Picture this: It’s 2011, and you’re running Aston Martin. Your company builds just four vehicles: The entry-level Vantage, the fleet-emissions compliance Cygnet, the DB9, and the DBS. You have the lower end of the luxury sports coupe market covered with the Vantage and the DB9, and the higher end of the market secured with the flagship DBS. But with an $84,000 price gap between the DB9 and the DBS, you see room for a fourth model to split the difference.
Your solution? Well, because you’re running a small company, there isn’t enough budget to design and develop an entirely new model. So instead, you greenlight yet another two-door, V12-powered grand-tourer using DB9 and DBS bones. That was the basis behind the Aston Martin Virage, a model from the British automaker that sold so poorly it was canceled after just 18 months of production, with no replacement.
Looking back, it’s easy to see why the Virage failed. It targeted a niche within a niche of another niche, without differentiating enough on looks, features, or performance to justify its higher price over the DB9. It’s a mostly forgotten piece of Aston’s recent history, but one that’s endlessly fascinating.
Splitting The Difference
You could say 2011 marked the beginning of a slump for Aston Martin. The prior year, 2010, would be the last period the brand would turn a profit until 2017. By 2011, all of its cars, save for the adorable Toyota-based Cygnet, were still using the same aluminum architecture introduced with the DB9 eight years prior. The platform, as well as the Ford-based engines Aston also used, meant the company could save on development costs and keep margins high. While that was good for Aston’s bottom line, it was getting to a point where people were starting to notice. From a 2011 Automotive News piece on Aston’s finances:
Of 15 current vehicles, all but the four-door Rapide and Cygnet city car are two-door coupes or roadsters. Aside from the 1 million-pound One-77 supercar and the Cygnet, which is derived from Toyota Motor Corp.’s iQ, all cars are based on the same aluminum platform first introduced in 2003 with the DB9.
“It’s still that same old basic design,” Ian McCallum, who designed the DB9 and is now design director at Tata Motors Ltd.’s Jaguar Land Rover unit, said in a July 27 interview. “Some will argue that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But you do get to a time when you have to move on.”
Still, it wouldn’t be until 2016—five years after the above quote was published and 13 years after the DB9’s debut—that Aston would introduce its next truly all-new model, the DB11. In the near term, it decided to stay leaning on the DB9’s architecture by expanding its portfolio of stunning grand-tourers. Thus, the Virage was born.
The Aston Martin Virage made its debut at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show, entering production as either a 2+2 coupe or a “Volante” convertible. The video above shows Mat Watson, who you might know better as a presenter on the popular YouTube channel Carwow, showing off the car from his time at Auto Express. Marketed by Aston Martin as an in-between car to sit between the comfort-angled $189,230 DB9 and the sportier $273,275 DBS, the Virage carried a starting price of $211,610.
The Many (Subtle) Distinctions
It’s easiest to think of the Virage as combining the looks of the DB9 with some of the performance upgrades of the DBS. From some angles, it’s nearly impossible to tell the Virage apart from that year’s DB9, seeing as how it uses the same proportions and rear-end design. The front was at least a bit different, benefiting from a larger grille and more angular headlights borrowed from the then-new Rapide four-door. There were also specific side sills and a diffuser out back.
The interior’s differences were even more subtle. The DB9 and the DBS already shared an interior design, so Aston wasn’t about to revamp everything for the middle-of-the-road model. From Top Gear’s original review:
Step into the Virage, and you’re greeted with a DB9’s interior. Or a DBS’s. Which is fine, but there was scope for Aston to be bolder. A customer who bought a DB9 in 2004 is going to be met by exactly the same interior when they spec their 2011 Virage and might rightly feel hard done by. Sure, build quality is improved, but in that first glance around the cabin, everything looks exactly the same as it did seven years ago. Things need to move on.
But then, just as with the bodywork, you start to notice subtle differences. The quality of the materials is better, for a kick-off. The DB9 makes do with clear plastic on the switchgear; the Virage has real glass. All of the controls for the electric seats are machined out of metal in the Virage, and the satnav is now made by Garmin.
