Top 7 for 007: Rating Bond's rides

Some were better than others, but the Bond flicks get us going back to the theater every time. There's just something irreplicably stylish and enchanting about the entire series, and 007's rides make up a big part of that allure... at least for hopeless car nuts like us. But just like the acting and storyline vary with each production, so does the coolness of Bond's cars. So where does each one rank? Just prior to the launch of the latest installment with Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, the pundits at Cars.com convened two specialists to rank the top 7 of 007's cars.

Earning top honors was the classic '64 Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger (which we also got to see in its cameo encore appearance in Casino Royale), ahead of the '75 Lotus Esprit featured in The Spy Who Loved Me. Surprisingly, the '97 BMW 750iL from Tomorrow Never Dies started from the second row, out-qualifying the '85 Aston Martin Volante from The Living Daylights, the 1930's Bentley Mark IV (From Russia With Love), the 2002 Aston Martin Vanquish (Die Another Day), and the '99 BMW Z8 (The World is Not Enough). The experts also gave honorable mention to the markedly more affordable '61 Sunbeam Alpine from Dr. No.

For our part, we'd certainly have placed the Vanquish ahead of the 7-Series, and ahead of the '85 Volante, but the real question is where the specially-made Aston Martin DBS would slot into the list. (And for that matter, what will Bond drive in the next episode?)

[Source: Cars.com]