Aston Martin sales increase by 448%

The old saying "There's nowhere to go but up" came to mind when we learned from PistonHeads that Aston Martin sales jumped 448% this year. The raw sales number went from 226 units last year to 1,238 so far in 2005. The relatively huge increase can be credited to the new DB9 introduced in 2004, and the forthcoming DB9 Volante convertible and V8 Vantage (shown). Currently Aston has 105 dealers around the globe and plans to increase that number to 125 by the end of the year, and eventually to 140 dealerships in 32 countries after that. It's new manufacturing facility in Gaydon, Warwickshire can produce up to 5000 Astons annually, and the British sports car builder plans to max it out by the end of this year.