Let’s get this straight.
You buy Playboy to read the jokes and watch a James Bond movie to see the cars.
And that’s why the folks from Aston Martin are excited about the fact that the Pierce Brosnan rendition of 007 will tool around in a V-12 Vanquish in “Die Another Day,” the next (20th) in the series that reaches the screens in November.
The British secret agent first drove an Aston Martin in 1964 (“Goldfinger”), a DB5 with such options as ejector seats and rockets, but not a single cupholder.
He next drove a DB5 in 1965 (“Thunderball”), a DBS in 1969 (“On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”), a DBS in 1971 (“Diamonds are Forever”) and a Vantage V-8 in 1987 (“The Living Daylights”) but hasn’t driven an Aston Martin since a DB5 in 1995 (“Goldeneye”).
Automakers salivate to have one of their new machines exposed to the public in a film and pay dearly for the right to drool uncontrollably.
Aston Martin won’t say how much it had to pony up to get Bond’s butt in the leather bucket of the $230,000 Vanquish. Aston Martin insisted that the filmmaker approached it, and that it didn’t go hat (and checkbook) in hand to the filmmaker. But despite being courted, Aston Martin did pay a dowry.
Should the Aston Martin in the Bond film motivate you to run down to the store to pick up a copy of your hero’s wheels, prepare to be shaken if not stirred–even if you have the $230,000–when the salesman asks you to come back in three to four years.
The V-12 Vanquish, introduced for ’02, is sold out for the next two years–and there’s an 18-month waiting list for those that won’t be assembled until three years from now.
Of the 500 cars to be built each of the next two years, only 170 are earmarked each year for the U.S. market.
The V-12 Vanquish is powered by a 6-liter, 460-horsepower V-12 with a 6-speed manual and claims a zero- to 100-m.p.h. time of less than 10 seconds.
The V-12 is offered as a two-seater or a 2-plus-2 coupe. But neither ejector seats nor rockets are available. No cupholder either.
CO {-2} ratings
A report issued by Environmental Defense, a New York-based nonprofit group that claims 300,000 dues-paying members, says when it comes to polluting the atmosphere, General Motors is the No. 1 offender.
But the study was flawed.
The group based its finding on measuring the carbon dioxide produced by new vehicles sold each year. It didn’t follow each car with vials to catch exhaust fumes, an impossibility with only 300,000 members, but used a formula based on sales and fuel-economy ratings.
The GM fleet imposed the largest “carbon burden” by producing 6.7 million metric tons per year, followed by Ford at 5.6 million tons and DaimlerChrysler at 4.1 million tons.
While GM was carbon burdener No. 1 in amount dispensed, it ranked 5th in the percentage increase in 10 years.
Toyota, maker of the gas/electric Prius, “posted the m ost rapid growth in global warming pollution,” the study said, with its carbon burden growing 72 percent between 1990 and 2000, compared with 33 percent growth for all automakers. Prius wasn’t the cause, of course, rather it was all the trucks and sport-utility vehicles Toyota has introduced since ’90.
Toyota was followed by DaimlerChrysler with a 61 percent increase between 1990-2000; Ford, 25.8 percent; Honda, 22.1 percent; GM, 12.8 percent; and Nissan, 12.4 percent.
The study is flawed because if the metric tons released by new vehicles are less than the metric tons released by old vehicles, you get a net benefit. The study didn’t report on the amount of CO {-2} that wasn’t released each time a new GM or Ford or Toyota or Honda replaced an older one with outdated emission controls.
And the study didn’t mention that new vehicles with anti-lock brakes, traction control and air bags tend to be safer than old vehicles.
Maybe next time.