Virage Archives - cars & life blog

Yesterday Aston Martin visited University of Birmingham Edgbaston Campus with new the Vanquish and V12 Vantage. This shouldn’t sound that interesting, University of Birmingham has one of the highest number of international students and that’s a great environment for Aston Martin to promote their cars.

Of course, I am joking Aston Martin came to campus for the career event and may be find some potential customers :)

Anyway, if you read my previous post about Aston Martin, you may realise that Aston Martin is not my favourite brand and I criticise many things about them. For example; V12 Vantage is faster than Vanquish. V12 Vantage is the entry-level car and it cannot be faster than the flagship. Porsche Cayman cannot be faster than a Porsche 911. This is the rule we learned from German brands. And I embrace this rule and find it reasonable. However, things are not the same in Aston Martin and, today I found it out.

Firstly, Aston Martin is not obsessed with electronic gadgets like electric steering wheel adjusting, seat ventilation, radar guided cruise control or 18-way seat adjustment. For me, all these things are the mandatory parts of a GT car. However, Aston Martin’s approach is to reduce the gadgets and focus on driving experience. From the engine to chassis to transmission. And I cannot ignore that Aston Martin is doing a great job with their limited budget, they are not owned by Volkswagen! I got the Aston Martin’s point of view for gadget oriented automotive world and do respect them. However, I am still obsessed with electric steering-wheel adjustment and seat ventilation (You may order these with the new Ford Mondeo).

Secondly, Aston Martin cars are not limited to overlap with bigger Aston Martins. Such as, V12 Vantage is way faster than any other Aston Martin, because it is light and powerful. And Aston Martin let’s a smaller car to be faster than a bigger one. With Porsche, A Cayman cannot be faster than a 911, full stop! Aston Martin left the engineers to push the boundaries of the limits and let customers to buy a small and a very fast car. Fair enough, and that’s a good strategy but they need to share this with people!

Thirdly, Aston Martin accepts that they are not the best fastest, quickest, safest or most advanced. They know where they are. And this really altered my perception to Aston Martin. Still I will not buy an Aston Martin if I have a chance but I would recommend. Because, they know where they are and know what are doing.

And lastly, Aston Martin accepts that Virage was a bit mistake. Accepting a mistake is an important step as well.

Honestly, I wrote more than a page for a car brand in my blog. This happens extremely rare, sometimes I am not able to write many words. After my small chat with the passionate electric engineer from the Aston Martin, I had so much motivation to talk about Aston Martin.

And I should admit that, he did a great PR for Aston Martin.

Aston Martin Virage became a history this week. It will be remembered as the Aston Martin’s shortest lived model, just for 18 months. Personally, I am not surprised with the decision to stop producing Virage. Since the Virage was revealed, it was a huge question mark.

First of all, Aston Martin Virage never had a clear definition and image. Virage was between DB9 and DBS, but what Virage offers less than a DBS or more than a DB9. No one ever had chance to answer this question. So, the customers did not have a clear image for buying a Virage over a DB9.

Moreover, Virage was looking exactly the same as DB9 and DBS. One of the most crucial reasons to buy Virage was vanquished due its similar design. Interior was the same case, Virage did not offer anything different. Engine was the same only with more horsepower (490 PS) and the rest of the features were not different than other Aston Martin cars.

Aston Martin assumed that, there was a market and a gap for Virage. However, there was not enough gaps between DB9 and DBS to fit a new car. Briefly; Aston Martin Virage offered the same engine with more horse power, looked exactly the same as other models, interior was not something special, features were the same. Only horsepower and minor design details were diversifying Virage from DB9 and DBS. Therefore, it was not adequate for customers to buy one and there was nothing really special with Virage.

As a result of these adverse situations, Aston Martin stopped producing Virage. May be they never produced it in the beginning.

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