Aston Martin Vanquish Volante & When Car Tech Goes Too Far

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and do that with Acrobat. I'm Hannah Elliott. And I'm Matt Miller. This is Hot Pursuit. Coming up on the show today, we talk about Hannah's deep dive into how some car makers are pivoting away from the newest highest tech on which they were initially all-new

in. Yeah, basically, you know what? Just because it's new doesn't mean it's great, right? Totally agree. This is something actually that I think you mentioned to Ola Colenius recently. So, see you Mercedes. Exactly. This is coming out of multiple conversations, especially in Munich at the IAA show, but it's kind of industry-wide. It's really interesting to note. All right. That is coming up on today's show. And I think we're probably going to all agree with you because if you're listening to this podcast,

it's probably somewhat of a purist when it comes to cars. Probably. And also maybe just a sensible person who likes intuitive logic and common sense. These, you know, common sense isn't really necessarily that common, apparently. And we don't need all of these gizmos and doodads and gadgets. Totally agree. We like a few of them, though. First off, though, I want to talk about what I think may be the most beautiful new car.

That I've ever had my hands on. Your love. I am absolutely in love. And to be fair, we get to drive these, you know, high-priced super luxury vehicles. It's not often that I'm driving the newest Nissan Centra, right? No. But this has been a string of exceptional weeks for me when it comes to getting press cars. I am. And it's not that. So, for example, I had the Rolls Royce ghost a couple of weeks ago.

And obviously it's a $500,000 car. Almost everything is going to be good about it. And I just wanted to say this because I was thinking about it and someone was asking me why I complain about these things. Oh, I, I do try and highlight the downsides of these vehicles because they're clearly going to be so many upsides to a half million dollar car.

Sure. But as we often stress, price and how good something is for the task, whatever that task is, are not necessarily related. They're not. But you can't use price as a, as just an indicator.

I'm just saying, though, as a baseline. And I used to say this all the time, but I've stopped saying it because otherwise it would be on every show.

Like I typically get to test drive cars that cost 80 or 90 or $100,000. They're brand new. They're sent to me by the manufacturer. So they're obviously going to be really good.

Plus they're super modern. They're going to be efficient. They're going to shift well. They're going to, you know, compared to whatever you had as your first car in high school, they're going to be, they're going to blow your socks off. So what I try and do is pick out the things that aren't so great.

Without having to say, like everything else is fantastic. Well, I think we have to talk about how you're defining, quote, unquote, really good because, of course, yes, any car that's new in the market today is going to be better than one from 30 years ago, for sure in terms of efficiency and engineering. That's just called progress.

But I think these cars should be evaluated within their competitive set. How do they stack up against the other cars in that segment and in that price point that a consumer might be considering because at the end of the day, we're trying to tell people, hey, if you are seriously considering buying this car, this is what you need to know about it. This is the context. And this is how it stacks up against other of its contemporary cars.

That's a fair point. So the car that I'm talking about is the Aston Martin vanquish and what a beauty. I am driving the Vellante version, the 2026 Aston Martin vanquish Vellante.

I guess that means convertible in some language in Aston Martin. Yes. And I will say that, um, I don't know very many people who could afford to buy this car. I mean, it is also surely that's not true, Matt.

All right, I mean, because of because of where I work, sir, I know a lot of very rich people. But in terms of regular dudes who live near me, you know, like the guys I see at school pick up are not going to buy a car that costs the base price of this vehicle is $483,000 and as it is options. The one I'm driving the suggested retail price is $595,300.

So it may be a million dollars more than it may be sick. You know, this may be the most expensive car that I have.

Ever driven outside of the Bugatti, she wrote that I was lucky enough to drive in Germany, because more than the Rolls Royce, more than the Rolls Royce, um, I haven't to be fair. I haven't driven all all these Ferraris that you drive. I haven't driven a Ferrari since the FF.

This is more than a couple Ferraris as well. It's going to be more than a lot of those. It is an incredibly expensive. So I'm just saying, like, I can't compare this to many other vehicles that are in the same, you know, stratosphere because there just aren't that many, right?

Yeah. And, you know, okay, granted, this is a gorgeous supermodel of a car. I think it's the best little car I've ever driven.

Completely. No one is arguing that at all. But I do think, and I've said this before many times before, Aston Martin's are overpriced.

