Aston Martin V12 Vantage And Rapide: Delivery Dates, Pricing Revealed For Australia

Australian pricing and delivery dates for the raucous V12 Vantage and super-suave Rapide have been let slip, with Aston Martin informing TMR that local deliveries of the V12 pocket rocket will commence in late October/early November this year, with the Rapide following a few months later in March 2010.

"We've only just in the last two weeks released pricing and opened up the ordering system for dealers to spec customer orders for the V12 Vantage," said Marcel Fabris, Aston Martin's regional sales manager for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

"We've had quite a bit of interest in the last 12 months on the car, now it's just a matter of translating that interest into real orders."

And how much will one of these 380kW two-seaters cost you? A not-too-insubstantial $395,000 plus on-road costs will get you in the driver's seat of a V12 Vantage, which is a pretty hefty sum for most of us.

But relatively speaking, it's a bargain. It's less expensive than a Mercedes SL600, just as powerful, much faster and, with just 1000 being made, a far rarer beast.

"We're going to bring the car here over three years, and in total over that period of time we'll build globally no more than 1000 cars," Mr Fabris said.

"Approximately half of that volume we're going to try and bring to market in the first twelve months of production, and we're expecting to bring into Australia 20-25 cars over the next twelve months."

As for the Rapide, Aston Martin's first four-door since the Lagonda left the scene in 1989, that's still a little too far off for an accurate idea of pricing to be given.

"We'll be handing over customer cars around the back end of March next year," Mr Fabris said.

"At this stage the most that we're prepared to say is that the Rapid will sit between the DB9 and DBS in pricing, so that will see it in the low to mid $400,000's."

The order books for both cars are rapidly filling, if not already full. So, if you've got a big bag of money laying around and a penchant for fine British automobiles, you'd better give Aston Martin a call quicksmart.