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43 Comments on “Move Aside Porsche Panamera. Official Pics of Aston Martin Rapide....”
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1/3 Aston Martin (Front)
1/3 Last Gen Nissan Maxima (Mid)
1/3 Mitsubishi Eclipse (Rear)
Still better than the Panamera.
Looks great. It is as beautiful as the coupe because they were able to extend the coupe while retaining the coupe’s form. Looks like the rear seats are small. Very small.
What’s the “uh-oh” in the title for? The car looks great and stays true to the concept
Unless the “uh-oh” was a quote from the guys at Porsche upon seeing a car that looks about 100x better than their Panamera
It looks like an Aston to me.
It looks good, but would it have killed them to try more unique fascias for a sedan?
Especially from the rear. First the XF, and now this: the former PAG families need to stop resting on their laurels.
thetopdog :
Well exactly. Headline amended.
Oh, that thing is gorgeous. I just felt a little bit of constriction in my jeans.
What I wouldn’t do for an Aston, any Aston. But this 4-door takes the cake if it drives as well as the DB9.
It also makes the Panamera look like a complete joke.
It also makes the Panamera look like a complete joke.
“look like”??
Then again, I bet the Porsche Pukeamera outsells it 350:1 though. You could slap a Porsche logo on a steaming turdCayenne and morons will still line up to buy it. It has been proven.
–chuck
Is that a hatchback? There looks to be a gap at the top of the rear glass, and that’s an awfully short rear deck.
Yup, even better. The rear seats look fairly cramped, but I’d rather have a decent cargo space.
First impression: Home run! Honestly I didn’t even notice the extra doors at first look (a good thing). At least someone still knows how to make a good looking car.
These look like renders, not photos.
That said, I still think it’s a bad idea. Like fake boobs, almost.
Blasted this one out of the park. Awesome look.
Somehow, I wasn’t too excited by the prototypes rolling around that were almost identical, but now it’s finally a car you can actually buy, it looks awesome.
One small thing though; I’m not convinced by the smoke/white rearlights, they look a little rice to me. Same thing on the DBS. Just dark red or even black would have been better I think. I’m sure AM will make that happen for you though, given the right price.
They can just take some red ones of a V8 or BD9…
Much better. THAT’S how an exotic sedan should look.
Yes, but will Aston survive long enough to build any?
Imagine how it would look in color.
IMHO the Panamera looks more original than the Aston. But I would prefer the Maserati Quattroporte to both, the Porsche and the Aston.
Mike – Aston Martin Seller
Wonder what the body called the Aston Martin Rapide “fourdoors Coupe”, where the body is called correctly FastBack? like the Mercedes CLS.
The first thing that came to mind was that the side vents and the hood vents are a direct rip off of the current BMW M3. Other than that, it strikes me as a gussied up Jaguar XK that slept with a XK .
Nice looking, but the (premsumably) cramped rear seats limit the appeal for prospective customers. I can see many wealthy families with tall teenage kids (aren’t they all nowadays?) ditch their Cayennes for a Panamera, the Rapide however is just to small for their offspring.
There is a reason Mr. Wiedeking insisted the Panamera’s rear to be spacious enough to accomodate his tall stature.
Chuck,
Dude, the Cayenne is not (I will spare everyone the expression again) a bad car. Sorry.
It ain’t a looker, but it goes quite well, on or off road.
This thing IS a lot more handsome than the porsche, and if it’s close in price, will likely outsell it. I would bet the porsche turns out to be a better car after 10 years though, when the panameras are still rolling, and the astons are garage queens.
Its a stretched DB9 with a panoramic roof. Gee, the designers really went all out. At least the Estoque is interesting to look at. The Rapide is rather humdrum. Does it bother no one that EVERY Aston Martin looks nearly identical?
Nope, because they still look great to me! Luckily, you don’t see them very often so it really doesn’t matter (at least not in the Pac NW).