This is this is to think that you're paying over half a million dollars for an Aston Martin convertible is frankly insane.

And I would do it. I would do it because listen, if you, if you're going to buy a $600,000 car, I have to assume that means you have rather get a Ferrari.

You have many multiple millions. And I don't know about that. I haven't seen a modern Ferrari that looks this beautiful. The lines actually remind me of the 70s Ferrari Daytona Spider 365.

The one that, the one that Don Johnson drives in Miami Vice, although his is just a Corvette dressed up as a Ferrari, but I think it is incredibly exceptionally beautiful.

It is so powerful, 824 horsepower from a 5.2 liter twin turbo V12. I, at one point driving to work this morning, I looked down and realized, without knowing it, I was doing consecutive.

Uh, trippy digits. Yes. Yeah. How specific do we want to get? And I think in order to buy a $600,000 car, you have to have multiple millions of dollars of liquid assets. Yes. Yes. Yes.

If I had, you know, $10 million in cash, I would definitely buy this car. I can't think of anything else that looks this good that's coming out new.

Now, if I were you and I went to all these collector car shows and auctions, maybe I would find an actual 1972 Ferrari Daytona 365 Spider instead.

Oh, yes. But that wouldn't be about a 488. I love the, I love the 480. Yes. I agree it's beautiful. I think I'd probably just from reading about it, because I haven't driven either one, but I think I would rather drive the four or buy the 458.

Because remember we were talking to Mark Royce from General Motors and he said when they were looking to benchmark the Corvette, they got a 48 and they were like, and this actually isn't as good as the 458. So they sold that one and got the 458 instead.

I think a 458, I just think the 88 is a little more distinctive, but I will agree with you that it's both beautiful cars.

And we don't have to get off subject, but I've been looking at lately 365's, 360's and what's the 430 to try and decide which one you'd buy if you're looking at one of those kind of around the $100,000 mark, but let's put that aside for now and just talk about this car.

Because it is absolutely beautiful. The convertible top mechanism works great. It doesn't have many of the things that previously Aston Martin would have these blemishes or these weird kind of anachronistic features that you thought like this doesn't look up to date.

Huge Aston Martin question marks like what is what are they thinking, but this does I think for the most part it checks every fix is that you've driven it what was your take on it.

I extremely beautiful, extremely powerful to me it felt very wide. It feels it's a big car it feels wide it takes up a lot of space within the driving lane.

I thought it drove pretty pretty great. I would have liked to I mean it's it's not a nimble it's not a nimble car like you might expect from a 911.

Yes, sorry to say that it's not quite as nimble and elegant even as some of the Ferrari's even like a Ferrari Roma to be honest. I know that sounds crazy.

It's just it's more of a it's more of a touring car that doesn't sound crazy and actually so you can change modes by swinging the dial that surrounds the start button and I've noticed that

you know those cars will have normal and then sport and then track or whatever the normal mode for this car is GT mode.

So they know it's a GT and actually when I was I walked out to my driveway to get in it for the commute this morning and it's you know the hood is so long.

It's a big car. I thought man this thing is huge and it yes you know honestly terrifies me a little bit to drive these.

The Rolls Royce was scary for me to pilot around because it's so big and if I heard it I'm afraid a I'm going to be liable and be you know Jerry and the guys at Rolls Royce are never going to talk to me again.

Matt you'd be far from the first first or the last press person to I don't mind like you know if I if I hit a wall with the Camaro but if I do it with you know these six.

Sorry Chevy $1.00 cars.

In any case I when I got in it and I drove it and I took it down the Bronx River Parkway over the cross county down the springbrook.

To the sawmill to the Henry has the West Side Highway so that is a commute that a lot of so New York.

Yes New Yorkers know and love and even at five in the morning.

You still get some wheel to wheel action you know like considerable especially and I actually didn't have any problem planting it exactly where I wanted to I will say

the only the only problem they had are the only concern I would have with this is when it's in full auto mode and of course you can't get it in a stick which.