Mechanically, the similarities continued. Like the DB9 and the DBS, the Virage got Aston’s 5.9-liter naturally aspirated V12 engine, paired to the same ZF-sourced six-speed, paddle-shifted automatic transmission, sending power to the rear wheels. The company made it a point to dial the Virage’s power to where it sat exactly between its two siblings, making 20 more horsepower than the 470-hp DB9, and 20 fewer horses than the 510-hp DBS.
There were also a couple of chassis upgrades to make the jump from DB9 to Virage more worthwhile for buyers, too. You got two-mode Bilstein adjustable dampers, and specific springs and bushings that were designed to make the car handle better than the DB9, but not as good as the DBS. Meanwhile, carbon-ceramic brakes from the DBS were standard.
That original Top Gear review praised the Virage’s ride, pointing towards those new dampers and other suspension tuning as marked improvements over the DB9.
[E]ven in its stiffer setting, the Virage still rides well. Better than any other Aston bar the Rapide, in fact. The steering isn’t the last word in feel, but it’s precise and you get a good sense of what the car is doing beneath you. Grip levels are also impressive. Despite the mass of that V12 lump pressing down on the front wheels, the Virage turns in well, and there’s a lovely, direct feeling to the chassis. The handling is snappy.
Interestingly enough, Top Gear concluded that review by predicting the Virage might make the DB9 obsolete, seeing as how it was a clearly better driving experience for not much more money. But in the end, it was the DB9 that survived, and the Virage that was put to pasture.
Why It Failed
On the surface, spreading out Aston Martin’s grand-tourer lineup made some sense. One look at Porsche and its dozens of 911 trims will tell you that people love to pick and choose between specs, power, and performance in their sporty coupes. But for Aston, the strategy just didn’t work. According to Classic Driver, Aston Martin managed to sell just 656 Virages over the car’s entire production run, making it one of the rarest regular-production Aston Martins in the company’s modern history.
The sports car maker quickly realized that its model line was stretched pointlessly thin, so for 2013, it consolidated the DB9 and the Virage back into one vehicle, adopting all of the Virage’s updated looks. Instead of keeping the Virage name and retiring the DB9 nameplate, as Top Gear predicted might happen, the opposite occurred. This was the most logical outcome; the DB-line has decades of history and brand cache behind it, while the Virage name hadn’t been used since the late 1990s, for an ultra-low-production V8 coupe that not many people know exists.
It wasn’t just the updated looks from the DB9 that made the Virage irrelevant. The DBS was also retired that year to make room for the more powerful Vanquish, so the DB9 got the DBS’s 510-horsepower V12 and that trick active suspension. Meanwhile, with a starting price of $188,225, it undercut the Virage in price by over $20,000. There was simply no reason for a third GT car to exist here, especially now that the DB9 had all the looks and gear it was originally lacking.
Despite their rarity, used Virages are actually cheaper than the DB9s that replaced them. The cheapest post-facelift DB9 I could find online is this one on eBay Motors, listed for just under $68,000 with 40,000 miles on the clock. Meanwhile, there are a couple of Virage Volantes up for sale in Jacksonville, Florida, with asking prices closer to $50,000, both with fewer miles than that DB9.
Seeing as how few Virages were made, I wonder whether people will be drawn to this car as a future classic. With looks like this and a V12 under the hood, it certainly has potential.
Top graphic image: Aston Martin
This will probably be an unpopular opinion, but as generally ‘pretty’ as Astons usually are, they all look so G-damn similar that it’s quite off-putting to me as a car enthusiast. I stipulate that I’d never buy one myself even if I could afford it, so my opinion is less than worthless to the company of course. Honestly, there’s so little visual difference between varous Astons over the past couple decades (excepting the occassional hypercar version of something, replete with aero add-ons that make it ugly as sin so as to justify the multimillion dollar price tag).
It is, as the orange idiot often says, ‘sad.’
If they were just using Ford stuff anyway why not just keep the V12 for the top shelf and use hyped up but lighter V6s and V8s in the lower trim cars? Too much like Jaguar?
