cars-trend: 2010 Aston Martin Rapide

Don't call it a sedan. The 2010 Aston Martin Rapide is, according to company insiders, "the world's most elegant four door sports car". And for once the PR hype is right -- the first production Rapide, unveiled at a private party the night before the first press day at the Frankfurt Show, looked damned elegant under the lights at the hip Roomers Hotel. And it is a sports car.
Let's cut to the chase: The Rapide's back seats are nowhere near as roomy as those of the Porsche Panamera. Elegance has a price -- whereas my 6'2" frame will fit behind a driver's seat set to my optimum driving position in Porsche's four-door with an inch of kneeroom to spare, my knees are brushing the backrest in the close-coupled Aston. Surprisingly, I have an inch or so of headroom in the Rapide, but that swoopy greenhouse means I can't see much out the side window without stooping. And getting my big feet out from the deep footwells involves some ungraceful contortions.
Okay, so it's not like a limo back there. But does that mean the Aston Rapide is a failure? Not for a moment. The reality is that the Rapide, like most S-class Benzes and 7 Series BMWs, will only occasionally carry four adults, and then only for relatively short trips. "This is perfectly okay for a half hour trip to a nice restaurant," says Aston CEO Ulrich Bez of the Rapide's rear cabin. And he's right.
The rest of the time, the Rapide owner can bask in the warm glow that, unlike the Porsche Panamera, his fast four-door is turning heads for all the right reasons. You can bet he won't be spending a lot of time explaining why the Aston looks the way it does. It's viscerally gorgeous.
The car is built on Ulrich Bez's clever VH flexible architecture, which means it shares a lot of hardware under the skin with existing Astons. Front and rear suspension is similar to DB9. Only one engine -- the 6.0-liter V-12, tuned to develop 470 hp and 443lb ft of torque -- will be available, driving the rear wheels through an upgraded "Touchtronic 2" version of the ZF six-speed automatic.
While it looks a lot like the concept first shown at the 2006 Detroit Show, the exterior has been extensively revised, says Aston design director Marek Reichman. "The concept had a DB9 front clip," says Reichman. "This front end is all-new, with different headlights. It has a more muscular, more powerful look." The rear doors now open almost 90 degrees, and the rear seats have been set lower and more rearward. "The millimeter crunching; the constant structure versus space argument, was the toughest part of doing this car," Reichman says.
The rear luggage compartment has a capacity of 10.6 cu ft. A moveable bulkhead and rear seats that fold flat at the touch of a button increase that to 26.5 cu ft. The load area is accessed via a hatch, but with the glass brought flush to the hatch opening, the Rapide looks like it has a traditional trunk -- a clever move given that Americans, who are expected to account for 30 percent of total Rapide sales, are notoriously averse to buying hatchback cars. Aston Martin will offer a bespoke five-piece luggage set for the car, tailored to precisely match the chosen interior trim.
The interior features Aston's new center stack, with clearer, easier to use controls than the button fest of the original DB9, and the car will come with a Bang & Olufsen audio system that includes the signature motorised tweeters that rise from either side of the dashboard, first seen on the Audi S8. Twin DVD screens integrated into the front seats provide entertainment for the rear passengers, giving them the opportunity to watch a film or create their own personal soundtrack to accompany the drive.
The Rapide will be the first Aston Martin built outside England. Magna-Steyr, which builds the Chrysler 300C, BMW X3, Saab 9-3 Convertible, Mercedes-Bennz G-class, and soon the Porsche Boxster, will assemble the Rapide in its Graz, Austria, plant. "We don't really have the capacity to build the car at Gayden," says design director Reichman. "It would cause too much disruption." The Rapide will have its own line at Graz, and its own team of Aston Martin quality control inspectors.
First U.S. deliveries of the Rapide are scheduled for the second quarter of 2010. Price has yet to be finalized, but insiders say the car is being positioned under the DBS coupe in the Aston hierarchy, so expect a sticker around $220,000.