I parked my XE next to a Lamborghini Sterrato at my golf club yesterday (there are a few fancy cars there.) Hadn’t met the owner, so I had a nice chat with him. I told him I had the red F-type that’s usually there. He said “I love that car! Great exhaust sound.” Smiles all around.

 

Yup, I think his Aston Martin Vantage is the reason I bought the F-type. The shapes are similar and I could not afford an Aston ;-)

The new Vantage is insanely nice...The one that just came out...The version before that was terrible...

 

I've said it before - the Aston is a rich man's Jag.

 

Of that there is absolutely no doubt. They separate the men from the boys when buying new, or replacing parts.

My buddy told me a few examples...One time he had to replace one metal arm for one of his wipers. He called Aston Martin Canada. It was almost $2000 Cnd. He got one from a junk yard.

 

This was cute...

After a stint of turning dinosaur juice into noise out in the countryside, I was heading back into town, and coming up to a 90 degree left hander just across the street from a park. A daycare had taken about 30 kids for a walk in said park, and were obviously headed back to school, the kids trailing along behind the teachers in a long line. All the kids started jumping up and down, pointing, screaming and yelling "cool car", waving, and generally going crazy. They were so loud, I could hear them over the engine noise...

 

I was approaching a 4-way intersection today. I was making a left hand turn. I had a stop sign and was stopped. Opposing traffic has no stop sign. First car coming towards me sees my car and slows to a stop and then slowly goes through the intersection. Again they had no stop sign. Second car coming towards me comes to a complete stop and will not proceed through the intersection (even though they had no stop sign) until I made my left hand turn in front of them. I waited a bit and they just would not go through the intersection until I did.

I get this all the time. People falling all over themselves to let me out, or let me go in front of them once they see the car.

 

People want somehing nice to look at when they're in traffic, and it's not the same looking in your rear view mirror!

 

I'd still choose my F-Type over a Aston Martin since it has AWD. I didn't find Aston has AWD in their non-SUV sports cars.

 

How about my first experience at the gas station today...Literally my first fill since taking delivery...

20 minutes later I had to tell the guy I had to go, otherwise I think he would have wanted to talk forever about it...lol

My Toyota 4Runner never invoked the same interest for some reason, so this is very strange for the uninitiated...lol

I think what is neat a bit about it is seeing that other people out there have the same passion (or more) than you do for these inanimate objects. It's kinda funny...

 

I came out of the grocery store, and there was a woman taking pictures of my car. As I got near she asked if it was mine. I said yes. She said "I love it!, Oh my God it's gorgeous!" Made my day. I do get a lot of comments on this car - more than any other car I've ever owned.

 

We had a pleasant sun-baked afternoon here on the first day of respite from our recent heat wave.
Naturally, I was out driving with the roof down.
While I was waiting in the left turn lane at a red light, a guy pulled up beside me in a lifted pickup.
"Your car is perfection!" he exclaimed.
After a brief glance at the centre console, he added: "The 6-speed V6? Better than the V8!".