V6s in an Aston does see way too downmarket Jaguar.
I dunno. Other exotics had souped up V6s and it didn’t seem to hurt them:
https://daxstreet.com/cars/262396/10-best-v6-sports-cars-that-dont-sacrifice-reliability/
I mean if they’re willing to put their badge on a tiny Toyota four banger why not something with a V6?
I photographed one of these at Miller Motorcars back when new, and even standing next to this and a DB9 was bewildering. Most of them were silver, too, I had to keep track of the VINs to be able to tell which car was which in my photos.
I think the Virage was the prettiest car Aston made during a period where their styling language was at it’s absolute peak. The newer cars are still pretty but more fussy with a lot of excessive details, these cars were very clean and simple. I totally agree there was no buisness case for the car and consolidating it with the DB9 was the right call.
For a hot second, that top shot made me think this was going to be about a “Filson” edition of an Aston Martin – which would make zero sense on so many levels.
Top Gear (rightfully) killed this car. When it was announced, they dug into its obvious “middle child” pricing, power and performance. If they made it a top trim for the DB9, I think it might have gone off better
One day, I’ll get one of these. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day. And in orange too.
I remember thinking “how did they get away with that” when Ford’s 2nd generation Fusion came out with a very Aston Martin-eque front grill. I thought it was attractive at the time, and I think it has aged well.
I kind of wish I had test driven one back in 2017 when I instead bought a V6 Honda Accord. Don’t get me wrong. I really like my Accord, and I have no idea how the Fusions have held up mechanically.
I had a rental 2016 Fusion back then and was pleasantly surprised by it-and I agree they’re a great looking mid-size car but you could also feel the Ford cost cutting in random things. Sorta rubber bandy feeling steering, steering wheel itself was weirdly spongy, had enough turbo lag (iirc 1.4 ecoboost) to be annoying even though it was pleasantly peppy once spooled, had sort of weird handling that initially felt like it was going to be able to hustle but then was just a bit too soft and body roll prone once you started pushing it (at least for my taste). I haven’t driven an Accord your generation but I’d be shocked if the Fusion was as good a product based on my general Honda driving experiences.
Well Ford owned Aston at the time, they aren’t going to sue themselves for copyright infringement
I always think of this ear of Astons as having ‘Ford face’. I’m pretty sure it was actually the other way around, but it’s fun to wind people up 🙂
If I won the lottery (which would be quite a feat since I don’t play) I’d have at least one each of this generation of Aston Martin, and the successive generation as well probably. The mainline coupes are driveable pretty sculptures, the cygnet is cheeky in the best way, and the Rapide is unusual in appealing ways (though the rear doors are aburdly small).
I don’t understand Aston Martin’s fixation with V-names. But I guess like an Adam Sandler movie, the most appealing ones have a name starting with V.
Seriously, though, Virage? On its face it’s either Mirage with a V, or an anagram of Viagre, which I guess would be a knock-off of pfizer’s little blue pill. I know it’s taken from French, but ot still seems a bit of a stretch.
Ugh, it’s so pretty that I don’t care what its name is.
If I’m winning the lottery and buying an Aston Martin, I am never not buying a manual, V12 Vantage.
If I won the lottery I sure as heck would not be buying an Aston Martin from the Ford years to today. Bond, James Bond era and earlier, thanks… Though I am a huge fan of the good old V8, Vantage and Volante too. The modern stuff? Might as well just buy a Jaaaag and save wads of cash.
Each to his own. The V12 Vantage has always had a special place to me, possibly because of that Top Gear segment.
DB4 Series 4 thank you, before the first round of bloat.
Same here, though I sure wouldn’t kick a DB5 or DB6 out of the garage. Or a V8 Volante Vantage “Prince of Wales”. This is a proper motor car:
https://kidston.com/motorcars/1989-am-v8-vantage-volante-pow/
King Chuck had good taste as a young man, at least in cars, if not so much in women.