John Horner asks the appropriate question here.
The answer is: one can only hope!
Does it bother no one that EVERY Aston Martin looks nearly identical?
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
You don’t mess with perfection.
While I’m sure potential buyers of outrageous status symbols such as this lose much sleep over not providing ideal comfort for those they chuffer, I somehow think they will overlook that issue when confronted with the Panamera.
Simply gorgeous.
I don’t think AM is positioning this car as a sale competitor to the Panamera, which Porsche admits is hoping will sell 10,000 units a year. I think the official sales figure AM is targeting is around 3500 or so.
Where do I sign? And does anyone know how much plasma I can sell per day?
Uhhh… isn’t Porsche making money hand over fist whereas Aston is… bankrupt and disowned?
Not much need for a “move aside” request, methinks.
vww12 :
According to today’s Automotive News [sub], Porsche “expects first-half operating profit at its core sports car business to decline sharply, but positive effects from its Volkswagen stake will ensure group pretax earnings grow.
“Porsche, which owns 50.8 percent of Volkswagen’s voting stock, forecast sales of its 911, Boxster, Cayman and Cayenne models would sink 27.3 percent to about 34,000 vehicles in the six months through the end of January.”
Good luck with that. But you’re mostly right. AM is doomed. What a way to go…
Uhhh… isn’t Porsche making money hand over fist whereas Aston is… bankrupt and disowned?
Yep. And that makes the Panamera all the more pathetic because surely, with Porsche’s huge piles of cash, they’d have been able to pay someone to tell them that the Panamera’s ass is ugly.
See Porsche? Now that’s how you do it.
It isn’t very original, but it is beautiful.
I think those taillights are going to look silly on any color other than the one shown here.
I really like these 4 door exotics. The Aston does look better than the Panamera. Have you seen Lamborghini’s?
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/06/lamborghini-planning-to-put-estoque-into-production/
re: “…first thing that came to mind was that the side vents…are a direct rip off of the current BMW M3.”
viroe / January 30th, 2009 at 11:25 am
huh?
aston martin has been using that sort of side vent consistently since the db4 of 1960. seems to me that bmw is the rip-off artist in this particular case.
Aston needs to shorten their front overhangs a bit. Every owner I have spoken to gripes about scraping absolutely everywhere. Even the Corvette with its ‘replaceable’ airdam is better in that regard, which says quite a lot. Come to think of it, the V8 is a bit better, but loses some of the brand’s sleekness in the process. As a 2nd, 3rd, 50th car / weekender, perhaps it doesn’t matter…
Lookwise, Astons are about as gorgeous as they come, though; both inside and out. The English gentleman look is infinitely preferrable to the pimped out race car look favored by competitors. At least IMHO.
And, as opposed to the Panamera, at least this thing isn’t an insult to it’s maker’s (pre-Caynennot) history. Porsche should have made the Panamera a rear engined, rear drive car. With an auto or PDK or whatever, obviating the need for a huge transmission tunnel down the middle hampering rear seat comfort. That way, the world’s sedan buyers would have the option of a 5 passenger car with decent steering and quick turn in, like a proper Porsche. Leave the M5 market to the Bimmer wannabes of the world. It’s not like those guys are exactly lacking in numbers….
fap fap fap
Well I don’t agree that it looks especially good. The proportions are just way off.
http://cache.jalopnik.com/assets/resources/2008/05/Aston-Martin-Rapide-Spy-Photo.jpg
Rover had a design quite a few years ago that had much more style (the SD1).
Four-door coupes are a stupid idea. Aston Martin still has the Lagonda brand if they need to build a four-door. Then they could give it a proper roof and some real rear legroom.
I can’t see what you are all talking about, the panamera and rapide are practically the same car!
(four-door coupe DB9 vs four-door coupe Cayman?)
I did a side by side comparison of the press pictures:
http://www.imagebam.com/image/5f320725116216