Looking at getting an Aston Martin Rapide

Anyone here have a Rapide? If so, how has it been as a daily driver? Any issues? Anything I need to keep in mind when looking? Also, how much spacer is there in the trunk and back seats. Looking to replace my wife's Panamera with this. We have a 2 year old so need back seats and would like 4 doors. Thanks for the help.

 

They are a cool car, but your better off with a 7 series or an S series Benz. It really doesn't offer much (less actually) then those cars. Back seats are small leg room is awful, trunk is a good size I guess.

Overall I think they are a waste of good money that could be spent on a proper 4 door Benz or BMW. Buy a used 2008-13 Benz or BMW for a steal. Much better car.

 

A BMW or a Benz is not an Aston! I have a Virage and had a DB9. They are great cars. I think there is more room in the back than a Panamera. Drive it!

Joe

 

Also, it is obvious that the Benz or the BMW is far better looking.

If you do not have eyes.

 

I tried to do some daily chores in the Rapide. It is definitely not a car you would look at for this type of usage, esp with a baby. I don‘t know if you had the opportunity to drive one / sit in one. The trunk is small. I am not sure if a stroller would fit comfortably in it, likely not. The car feels cramped inside, just like a regular DB9 (after all it is all based on a VH platform), any type moves from the drivers seat to the backseats where the children would be are quite limited.

On the other hand, used ones go for low 100k euros (or less, as they are hard to sell). Quite a car for the money.

 

not an owner but was interested in buying one several yrs ago
went for a lengthly test-drive :

pros: best looking sedan on the planet IMHO.....but it's aging
Aston heritage & motor
sumptuous interior
build quality appeared to be well executed
local Aston dealer is great

cons: back seat = penalty box
rear egress/ingress, unless you're employed by Cirque du Soleil or the circus as an acrobat, good luck getting in & out of the rear with feet larger than size 7
front seat driving position was OK but there is a lot of obscuration with the A pillars
the controls/nav/HVAC controls are dated

Summary: best looking sedan on the planet although the design is getting long in the tooth
depending on price and if no one will be riding in the rear or if they're 1/2 scale have at it

in the end ya gotta what ya gotta do
go for a test drive and decide for yourself

 

I loved it when I saw it at the Detroit auto show in 2005 and have always waned one. They look great in my opinion. I'm sure our 2 yr. old will fit in the back seat, and the trunk space seems pretty large. It's more convenient having at least 4 doors. The Panamera has been great for us. Decent size trunk, nice room for passengers as well. Just wanted a change. Probably a bit bigger and more usable than a Bently continental GT or a California.

 

get a Panamera GTS

 

AKA the 'Whale' ?

 

If he is looking at an Aston, I doubt the eternal blandness of a Mercedes or the failing electronics of a BMW is gonna excite him.

 

How about a BMW 6er Grancoupe? They are soo good looking. The M6 Grancoupe is hot.

 

A grancoupe was the pace car for the PIR historic races, great looking car.

 

I looked at the BMW gran Coupe but wasn't that thrilled by it. I'm not into the Mercedes or BMW line up any more. Aesthetically they just don't do it for me.

 

Go for the Aston. With a 2 year old you will have no problems. My wife and I rode in the back of one for about 300 miles last year and loved it. I am 5'10.

As for competitors there really is none IMHO unless you go 2 door Bentley GT.

 

Audi S7?

I tried to sit in the back seat of the Rapide. It was uncomfortable and somewhat claustrophobic. I decided it wasn't for me and didn't even test drive one.

 

This is the only reason to buy it.

I don't understand buying low-tech and outdated luxury cars. They're not high performance, they're not fuel efficient, and they lack modern amenities. A luxury car really isn't just about nice leather. It's still a tool and needs to function. Today that means self-parking, 360 degree cameras, digital screens galore, CarPlay/Android Auto, self-driving things like lane change detection and adaptive cruise control, adaptive lights, cutting-edge suspension, audio, key-less driving... and the list goes on.

Luxury is relative to time and activity. The luxuries of even 10 years ago are often throw-away garbage today. There is a guy at my gym with one of those super expensive Vertu phones. Of course, his is the Vertu from like 5 years ago, which in terms of the technology and usage means you'd be better off throwing it in the garbage and buying a $100 Motorola.

Same can often go for high-end luxury cars. A 2009 $200K Bentley does less for you than probably a $30,000 Ford IMO.

Luxury cars really don't have any staying power and it's why the depreciate so much and so quickly. Digital technology moves way too fast and way too cheaply. While high-end exotics tend to have some staying power due to the fact that they rely on performance that tends to be pretty far ahead of your run of the mill Volkswagen, high-end luxury cars can quickly find themselves lacking features of a even Ford Focus.

That might be an extreme, but an AM Rapide is not luxury by today's standards. It nice looking, but it's not even remotely luxury. The latest from BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and Lexus is what you should get if you want anything other than AM design.

 

Bananarama

 

I would argue otherwise. To me (and I realize this is subjective), luxury is less about digital gadgets and more about the materials, interior design, build quality, and feel of the CAR itself. A V12 Aston Martin with a hand stitched leather interior is going to feel, drive, sound, and look more luxurious than any Ford, no matter how many digital self-driving iWhatever interfaces the Ford has.

