2009 Aston Martin DB9

2009 Aston Martin DB9 Volante – Click above for high-res image gallery Let's say a clandestine organization asked you, for your country, to "take care of" an enemy of the state at tonight's performance of Tosca at The Met. And let's say this organization gave you the choice of any Aston Martin in which to conduct the evening. Which Aston would you choose? If you said the DBS, we hope you've arranged bail. You're getting caught. Quickly. Despite its impressiveness, the DBS is just a little over the top. Driving it says to the world, "I'm rich (or I have rich backers), I'm sociopathic (or at least self-centered), and I kill people (or I've had them killed)." There's no denying this. Attempt to pull off your mission at the opera and you'll be fingered before the body hits the ground. "It was the guy in the suit and the DBS," the rattled, blood-spattered socialites will tell the authorities just before you're whisked off to a damp, underground bunker in a country created by the breakup of the USSR. The better choice? The 2009 Aston Martin DB9 – even the Volante. It's got just enough gentleman to remove you from suspicion, but the faintest hint of evil to make fearsome things happen when needed. We had it for a weekend, yet despite the urge and a twitchy trigger finger we never got the chance to test out our "cleaning" abilities. %Gallery-34389% Photos copyright ©2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc. Although the Aston Martin DB9 has been around for six years, we never tire of seeing it. And two years on and after seat time in a number of other magnificent cars, the DB9 Sport Pack remains one of our favorite driver's car (that doesn't really have a trunk, but we'll get to that later). Generally, we prefer coupes, but the DB9 Volante is no poor thing to lay eyes on, top up or down. The way the fixed-roof variant's greenhouse tapers into the tail and creates those voluptuous hips is part of the car's perfect completion. The convertible maintains those crucial lines in back, and the loss of the C-pillar doesn't make it less beautiful, only different. If you're a convertible person, this is a vehicle you'll always enjoy staring at. The center console is a fabulous upgrade over the fussy interior of the previous model. The beautiful and far simpler aluminum-accented DBS theme raises the visual and tactile game on par with the rest of the cabin, and Aston makes – hands down – the most handsome seats in the business. They're as pleasurable to sit in as they are to look at. The dashboard dials are sparkling and intricate, but the speedo has too many hash marks for us to register things quickly, so we keep our eyes to the right on the tach and the inset digital gauge. The steering wheel is the only blunt instrument in the cabin, not counting the Bang & Olufsen stereo, which …
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