We already saw this coming from a mile away, but this week, CarsUK.net came with the “official” news that the Virage will be discontinued. Without mentioning any source for the news, they report that “Aston Martin has decided that there are just too few buyers who feel the Virage is enough of a step up from the DB9 to warrant the extra cost.”
The Virage was originally placed as a model between the DB9 and the DBS.
Next year, the DBS will be replaced by the new Vanquish and the Virage will be dropped from the Aston line-up, to be replaced by the new DB9. Which looks exactly like a small facelift of the Virage.
Confusing? Yes, it may seem so at first. But I think in the end it will result in a less confusing model range: Vantage – DB9 – Vanquish. Still, I would prefer to have seen the DB9 name being dropped in favor of the Virage name.
Vantage – Virage – Vanquish… sounds so much better.
Next step: drop the V8 Vantage S and move up the V8 Vantage specs to those of the V8 Vantage S? (it’s very close now anyway).