Despite past money troubles, Aston Martin still king of the road

It's a wonder that Aston Martin, despite having gone through six owners since 1914 (it's now on its seventh), is still making cars that stir the aficionado's soul and make the heads of everyone else swivel in astonishment and envy - SF Gate.

Perhaps it is something of a love affair between these venerable cars, with their flowing lines and big engines, and the series of moneyed owners who, over the years, could not resist the romantic notion of having a piece of this historic marque.

It's a hallowed name, Aston Martin, famous in racing, famous in such watering holes as Monte Carlo, Biarritz and Deauville and even more famous - famous worldwide - for its appearance in 11 of the 22 James Bond movies (including the forthcoming "Quantum of Solace," which opens in November). Remember the passenger seat ejection mechanism? Or the machine guns, or the revolving license plate? Every kid of a certain age certainly does.

To my mind, Aston Martin has always been up there in the pantheon of magnificent and exclusive Grand Touring cars: Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini come to mind as its only real competitors, and although there's a clutch, so to speak, of others, like Porsche, Mercedes and BMW, they're prolific rabble when compared with the top four. But Aston has had its troubles, largely financial, and the troubles have been passed down through the ages.

Ford was the previous owner and sold it, in 2007, for $874 million to a consortium that was substantially bankrolled by Kuwaiti money (Ford retains a small piece of ownership). It was under Ford that Aston Martin made its biggest strides: In 1992, two years before Ford took over, Aston hit its nadir when it sold a grand total of 42 cars, according to Julian Jenkins, vice president and general manager of Aston Martin North America. Indeed, from 1914 to 2000, only 15,000 Aston Martins were sold.

In the past eight years, the company has sold 24,000 cars, about one-third of them in North America. For those whose last look at Aston Martin was a stroll through the DB series (DB for David Brown, who developed the strong, dominating eponymous series whose DB5 was a landmark James Bond car), things have changed. Aston Martin now offers anything from the entry level ($119,500) Vantage V-8 coupe to the $265,000 DBS with a six-liter, 12-cylinder engine pumping out 510 horsepower and capable of doing 190 mph.

All well and good, but the subject today is the new 2009 Vantage series. The other day, we alternated between the $136,500 roadster with the Sportshift transmission (manumatic, and more about this later) and the aforementioned coupe (a bright red edition, with stick shift) on a 170-mile foray up to Bodega Bay and back. I know, I know. It's a tough assignment. Actually, the coupe, with a harsher suspension, was a bit more taut than I would have liked for several hours on end, but, then again, if those guys at Le Mans and the Nürburgring can stand it, I guess I can, too.

Here, then, are some impressions: The convertible's top is a one-touch wonder that folds back and disappears under the requisite tonneau cover in less than half a minute. That done, we fire up the 4.7-liter, 420-horsepower V-8. Just to ensure that you are getting something that is not simply stamped out by a machine, the people at the factory in Gaydon (unlike, say, Honda or Toyota, Aston Martin does not go in for satellite plants in the United States) have signed off on their labors: On the plate covering each engine is the name of the person who built the engine (Simon Ward did the honors on the white convertible).

The automatic has four big buttons in the center of the dashboard - neutral, reverse, drive and comfort. Comfort?

"If you've had a lousy day at the office and you just want to drive home comfortably and slowly," says Patrick Fleming, Aston Martin's product marketing manager, "that's the one you use. It slows down the speed of the gear changes, and the changes themselves are at a lower RPM." Well, fine, except I don't think anyone bought one of these cars for driving slowly.

On the road, in fact, it's difficult to keep it under an outrageous speed. The seats hold you in but are adjustable enough to get you comfy (without using the comfy button). Like its continental cousins, the Vantage has a high center console and the car will fit precisely two people, and they better be in the fine-wool-suit size of about 44 or less if they don't want to feel squashed.

The paddle shifters are, like Ferrari's, fixed to the column rather than the steering wheel, and this is a better way of doing it: You always know where they are, rather than trying to remember where the "down" paddle is when the wheel is sharply over to one side or another.

Entry-level cars are all relative to the rest of that manufacturer's line, so you might well ask whether an entry-level Aston is akin to a top-of-the-line something else and what you really should be looking at. Jenkins says the Vantage customer "is a (Porsche) 911 customer, or a customer of BMW Six series or Maserati Gran Turismo" or one of the top Mercedes-Benz hardtop roadsters.

You could spend half as much money on a Porsche Boxster and get a car that, with this country's inhibitions (legal and otherwise) about speed, will get you there just as quickly as the Vantage. But there will probably be five or six Boxsters parked somewhere in the vicinity, particularly if the vicinity is Beverly Hills or Marin County.

In a sea of fine cars like the Boxster, or the Mercedes-Benz SL550, or even its British cousin (and something of a look-alike) the Jaguar XK-R, the Vantage will stand out. And, in the end, perhaps that is all that matters.

Discuss this news here...