Own the ‘coolest’ brand without breaking the bank

Voted the ‘coolest brand’ for the second year in a row, the name Aston Martin represents the epitome of cool sophistication. The new DBS launched earlier this week at The Frankfurt Motor Show, but if the £160,000 price tag is a bit too steep for your pocket, you can always buy one on a budget. British Car Auctions (BCA) might have a car to fit the bill.

“Aston Martin’s are cars for the connoisseur,” confirmed BCA’s Simon Henstock. “But you don’t need a six-figure budget to buy a used Aston Martin. You might not expect to see an Aston Martin at a car auction, but we regularly have them entered for sale in our Top Car events, alongside other prestige cars from Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.”

“While ‘classic’ Aston Martins remain expensive - such as the 1966 DB6 Vantage we sold for £42,000 last year – the early DB7s from the 1990s are starting to get affordable and the older AM V8s now look like good value for money, often selling for around £10,000 or even less.”

BCA has sold the original DB7s for under £20,000 this year, with a 1996-registered example selling for £19,200 at 62,000 miles and a 1995 model realising £18,000 at a similar mileage. Values rise for the newer, more powerful V12 Vantage models to between £30,000 and £40,000 at average mileages. At the other end of the scale, in early September, BCA sold a 2003 Aston Martin Vanquish for £62,500.

Simon Henstock concluded “For a car that is a class apart and officially the coolest brand to drive, owning an Aston Martin makes a real statement and it might not cost as much as you think.”