There is also the aspect of rarity, individuality, uniqueness, character, "soul", or whatever else you want to call it. While not technically an aspect of luxury, this does play into the equation the OP is asking about in a way no mass-market car can match.

I just can't imagine anyone could drive a 2009 Bentley and a 2014 Ford Focus back-to-back, and honestly come away thinking the Ford felt more luxurious.

 

only those who never owned one criticize a rapide. ignore those useless comments

I owned one, one of my favorite luxury GT on the market, you can't quantify the pleasures, it's just an event every time you drive it, you feel special cause you have the most exotic car on the road compare to the boring bmw, mb, bentleys.

from the engine bark when it starts to the directness of throttle response and steering, it drives like a sporty more refined db9 but it doesn't feel like a 4 door sedan.

very direct feeling car, unlike elastic feeling panamera or overly heavy feel bentley cont gt

used rapides are great value at $100k now given they were $200k new and all have low mileage. the workmanship of interior materials are top notch, even better that rolls royce.

 

Totally disagree. The last thing I want in a lux car is all the techno BS or modern features. Its one of the reasons I am not going to upgrade my 2010 Audi as I cannot stand all the new features.

A luxury car is about the style, class and quality of components. You have got things backwards. Thats why an old Rolls is still a luxury car and a 4 year old Audi or BMW is just another old car waiting to break. Go to London or Palm Beach for that matter and you still see wealthy folks and embassys driving old Rolls, Astons and Bentleys, never seen an ambassador or dignitary in an old 7 series or Focus

IMHO Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Panera etc are not in the same league as an Aston, Rolls or Bentley.

 

oh yeah, showing up in a rapide tells the world you don't give a crap about conformity, resale, practicality or fuel mileage, , it just says you're all about styling and performance
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I recently purchased a low mile 2010 Rapide with a two year warranty as a daily driver. I was coming from a BMW X5M, which was a great car, but was going out of warranty and I wanted a change. The Aston was not on my radar. I went by the local Aston dealer as they sold a variety of cars and I thought they might have an interesting collection of used cars. When I saw the Rapide, I remembered how much I liked the look of them when they were first introduced. I had never seen one in person. I test drove it, loved it, then researched it and then bought another one in a color more pleasing to me.

Before buying the Rapide, I test drove the various new model Mercedes, BMW’s, Audi’s, Land Rovers and the new Porsche Macan. The technology on the newer cars is amazing and the Rapide does not compare well in the technology category. It will play your iPod, link with your blue tooth phone, has a marginal gps system, has satellite radio and even a rear seat video system. The sound coming from the stereo is wonderful in the B&O system. However, navigating to and within these features is cumbersome and while the phone always connects through blue tooth, hands free dialing is a very hit or miss affair. It also does not have a keyless entry or keyless start which I really got used to in the BMW. Also the 2010 Rapide does not have a rear view camera, which was added sometime later. Therefore, if you are like the poster above who highly values the latest and greatest technology, you might be better served with an Audi, Ford or Japanese make.

What made me chose the Aston was getting behind the wheel and driving it. The seats perfectly fit me and the fit and finish of the interior was much more pleasing to me than the other cars that I tried. The back seats are also comfortable, but if your driver and front seat passenger have long legs, the rear seat passenger will not have much leg room and would not be comfortable for a long drive.

When you first sit in the car you feel really good. It only gets better after you press the start button. (you have to insert the key into the dash and press it in to start the car) The car starts with a marvelous sound which reminds me of starting the old Chris Craft boat we had years ago. The car has an automatic transmission which I like for the daily commute. When I want to speed things up, I push in the buttons for the sport modes for engine performance and suspension. One button tightens the suspension, the other opens up the exhaust and tightens the shift points. In the curves I use the paddle shifters and they are very responsive with no discernable lag. They also do a great blip of the motor as you downshift.

The exhaust note, while different from my 512TR, is equally pleasing, especially at higher revs in sport mode. Nevertheless, while cruising, you won’t be annoyed by too load of an exhaust noise and the cabin is well insulated from the outside world.

I remember how older Mercedes used to feel like they were cut out of a solid piece of steel. The Aston feels the same way. The aluminum chassis is very stiff, but not jarring. The steering is precise with a good feel for the road.

The Rapide is a car that I feel like getting into and going on a long road trip. It feels as if you could put on the miles effortlessly. My only concern would be getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. The only remedy for a flat in the Aston is a can of fix-a-flat and an air pump or a flat bed truck.

The car has a steep depreciation curve, so buying used will get you much further down the curve. Aston Martin has an interesting warranty policy so that even on a 2010, I was able to negotiate an additional two years of manufacturer warranty from the Aston dealership. While I would like the depreciation curve to level out, if I put a lot of miles on the car it will probably continue its downward trend. However, if I had bought a new BMW, Mercedes or Audi, I would probably have found myself in a similar downward cycle. At least now I have a smile on my face as I go down the depreciation cycle. I believe in following the sage advice of James Glickenhaus "Napolis" who stated that not putting miles on your Ferrari is like not having sex with your girl friend to save her for the next guy.
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Thats very interesting about being able to warranty a 2010. Makes a used one seem a good deal.

Great write up and photos. I really like both the Blue Rapides in the last few posts.

 

looks as great as ever!

 

Thank you to all those owners who have given me their great reviews on the Rapide. It is very helpful. It sounds like those who owned and those who currently own one have had no negative experiences.