Tweedehands Aston Martin

Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford founded the company in London in 1913 and named it after the Aston Clinton hill climb where Martin raced. The DB initials arrived in 1947 with David Brown, the tractor magnate who bought the firm and gave it the DB2, the DB4 and, in 1963, the DB5.

That DB5 was James Bond's car in Goldfinger, and no product placement in history has done more for a brand. Aston Martin won Le Mans in 1959, went bankrupt seven times, and kept building the most beautiful grand tourers in the world through every one of them, from the V8 Vantage to the Vanquish and the DB9.

Today the range is the strongest it has ever been: the Vantage, the DB12, the V12 Vanquish, the DBX SUV and the Valhalla mid-engined hybrid, with a works Formula 1 team and Adrian Newey designing the future. Gaydon still makes cars the way Bond would want them: fast, elegant and slightly dangerous.