My father also used to have a DB7 volante, deep burgundy red with a cream roof. It was pretty much the most beautiful car I've ever seen, to see it sitting on the drive when I walked home from school (this was quite a while ago
) made me actually want to go straight home for my tea
I used to spend hours just staring at that car
The interior was cramped and full of Ford switches, the handling left a lot to be desired, everything was loose and it was by no means a particularly reliable car. It cost a fortune to run, like you said ?ú1500-2000 for a service was regular, over ?ú1000 for a set of tires which lasted about 5000 miles. Plus if anything ever went wrong (which happened quite a lot) no matter how small, you were always looking at a huge bill, the worst was when the aircon died, that cost over 3k
But that car was just so gorgeous that none of these little problems mattered. You would go to the garage to pick the car up, they would hand you a bill for thousands of pounds because a light bulb blew, and you would ask to go and see the work they had done. As soon as you clapped eyes on the car the price would just leave your mind and you would write out a cheque without even batting an eyelid.
Thats the thing about the DB7 for me, it was so flawed, and yet it was the best selling Aston ever because everyone who saw it would experience love at first sight. It cost the earth, a Ferrari or Porsche would probably be a better car in every way, but none of them looked or sounded anywhere near as good and none had those wings on the bootlid 8)