Or if I REALLY won the lottery, a DB4 GT Zagato. Just need a spare $10-15M to toss out.
All beautiful, but if push came to shove I’d be getting a Ferrari 330 GTC.
A lovely choice as well. Or a Daytona. Or a Dino, or any of them of the 60s-70s. Or a 911 for that matter. Or a Maserati Bora or Merak, or a Lamborghini. An embarrassment of choices.
That would among my first purchases! Green over brown, with the brogued leather. Mmmmmmmm.
I once came upon a Cygnet in a parking lot in London and I’ve been enamored with them ever since. I’ve thus far resisted the urge to strongly campaign that Mercedes convert her wife’s iQ into a Cygnet. I’ve researched the conversion package and it’s definitely possible.
I don’t get the Aston focus on V-models either other than maybe an homage to the V-series of postwar bombers? I can say that “Virage” is French for “turn” though. Pretty tenuous connection.
Lovely cars – but I don’t really see the point over a Jaaaaaag.
Brand cachet, V12, nicer interiors, and folks won’t expect you to dine and dash while carrying a painting off an accessible wall.
Don’t forget the Aston Martin-branded umbrella on a special bracket in the trunk. The interior is a game changer though, for sure.
Not really a reputation I have ever correlated with Jaguar owners, but you do you I guess. Nicer interior is very debatable on the DBS, and I like the basic architecture of the F-Type interior better. Plus much more readily available with a stick.
Not sure Aston Martin has really had much more brand cachet than Jaguar since Ford bought them both. Especially in the years where you needed some sort of pictorial guide to even tell them all apart. The punters aren’t going to know the difference between a DBS and an F-Type until they are close enough to read the badge. Which I think is one of Aston Martin’s biggest problems to start with.
Before I bought the Virage, I cross-shopped Aston and the F-Type. The F-Type is achingly beautiful and you’re 100% correct that most people aren’t going to really be able to differentiate. You’ll get “sure is pretty” with both cars. The main thing people know about Astons is that James Bond drives one, which as a brand I feel they’ve been coasting on for years. While I’m happy to bask in the reflected glory, it’s not a long-term brand strategy.
I will say that the interior of the Aston is a special place to be. I found the quality of the leather is better vs. the F-Type, even after 15 years. They’re both great though.
The thing I dislike the most about the interior vs. the F-Type is the absolutely ridiculous back seats. I don’t know who would possibly ever use them but they go to the Zoolander School for Kids Who Can’t Read Good.
Ultimately it’s been a fantastic owner experience so far.
I figure the back seats are just a nice place to put your briefcase, like most every other 2+1/2 GT. And it probably allows the seat to go back a bit further if you are long of leg.
I get the cool and rare factor, but is the interior $10s of thousands nicer? The cost difference is a lot smaller used than new, but it’s still a good bit more for the Virage in the same condition/miles, even if relatively speaking you are taking advantage of the first owner in terms of depreciation even more than with the F-Type. New they were definitely “I have f-you money” cars, at which point practicality (and cost really) doesn’t matter in the slightest.
Beautiful car for sure though!
The “stealing a painting” thing is mostly a British thing, which admittedly I hadn’t encountered before the Top Gear/Grand Tour trio shared it.
Jaguar and Aston used to be more direct competitors, but under Ford Aston got pushed upmarket a bit, and Jaguar a bit downmarket and with increased production. Much like how the DB7 used the Jaguar XK platform, the DB9 and its brethren were made on the “horizontal/vertical” platform which I believe was a Jaguar platform intended to be for the cancelled 2000-ish F-Type project which got “cancelled”. The DB9-era cars also got various other FoMoCo collaborations, with Volvo electronics amd some Ford/Mercury/Lincoln controls and buttons.
Historically, Aston Martin was in a completely different realm of existence from Jaguar. Jaguars were relatively cheap cars that offered big performance at value pricing. That was NEVER part of Aston Martin’s bespoke playbook. That’s the problem. Aston Martin all but completely lost it’s individual identity under Ford ownership. Just a collection of Ford family bits in a pretty wrapper that looked far too much like the much cheaper Jaguars that used the same bits. Nicer leather only gets you so far.