That was another topic I know I talked to I was talking to Lauren stroll about this a couple months ago and he was like we could do it and I was like wow you're

really optimistic he's just was saying that to me I think we get a headline and you know he's the billionaire owner so he's like yeah we can

know but his his being counters are going to be like dude we cannot do that but I so when you have it in full auto mode and in sport it

down shifts so quickly that it is really scary and I worry that I won't be able to keep control of the vehicle so I

instantly put it back into manual and drove with the paddles because when you when it steps down to like

or third and you're already doing 80 or 90 not that I was doing that speed all of a sudden you're doing 130 and you're like whoa

and that would be illegal and I would never do that on public roads so I prefer to keep it in the manual paddle shift mode

because you have more control over the acceleration which is like when you touch the pedal hard it's like a

it's like a hell cap that you get real slippage right away right and I don't necessarily think that is a good

thing to be quite honest not not if you're worried about scratching it you know well right it for a car it

would be nice if it was a little bit more predictable or confidence and confidence inspiring

so my point is that for the most part I thought it was really confidence inspiring there were no

times when I was worried about rubbing somebody else or scraping the barrier and I was weaving fairly New York

ish Lee you know the only control issue I had is when I dropped the hammer in auto mode in sport it

it just downshift so quickly that you're all of a sudden you're accelerating so much with 824 horsepower

it really is it felt a lot faster than the Mercedes GT63 SE performance that I had

which also was 800 horsepower and a thousand foot pound of torque

but probably half is expensive

literally well no less than half is expensive right it was 250

that's what I keep coming back to to be honest and I just looked up the numbers on Bloomberg intelligence

our data side of things Bloomberg intelligence says that vehicle prices at

Aston Martin are more than four times the average price at Mercedes and more than two and

a half times the average price at Porsche

and I know what they're trying to do they need cash but I just don't the Aston Martin to me

would be like if I already have all those other cars then I will also get that

yeah I mean you have to this has got to be for the woman who already has everything

of course we're talking very hypothetically but also that's the great thing about cars

we all like to dream and we all like to imagine if we could

this is what we do it's very aspirational that's a wonderful thing

we're all dreaming here I also think this is just going to be such a rare

vehicle you're not going to see you'll see a lot of advantages probably

you're not going to see a lot of vanquishes out there and

when you do I recommend you spend some time

to really look at the vehicle if you can get it and it's very comfortable

even for someone of my height which is I was going to ask you

it's the seating is very low it's low but which I like

which I like room and all leg you know we've discussed this

so I think I think they've nailed it on almost every level

of course I would prefer a stick it's obviously not going to happen

this is a more of a GT cars you point out anyway so maybe

you don't need that and I felt the driving experience

is I can't wait to get out of this studio and go drive it right now

and for the record I would say that this vanquish is

steps better than previous ass and marns

the cars are continuing to get better they're continuing to improve

they're all going in the right direction I think they understand that

so as much as I'm in love with this vehicle

the first 600 they better make something amazing

I do think it is the most beautiful new car in existence

there is a flaw and it's similar to a flaw

that I noticed that really kind of irked me on the Rolls Royce

and we're going to talk about that next because this

gets exactly to the heart of your story on

Bloomberg.com right now and on the Bloomberg Terminal

there's more hot pursuit coming up right after this

now let's talk about Hannah's latest piece on

car makers needing to pivot away from some

verbal last minute deals make chasing fresh mountain powder

incredibly easy with thousands of homes close to the slopes

you can easily get epic cow freshies first tracks and more

months of planning in fact you can't even plan pow

pow is on its own schedule thankfully somewhere in the

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minute filter on the app to book a last minute deal on a slope side

private rental home book now at verbo.com

of their new fancy tech and tell me about

I mean this is something you kind of talk about to some extent

in regards to the Mercedes volume knob but tell me about the

genesis of this story I mean we talk about this type of thing pretty

regularly and it was the volume knobs at Mercedes that

really kind of crystallized the idea in my head because

when I was in Munich at the IAA show last month

for the debut of the new GLC which is Mercedes top selling SUV

you know multiple board members at Mercedes were very open about

that hey yeah by the way we are bringing back the

real roller switch on the steering wheel that you

operate with your thumb that controls the volume that everyone loved in Mercedes

that no one had a problem with they had gotten away from that with a

haptic version and Mercedes folks were very open saying

we're going to go back to the roller thing because everyone loved it and we realized

we didn't need it like we did we just didn't need it no one was asking for the new

