ASTON MARTIN DB9 VOLANTE

Very pretty, very sexy, wonderfully noisy. But not quite the dynamic treat you want.

• Comfort

  Dampers, suspension arms and bushes have all been tweaked to help smooth out the ride on the Volante, but it won't quite get to grips with the cruiseability of the Bentley GTC or the outright precision of the Ferrari F430 Spider. Still, you can wander about looking cooler than Mr J. Bond, so the comfort side of things gets a little sidelined.

• Performance

  Power is up in the latest iteration to 470bhp from the 6.0-litre V12, with an accompanying 442lb ft. That translates to figures that aren't too shabby: 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds and 190mph top end. Impressive enough, though it's the noise that makes it sound properly fast. Addictive aural stimulation.  

• Cool

  Car-people will probably see the Volante as rich frippery, mainly because of the associated rigidity cancer that tends to infect chop-tops. But they will still be very jealous when they see one drive past. OK, so it's a bit Liberace to have any convertible Aston, but if you're rich enough, you don't care. 

• Quality

  There have been murmerings of quality issues with early DB9s. Electrical and trim gremlins, various little niggles that mar the whole experience. Hopefully they should have been sorted by now, but it's impossible to say on first glance. Everything does look utterly gorgeous, has the tactility of a supermodel's thigh and makes you wonder why you didn't work harder at school or invent Google. Just be sure to get things fixed quick if they look even slightly shonky. 

• Handling

  A slight irrelevance if you're plumping for the Volante in the first place - you're quite blatantly in the frame for more show than outright go, but the DB9 isn't half bad. At least, not as bad as the previous DB9 Volante. Still not up there with the best though, which is a bit of a shame. Mind you, not many owners will notice, because they probably can't drive it fast enough to find out. Bitter? Us? Yes. Quite a lot and quite often. 

• Practicality

  The DB9 is a big GT and therefore copes pretty well taking care of you on a daily basis. OK, so the bootspace gets eaten into with the roof folded, but you can always use the back ‘seats' as extra stowage. You can see out of it and is even relatively easy to drive - you could use it every day and not feel hard done by. You'll feel like a Premiership tosspot or his orange and vacant WAG, but not hard done by. 

• Running costs

  Big. Aston's drink heavily, have massive insurance bills and need to be surgically inserted into some sort of special machine to be serviced. Mind you, the residuals are still doing ok, so tell that to the red-faced bank manager just before you show him the £122,950 receipt you'll have if you buy one.