Pre-2013, I’d definitely pick an Aston over an XK. The F-type makes the overlapping Astons a harder sell from 2013-2024, though.
I dunno, to me the ’90s Jag XK is even MORE indistinguishable from the Aston Martins of the era than the F-type is. And a heck of a lot cheaper either way for basically the same experience, minus some nicer leather and a touch more speed that I don’t need in the first place.
I’m lucky enough to own a Virage and it’s fun to see an article about the car. I’ve only owned it for roughly a year and can say it’s fantastic! Pretty from all angles. Makes you feel special when you get in and start it with the glass key. Sounds amazing both inside and outside the car. Fun as hell to blast around on country roads.
This is my first ‘exotic’ but I’ve often been drawn to weird or uncommon vehicles, and the Virage definitely scratched that itch. I hadn’t been in the market for a Virage specifically but I found a good one with an extensive service history and pulled the trigger. So far, no problems.
It’s fun to be unique but it’s also a curse when you’re endlessly hunting down one-year only parts (hello 1968 Pontiac GTO). The good news is the Virage shares a lot/most parts with the DB9/S, and some with the Vantage, all of which they made a whole bunch (relatively). There’s a lot of Ford/Jag-common parts as well so that hasn’t been too much of a problem so far.
That being said, get ready to pay for shipping from the UK on the regular and I live in fear of the day I inadvertently curb the Virage-specific wheels.
that’s awesome! must feel weird having to constantly explain to people that your DB9-looking car is, in fact, not a DB9
I would say the knowledge of Aston Martin models is pretty limited among the general public. You can generally just saying “It’s an Aston Martin” answers most of the questions you get. You’re going to get blank stares if you start to go into detail (ask me how I know…).
Yeah, but I suppose it’s better to be paying to ship parts from the UK for an Aston freakin’ Martin than for a Saturn Astra.
I once had a co-worker that had an Opel-based Saturn and she took it to a mechanic to have it serviced…they tried to claim that they needed to order coil-packs from Germany and it would cost $1500 alone…and this was in 2016.
It definitely makes the medicine go down easier.
I’ve drooled quite a bit over those cars. I’d love to have a screaming Aston V12. I don’t think I could ever stomach owning one, though. I have limits as to how much pain I want to deal with on my cars, unfortunately.
“Fail, Son!”
All I can hear is SWG saying this…
I keep trying to convince myself that owning an old DB9 would be fun. There’s no Aston mechanic within 500 miles of me.
After seeing just how cheap used DB9s are, I’m in that same boat. At least a lot of the parts are Ford/Volvo
Yeah. I know an Alfa enthusiast and mechanic, but literally no Aston ones. But I love the look of these.
I’ve owned a dozen Alfas, so, got that covered. The Aston seems like a hassle to deal with it.
It’s best to think of them as trim levels rather than distinct models. It would be like if Porsche renamed the 911 Carrera, 911 Carrera S, and 911 Carrera GTS to be 3 “different” models and not just trims.
Detroit used to do this all the time, think Chevy Caprice, Impala, Bel Air and Biscayne in increasing order of cops and cabbies plainness.
Not a specific model – I never knew too much about the specs of the 3 different models – but this bodystyle was my fantasy “rich guy car” that I’d buy if I won a big lotto jackpot.
I stopped being into super/hypercars in my early teens, but there’s just something about this generation of Aston that’s soooo sexy. I didn’t care about the performance or HP numbers; I just loved the look.
Ditto. If I ever win the lottery (that I don’t ever play, so very, very long odds on that happening 😉 ) one of my first purchases will be an AM from this era.
Right there with you. I lusted hard after the DB9 when I was younger. That vintage of Astons have not aged a single day. Update the lighting to LED and (from the outside) they would still look fresh.
Those looks and the V12 together must make for a wonderful experience. This is probably one of the cheaper avenues into the V12 club.
False advertising – attaching that top shot to a blog that doesn’t mention Lance Stroll even once…