file and I thought that was great and then when for instance

Tesla had their big problem with their electronic door handles

you obviously we talked to Franz von Holeshausen the Tesla

designer about that and Franz told us hey we're actually going to

reconfigure these electronic door handles that have been

criticized as a safety handle hazard that really got me

thinking you know what there is a moment when auto makers

right now are being a little bit more introspective

and they're saying actually we're going to listen to consumers

and really read the market here and we're not just going to throw

new things at you just because we can or the dirty little secret

just because it'll save us money which is another aspect of

some of this new tech that we can talk about well I can imagine one of the ways

that at least those car makers who can afford it or those selling cars to people

who can afford to pay for it is at one point

the whole industry went to everything on the screen like every

even the climate control was in the screen or the

the air events yes we're screens exactly

what consumers want even consumers who love new technology

is actual buttons and knobs especially for the things that you need on a regular basis

right completely another example which I thought was

no interesting is Lincoln which had put their

active park assist and a lot of their vehicles for a couple years

they spent a bunch of money developing this pretty actually pretty

well working system that would automatically park your car for you

and Lincoln would look at their consumer data

consumer data that they capture in the cars and they realized

nobody was using it like nobody was using this

active park assist thing because you know you can park your car you don't need it

and so Lincoln just announced that for the 2025 model you're they're taking it out

because no one used it and they don't need to put it in so that's another example

of just this idea that you're saying that we don't

need necessarily new things that are answering

a question that nobody's asking that's that's interesting

I think I don't 100% agree with that because

that park assist automatic park assist on our

2020 G wagon and

I used it a fair amount because that's also a car you don't want to scratch

in Berlin yeah and the only problem with it

is that it's a little bit finicky to activate

and but after I figured it out I would use it a fair amount when I was driving this

Rolls Royce Ghost a couple weeks ago also

I was like all right I don't want to risk trying to park this thing myself

because it's a boat and I don't want to even nick the paint

but again it was it was a little bit too difficult to

activate and use and you mean that because to activate it

you have to get the car in a very specific position

you have to go into the screen and yes

I've experienced that too it's like you have to do everything exactly just

so and I think that's why

it doesn't get used maybe you're the exception Matt but I don't for me

I don't know the patience I'd rather just take the risk and park it myself

I don't know how much of it is the fact that I'm always driving test vehicles so I don't have time to live with

and experience them so in the car that you know

my wife and I bought and we used it on a regular basis

when I had enough time to figure it out I did use it more often

in tight spots in Berlin you know for some reason they think all cars

should be the size of a fiat panda and so

it was more necessary I feel like if I if I actually owned a Rolls-Royce

Ghost I probably would figure it out to the point where I could use it on a regular basis

and hopefully car makers

because I think that's great functionality like

the the auto park yeah I mean you may be good at parking

and my wife for example is amazing at parallel parking

how confident I'm feeling I am not very good at it and

I'm also horrified of scratching rims

and that's the worst sound in the world

and for some reason I mean this is another sort of it's not a high tech thing

but I wish car makers would get away from giant wheels

you know that have no sidewall I you hated that in the rolls

yeah and I hated on all cars

like I want sidewall and I also want the wheels

protected by the rubber on the tire so that when I do hit a curb

it's not a you know $5,000 mistake

so I like park assist but yeah I get that you know

we should say to that just trying something out

in a new car and then walking back from it is not a new thing

this has happened in the history of cars and one perfect example of this is

do you remember in the 80s and 90s those automatic

shoulder belts that were attached to the car

when your seat belt is served to you

yes which I actually thought was the height of sophistication growing up

I thought it was very cool but those were prone to twisting

and sticking and half of those doors were so big anyway it was

not elegant to like engage it

so those went away especially when what's the word

driver airbags when airbags became standard

that basically did away with the safety harness did you have a car have a car with the safety harness on it

