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Well, obviously, even I could build a machine that would last 15 minutes so I can't judge, but my colleagues took the car to Scotland and back and say it's the first Aston ever which arrived back at base with no warning lights on at all. Well, apart from the handbrake 'on' one which never went out in the first place.

That said, I still won't recommend that you buy a Vantage straight away, which is fine because you can't. There's a two-year waiting list, by which time any early niggles should have been sorted out, even if it'll probably cost you the price of a small country by then.

Here's the deal, though. The clincher. What would I do to jump that queue? Would I, for instance, be prepared to talk to one of the German engineers who'd helped build it and, if so, for how long? Would I let him talk at me for a week, a day or would I give up after a millionth of a second and go and buy a Porsche instead?

There are some issues, chief among them being this one: when you buy a Porsche 911, you get Porsche engineering from the headlamp washers to the rear numberplate bracket. You don't in the Vantage.

Yes, the Cologne-built engine has an Aston cylinder head and Aston valve gear and it makes an Aston noise too, but you know, deep down, that really it's a Jag cake with Aston icing.

Then there's the key, which is from Volvo, and the satnav, which is a Volvo unit too. And this is the stuff you can see. How much, behind the scenes, is Ford? And if there is as much as I suspect, why am I being asked to pay £79,500?

Would I ever get away from the fact I was driving a glorified Mustang with Volvo accessories and a German heart?

Obviously, the noise helps mask a lot, but even this gives me some cause for concern. It's coming from a relatively conventional V8, one that's only been made to sound so shatteringly violent by a tricksy exhaust valve.

Let me put it this way. If there was no such thing as badges, if all cars came from the same company with the same pedigree and the same history, would I buy a Vantage or a Porsche 911? You might not like the answer to that one. I know I don't.

But happily, cars do have badges and the companies behind those badges do have pedigrees and history.

So here, then, is my conclusion. In a Porsche 911, you're going to have a very good time actually driving the thing, but everyone is going to hate you. They're going to give you dirty looks as you drive by, call you names at the lights, vandalise your paintwork in the night and never, ever let you out of a side turning. That's a given.

In the Vantage, everyone's going to want your babies.


Read Aston Martin V8 Vantage Car Review

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V8 Vantage Roadster - April 16, 2007