Buying a new car is a lot of fun, but the second you drive that car off the lot it loses most of its value. That is unless you decide to buy a used car that has already taken a depreciation hit. We are huge proponents of this practice. There are tons of old luxury cars that may be a bit risky, but can be bought for a fraction of the original price. We recently found used examples of the BMW i8, which have already depreciated below half of their original MSRP. Aston Martin always seems to be hit hard by depreciation, which is a good thing for the right buyer.
We have featured several Aston Martin models on our Supercars On A $50,000 Budget series. Models like the DB9, DB7 and V8 Vantage have all dropped well below the $50,000 mark. The Aston Martin Rapide hasn't become that cheap as of yet, but we still wanted to take a moment to talk about how inexpensive they have become. Aston Martin released the Rapide back in 2010, and it became the brand's first four-door model since the Lagonda, which began production back in 1974. The Rapide shared a platform with the DB9, which made it a very unique competitor in the four-door sports car market, with competitors like the Porsche Panamera and Maserati Quattroporte.
Even compared to the competition, the Rapide felt more like a sports car, thanks to its DB9 underpinnings. The Rapide also had one of the most special engines in its segment, a 6.0-liter V12 with 470 hp. The biggest problem that the Rapide had was its insane price.
Back in 2010, a new Rapide would cost just a hair over $200,000. Even compared to the Porsche and Maserati, this was just entirely too much based on the car's performance. 470 hp was not bad, but even at the time, the Panamera Turbo produced 500 hp for around $65,000 less. The Rapide also had some lackluster interior technology, which was dated even at the time, as well as an old-fashioned six-speed Touchtronic automatic transmission. Even with the older transmission, the car had respectable performance figures with a top speed of 188 mph and a 0-60 mph time of 5 seconds. Neither of these numbers is very impressive today, but the car's current price tag is quite fascinating.
We did some searching, and found used Rapide examples for as low as around $60,000. The cheapest example that we found was a 2011 model with 47,000 miles on the odometer for just under $60,000. This mileage is a bit high for such a high-maintenance car, but we did find other examples with under 30,000 miles for less than $70,000. This means that it is now possible to buy a four-door Aston Martin for the same price as a new BMW 540i or Mercedes E43 AMG. Neither of these new cars has as much power as the Aston, and neither can even come close to matching the Rapide on cool factor. It may be a gamble, but the Rapide is finally looking like a good deal.
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