But not for me...

Story: one of my best friends - who lives in the south - has been in the exotic car business for many years now (side business of his). So he basically buys/sells high end cars from all over the country. He has bought/owned/sold pretty much a little bit of everything: Lambos, Ferraris, all kinds of Porshes; you name it.

So on Friday he called me and said he found an Aston Martin (forget what series now) in Long Island that he wanted to get for one of his clients who lives on the west coast. He doesn't really know much of NYC, so he decided to make a weekend trip out of the whole deal with the car.

I drove him around, showed him the good stuff at NYC, and then the time came to go take a look at the car and take it for a spin.

First doing a full inspection of the car







My friend really spent almost 40 mins looking this car inside/outside. Remember, even a little scratch in a bumper can cost a **** load of money to fix in cars like this.

Then came the best part: test drive!!

My friend adjusting the seat and getting ready to hit the road:



I then went on a test drive afterward

I have to say, that particular model did not have the 'raw power' you would expect of a car with such a price tag. It has a 4.1 V8 with about 410 horses (forget how much torque).

However, the car is more like the RX-8 in terms of how well balanced it is. I was really more impressed with the handling than the power. His client - who had recently owned a Lambo - was not looking for a lot of raw power anymore. This time they were shopping for comfort and handling. So the Aston Martin was the winning ticket.

So it was a done deal and made the purchase. As they dealt with the paperwork, I took a look at the other stuff they had around in the show room:







And the best part of the whole thing: I drove my friend to the Aston Martin dealer in my 8

One of the sales reps actually went outside and looked at my car and gave compliments. As usual, he didn't know what kind of car was it, but he was impressed by the "design"

 

Then went at night back to NYC and for the first time in 5 years I found an empty spot right in time square. This is my first historic shot of the 8 so far, LOL







At the end of the day, my friend also gave me a lot of compliments on my 8.

Coming from a guy that has driven Lambos and Ferraris and all kinds of expensive ****, that meant a lot to me.

As most people would say about our cars, he was the most impressed with the handling of my 8.

 

Very nice. Is that dealer located on Northern Boulevard in LI? Or one of those dealers in Old Westbury?

 

The one on Northern Blvd.

Not enough open roads around there to really push that car on a test drive, LOL!!!

 

True. Though you may have some luck on the service road of the LIE if you go a little further out east. Wheatley Rd is decent for twisties also.

 

Actually, that's where my friend went for his test drive. Believe it or not, he took almost an hour. He told me he really pushed that car pretty hard - as he always does.

When they came back he told me he wanted to buy it, and offered me a test drive. I was a bit nervous because since I already knew he was buying, I didn't want to screw up.

So I didn't drive too far But it was early morning, so I still managed to burn some rubber without disturbing anybody, haha.

 

The front of the new 2013 Ford Fusion looks like an Aston Martin. Buy one of those and then just squint a little bit!

 

Inspecting, test driving, and purchasing high end sports cars with other peoples money... I want that job!

 

Yeah seriously!
I didn't know such jobs even existed.

 

For real where in the hell do i sign up! Too bad you could not do a quick photoshoot with the 2

 

Only in my dreams...

 

Than join an AS thread. I don't understand why ;you ppl get off bragging about your richie rich cars on this forum. uhhhhh.

 

I like the 8....

 

So true!

Trust me, I want it too!

Actually, they don't exist. My friend is a business guy himself, so he happens to hang out with a lot of people that are loaded with serious amounts of $$$.

But this is how it works. Usually, people that have the money to afford exotic sports cars do not have the time to research or to actually get out and buy the cars they want. Like any one of us, they also want the best possible deals. Yes, they are wealthy but not stupid...that's probably why they are wealthy!!!! So they trust their money to people they know personally - like my friend. So he is the one that goes out to auctions, dealers, etc.; to do the leg work on their behalf.

But in order to find people that will trust you with hundreds of thousands of dollars to go out and buy cars for them, you have to hang out with those guys regularly. It's all about networking I guess.

That would have been awesome! The Aston Martin was not that much bigger than the 8 actually. A side-by-side comparison would have been cool.

Nobody is bragging about anything. This is the 'General Automotive' folder, so I don't know what you're bitchin' about

Trust me, I do to!! And I was very proud to get a compliment from one of the sales guys.

 

I highly doubt I will ever see an AM in Iowa.... I can always dream I guess lol.
Anyways, good story and pictures!

 

I'm jealous.
But happy that I get 85% of the happiness of owning an AM for about 20% of the price.

 

Saw an Aston on route 6 in Cape Cod mothers day weekend, same color and looked like the same model your friend bought. Big freakin' car!

 

Thanks a lot.

BTW, hey, you never know. Your neighbor might be getting one soon, lol

Actually, as I mentioned earlier, the handling of the car felt very similar to me compared to the RX-8. Power was a different story of course.

But yes, by comparison with that AM, we do have the handling of a $100,000 plus car for a fraction of the cost.

This one was was slightly bigger than the RX-8. Perhaps you saw a different model. I think you are probably referring to the one I saw inside the show room that was significantly bigger - like a sedan - and comes with a V12

 

ALMOST bought an Aston in 1980, the guy who owned it ran a restaurant and was going broke, selling it to keep the doors open.

It was one of the cars used in the Goldfinger movie - had oil squirters and rotating number plates. Was actually in pretty shabby condition after the filming, so I decided to not pay the $50k he wanted.

Recently saw it was in an auction of Bond memorabilia, for $3.7 million.

Story of my life right there......

 

Are you serious!

Wow, that's amazing. You could be the owner of a 3.7 million car now

But I hear you, not easy to spend 50 grand for a car in less than optimal condition. Who would imagine that car would be worth that much money today.

 

I LOVE aston martin's. I saw a V8 vantage at a dealer outside of Vegas a couple weeks ago. Only $72k, I wanted it soooo bad.

 

I think that's the model my friend bought...but it was a hell of a lot more money than that, LOL!!

Here are better shots of the car. At this point it had arrived at his new home:

 

Not diggin the LED lights up front all.

UGLY

 

meh, it looks good to me. its an aston martin, they could paint it brown, as long as it does 0-60 in 4 seconds and handles like a train on rails, who cares.

 

Didn't notice those lights until now, haha.

they are ok i suppose