Aston Martin

Aston Martin lives off the tension between image and use: it is a sports-car and grand-touring brand, not an everyday car maker. By our assessment, its big strength is the design and the sense of occasion around the cars, which is why the name carries so much weight for enthusiasts. The trade-off is obvious in that kind of product: style, low-volume exclusivity, and performance come with high running costs and little interest in practical commuting. In practice the brand is about long bonnet shapes, leather-heavy cabins, and machines that are as much about presence as lap times. Compared with mass-market premium cars, Aston Martin is more emotional and rarer; compared with hardcore track brands, it is more polished and road-focused. Aston Martin is for buyers who want a grand tourer or sports car with character, and it is recorded as a United Kingdom company.