2009 Aston Martin DB9 Volante Review

2009 Aston Martin DB9 Volante Review You’ll be using Aston Martin DB5 with modifications. To millions of people, it is and always will be Bond’s car. An Aston Martin, whether a vintage DB5 or its progeny this DB9. But let’s see if it’s aged as well as the Commander. Now, just as Bond’s black tie is likely to be untied these days, so Astons have become more athletic and visceral. This cheeky little number is a Volante as you’ve noticed, a drop top, no retractable metal top here however. No sir, we are speaking of a proper English roadster with only canvas overhead lest it rain. Now, as you might expect the base audio system isn’t really base. It’s fabulous, 700 watt Aston Martin branded system I think it’s dine audio equipment in here because it’s very similar to a lot of Volvo’s we’ve seen on the high end. Your sources include of course a 6-disk in dash CD changers that will also eat CD’s that have MP3’s on them, satellite radios in here, auxiliary jack, USB port over here in the console as is a connector for an iPod. The system does a very good job with compressed audio files. My main test huge bass on this system by the way, the subs that are somewhere behind me here are complete ass rattlers. They are incredibility powerful and should this rig not be enough you can option a 1000 watt B&L branded audio system. I think it’s very similar to the one we’ve seen in some high-end Audi’s with those little tweeters that pop up on the dash. I don’t know what the price is, but I’m guessing near to six grand. In classic Q fashion the Nav system doesn’t just sit there. It has to play peaky boo when you need it, not the most generous screen but not bad. We’ve seen in this interface before again another Volvo piece and I found that getting through it and setting up things like a destination address wasn’t difficult, not the best system out there but it does move quickly. Thanks to being hard drive based. I’m not crazy about this little controller. I wish it turned or rotated but instead it’s just a jag knob with an inter function directly on it and even though this system is hard drive based, that’s all that’s hard drive based. The audio system not tied into it so no ripping music to the same drive the Nav lives on so this is the navigation system that is solely there for chasing Goldfinger over the Geneva, or going to the dry cleaner. Around all of these acres of leather from bridge of weir Scotland, the same stuff found under the esteemed bottoms in the House of Lords, The smoker’s kit is a $220.00 option which takes a bit of cheek until you realize that that’s a glass ashtray in which you’ll service your Shepherd’s hotel. Now, Miss Goodnight may swoon when she sees you on Savil row in this car but don’t buy anything because soon as you ramp up suit into this little tiny trunk it’s going to be a wrinkled mess, have your man take it home in the Bentley. Under hood we have a 5.9 liter V12 putting out 470 horsepower and 443 foot pounds of torque. Honestly, not the most stunning numbers for a high-end car in this day and age but so smooth you’ll swear it stalled at every stop. That is until you step into it and the dual mode exhaust emits this sound from the bowels of hell. Our gearbox is Aston’s 6-speed automatic, paddles around the column but an odd lineup of mode buttons over here on the console. D or drive is for some reason the furthest one away. Either a vestigial thing from right hand drive or cue had a few Jamison’s designing this. The 6-speed automatic is fine but even in sport mode not the best in the business. Consider the manual, the MPG is the same, an OPEC pleasing 12/19 bring a lot of ego and/or love for humanity if you buy one of these, even in jaded San Francisco where so many people drive something fabulous or hate cars entirely this one draws a crowd. To make one of these your own have the exchequer disburse about 197,000 U.S plus gas guzzler tax, we’re talking 200 in round numbers. There really are no tech options to add except perhaps that B&L 1000 watt system but why listen to that when you can listen to this.