đïž Max Finds James Bond's Family Hauler
And it comes with all the leather and V12 glory you could ask for...
Max Zintel
July 17, 2023
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Good MORNING dear readers. It is Monday, and you are reading MaxFindsCars: the only newsletter in history to buy its readers cheap beer on the holidays.
TheSkimm would never dare such a thing.
Since its the beginning of the week, I thought maybe we should find an interesting commuter car today. Something comfortable, smooth, and reasonably affordable at a predicted price of less than $5000 per engine cylinder. A Ford Fiesta ST isnât even that affordable!
HERE IT IS: A 2011 Aston Martin Rapide
What Makes The Rapide So Cool?
Itâs the car James Bond wouldâve driven if he had MORE FRIENDS
Itâs the Luxury Sports Sedan that NO ONE HAS
Itâs Chock Full of V12 GLORY
Todayâs Edition is brought to you by Trailblazing Love Date Night Boxes
But First, the HighlightsâŠ
The Rapide is one of Aston Martinâs only entries into the luxury sedan market, and they did it in the most Aston way possible: the classy way. This is the type of car that requires a tailored suit for entry, even for your toddlers in the back.
And this one in particular has been well loved and well used, sitting at 78,000 miles. While that means wear and tear, it also means this car has been maintained as a driverâs car rather than sitting in some collectorâs garage, dry rotting away. I think for that reason we donât see it drop too far below the value of some recent lower mileage examples.
đïž Driven around the world: 3.1x
đŒÂ Song to Get the Vibes Right: Goldfinger
đ Can beat 470 horses in a fight
đ°ïž Predicted Price: $54,450
đ Auction Ends: July 21st, 2023
Itâs the car James Bond wouldâve driven if he had MORE FRIENDS
Notice anything a little⊠different about this Aston? Something⊠unique and pictured above, perhaps?
Thatâs right, dear readers, its an Aston with FOUR doors!
I'm sure the astonishment is palpable. You can practically feel the universe shifting on its axis, can't you? Now, I know what you're thinking: "Max, aren't sports cars supposed to have just two doors? Aren't four doors for mom's grocery getter?" Well, buckle up buttercup, because Aston Martin decided to toss that rulebook out the window and give us a sports car with room for the whole gang.
Ever wanted to see what a Bond film would be like if olâ James had finally decided to father a couple of the many kids heâs almost certainly abandoned in his 60 years of galivanting across the world having fling after fling?
I think that would be a nice change of pace, and Aston obviously thinks so too.
An Aston with four doors isnât a historically common thing. Before the Rapide, there was only one other: the Lagonda (a very weird car we will cover another time). So, when putting the Rapide together, chief designer Marek Reichman had a completely clean slate. No other Aston sedans to align design queues with.
So what did he do? He taped a picture of a thoroughbred horse to the wall and stretched out the existing DB9 like it was toffee.
As simple as it soundsâŠ
It worked like a charm. This is a BEAUTIFUL car. Especially when you compare it to the competing Porsche Panamera of the same era:
The OG Panamera⊠vs.
todayâs beauty of a Rapide (headroom < aesthetics)
And the rear seats werenât just a gimmick!
They were grippy, sporty looking bucket seats. Not a simple bench seat.
The middle seat was scrapped in favor of this center console that held controls for heater AND COOLED seats, leather-lined cupholders, reading lights, andâŠ
how about those sick editing skillz, readers?
It had TWO TVâs, controlled by a remote stored in the center compartment (circled above), that also happened to store headphones that looked straight out of the clearance section of Radio Shack.
And the trunk space was nothing to gawk at either, this thing was seriously practical - it could hold all your road trip luggage, no problemo:
It actually kinda looks like they got half way to designing the trunk to double as a rear facing bench seat, which would just be AWESOME.
Itâs the Luxury Sports Sedan that NO ONE HAS
So, it has nearly 500 horsepower, its luxurious, and it has room for the whole family.
But more importantly (if youâre a weirdo like me whoâs a sucker for cars most folks rarely see), NO ONE has these.
This isnât your neighbor Chuck the Lawyerâs S-Class.
This is an Aston Martin, and it has doors that open like THIS:
Theyâre called swan doors, AND from certain perspectives they kind of remind me of those mind-bending lithographs designed to mess with your eyes
cred: MC Escher - the Netherlands most famous MC isnât even in the music game.
Anyways, the whole point of bringing up the swan doors is thatâŠ
This thing is damn unique.
Only about 20,000 Rapides were ever sold over its 10 year production run,
By contrast, Mercedes sold 25,000 S-Classes in the first 2 years the Rapide existed.
But⊠you had to pay for that exclusivity. The Rapide often sold for more than $200k new. Thatâs up there with the top of the line Mercedes S65 AMG.
And⊠sure, maybe youâll suffer a bit more than the normy Mercedes driver when it comes to things like maintenance. But! It wonât be as painful as you think!
Why?
For one, I have anecdotal (Doug DeMuroâs Aston Martin Vantage Youtube series) evidence that Astonâs are more reliable than is commonly assumed. Hell, this one was built only a few years removed from the Ford-owned Aston Martin days, where parts were shared left and right amongst the Ford brands. So⊠maybe parts will be reasonably cheap too?
But most importantly, youâll never really care when you have to pay to get your Rapide fixed because your reward will beâŠ
The Glorious V12 Under the Hood
Just listen to this beauty
Bet Chuckâs S-Class doesnât have THAT.
SO, do you want a, formerly two hundred thousand dollar, V12 family hauler?
Do you want one that (probably) comes with a tailored suit and a disdain for the American colonies?
Buy this car, and perhaps be the first person ever to get one well above 100,000 miles.
And rememberâŠ
MaxFindsCars.com is not, technically, free! By subscribing, dear reader, you have agreed to tell your friends about it.
In fact, I believe the contract specifically stated you had to each subscribe 100 of your closest friends, colleagues, enemies, exes, priests, pets, & sugar mommas. Iâll have to check the fine print to be sure, but you all may as well get started spreading the word in the meantime.
That's a wrap for today. New Editions come out every Monday & Friday! While you wait, go out and drive! And if you want more, be sure to follow Maxâs Twitter (@maxjzin)