well by safety harness you mean the the little arm

automatic yes the seat belt yes have I ever owned a car that had that

I don't think so although there have been cars

in which I wish that was it keep in mind I scoot my seat

all the way back and I lean

and I lean the seat back so I can usually grab it pretty well

but no I I can imagine that those would break easily

and you need to pay money to fix them so you know what I would always do too

is just on you could unclip the shoulder section

so the little modular would run

across the top of the door with nothing attached and I would just always unclick

because I had actually had an accurate legend

at one point in college and I just unclicked it because it was annoying

and it didn't really work interesting

one modern tech feature that the that the ghost had which I wish more

car makers would give you is instead of reaching out to close the big doors

and I have this problem in my challenger and it is actually

like a major first world problem with the Aston Martin as well

Rolls Royce has just a button that you hold

in the console and the door closes automatically for you

have you ever closed it on your leg

do okay I have done that

doesn't it have some sort of safety mechanism that makes sure it doesn't

yeah there is a safety thing you have to keep your finger on the button

yes true yeah well you can't just push the button once and the door closes

no matter what not like you have to keep right you have to keep your finger on the button

if you take your finger off the door stops which is a nice little thing can I tell you the

the major complaint that I had with the Rolls Royce ghost

and the major complaint that I have with this Aston Martin vanquish

and one that I would have in plenty of cars certainly in

9-11s is car makers had developed especially luxury car makers high-end car makers

had developed the most beautiful analog gauges

and a lot of cars like a Rolls Royce ghost that was a selling point they have the

gorgeous white face and they have these black

no yeah exactly arms and so beautiful

and when I'm operating a motor vehicle I want to see that kind of thing

now they've gone to these screens in the dash

the Aston has it

well every Porsche has it now

and I get that they're configurable somehow if you fiddle with it

and maybe you have your own favorite configuration but

they're just so ghetto compared to

a car that you're paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for you want the analog gauges

and I imagine this is a way that they're just saving money

yes and this is something that has been bothering me

because Porsche just

announced the interior for the 2026

Cayenne electric SUV and that interior I was hoping that

maybe they listened to customers and they decided to go back

to at least a couple of the dials in the dashboard

being analog because as everybody knows

Porsche has five gauges they went down to a few

being computerized and now they're all computerized

with you know go back to some actual analog

old world gauges they did not do that and now

I mean the whole thing is a computer screen

yeah I was fortunate the amount of money

they're not making right now

they've had profit learning after profit learning the stock has been actually

they don't really have the cash turn they need to save money where they can

and the development

about making cars people want right well the development cycle of these cars is

also multi-year right now they decided like when they

had a GTS launch in severe last year and you

said to Oliver Bluma

here Bluma I really don't appreciate these digital gauges

he probably would have said like well we need to save money right now

putting these digital gauges on a $200,000 car but

we're developing a new 9.11 Hanna and it's going

to have actual analog gauges because that's we know what everyone wants

it's going to have a handbrake instead of an electric button

because that's what we know everyone wants

and it's going to have an optional stick because although it's expensive we charge multiple

hundreds of thousands of dollars for these 9.11s

and so we are going to give the customer

what the customer chooses because that is long term thinking about

yes it's going to cost more money but in the end if we sell more cars

then it's worth it if anybody should put actual beautiful

platinum analog no I was going to say Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce doesn't do analog gauges I mean they don't

need to cut corners but also Porsche because think of all the racing history

that built up the Porsche brand and racing and like real

chronological time-keeping pieces are

so integral to each other it just would make

it's like a sporting it's a sporting brand it's motor sports

every piece of motor sport history has tons of gauges and time-keeping machines

and you know a car

enthusiast is so much more likely to wear a traditional

mechanical watch a mechanical watch

completely even though

the apple watch can do so much for you right you'd rather have something

that ticks well the other thing too is anytime

for this article about the tech

I keep going back to but if you you know I spoke with the editors from Edmonds

and from Kelly Bluebook and they both said

flat out all of our research indicates consumers

are so over screens period yeah I mean

and these are independent third parties this is separate from the automakers trying

to tell us what we want or what they think we should have I mean

I don't know how much more clear you can get well hopefully you know if it takes

five years from start to finish to develop and then sell a car

maybe we're going to start to see more

I would love it

all right that does it for this week's show remember to follow

and subscribe to hot pursuit on apple spotify anywhere else you listen

to your comments and questions email us at hot pursuit at bloomberg.net

for sure and check out my columns and stories on bloomberg.com

and the bloomberg business app you can also go there for car reviews

events and stories that you won't find anywhere else find it all

at bloomberg.com slash pursuits slash autos

I'm Hannah Elliott and I'm Matt Miller will be back in your podcast feed

again next week

.

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