single technical statistic and without offering the smallest personal opinion. Sitting comfortably?
For the four days and three nights that it was at my disposal, there was not a single time - not one - when I came to rest either at a junction or in a service station, when there was not at least one person goggling at it.
There, I've said it: the typical Aston Volante prospect now has all the information he or she needs to confirm what they've suspected ever since they first saw photographs of this car: it is, indeed, a very good place in which to drop £112,000.
I've driven cars that have attracted more attention because they've looked silly, outrageous or simply had never been seen before, but I don't think I've ever known another car have such an instant effect on the salivary glands of so many people from so many different backgrounds.
This, then, is more than a phenomenally attractive car: it is the rarest of things - a convertible that's at least as good looking as the coupe upon which it's based. More astonishing still, its appearance isn't even ruined when the fabric roof is up. The Volante is the best-looking convertible on the market. If you've a spare hundred plus grand rattling around (and can wait a couple of years), fill your boots.
