Aston Martin DB9 or Jaguar XK

I know what’s in every one’s mind. Just like me, you are all wondering which car to buy – the Jaguar XK or the Aston Martin DB9 :). I’ve been inundated by emails asking me to suggest which one to get! So here is my blog comparing the two.

Well – here is a basic summary of the two cars.


The DB9 has the same engine as Vanquish (from Die Another Day – Vanish). The XK (’06) has the same engine as (’05) which is not really a bad thing – but suggests poor progress. Either way – the XK engine is a good one – not too far behind the DB9.

The DB9 transmission is probably the best transmission money can buy. If you ask me, its better than the Pagani Zonda’s transmission. The Jaguar has a very good transmission too – I don’t want to make it look bad. Its just very hard to beat DB9 in that aspect. Both are 7 speed steptronic/triptonic gear box.

Now – here is a photo of each of them.

Yes – they do look strikingly similar. Because they both were designed by the same person.

Incase you didn’t know this – I am sorry to break this to you. Aston Martin and Jaguar are owned by Ford Motor Company. So what Ford has done (not surprisingly) is design the two cars together – share some concepts, some ideas and even some fixtures. What do I mean by sharing?

So I took the above 2 photos and imported them in Matlab. Then I merged them with the image toolbox and created this photo.


You see the body (shape) is almost identical. The only differences I can see are the wheels, the light fixtures, engine side intake (behind front wheel) and the tail wing/tail light. Well there is some difference in the window and the seat – but that’s not a big deal.

But wait – it doesn’t end there – here are pictures of the interiors


Well – once again – you can see a lot of similarities. The instrument panel ; the steering wheel (minus the symbol on it) etc. No complaints here – I am not criticizing it – I am just showing how close they look.

Do you want to know something else? Well, the other company that Ford owns in Europe is Volvo. So what has happened here is they have put a lot of fixtures from Volvo. Once again, I am not particularly complaining as the interiors look very very good – but I am a bit offended that you can buy a much cheaper Volvo and get the same good Jaguar Interior looks. Here is a Volvo S80 interior photo – make your own judgment (especially keeping you eyes on the instrument panel).



Cost
Jaguar price are from its website. Aston Martin price is from other sites – not perfect.


Aston Martin DB9 170,000 $ in the US; and in the UK - 110,000 pounds (205,000 $)
Jaguar XK 80,000 $ in the US and in the UK - 60,000 pounds (112,000 $)

Don’t currency convert – I did it there just for the sake of it. I mean by converting – it will not make much sense. What you can see though, is that, the price difference between the 2 cars is about 50,000 pounds in the UK and 100,000$ in the US.
I think – definitely, that the Jaguar XK is a better buy than the Aston. (Deepak should be a bit happy – he was a Jaguar owner). Let me explain – the Jag is more Car/Dollar than the Aston is unfortunately. I know - when you own an Aston (especially in the USA), you are probably the only person in a huge radius to own one. That’s not the case with Jaguars – you are never to far from one. More over, the Jags some time tend to attract older “wanna-be-cool-but-too-old” people. But this XK is clearly different. I mean they even removed the trademark Jaguar marque/statue in the front. JD Power rating put Jaguar in Top 5 car manufacturer(results announced yesterday – will blog about that too). So basically, Jaguar is a very good company.



Let me put it this way, to own something this close to the DB9 for 100,000 $-off, is a jackpot. I mean the Aston is better in almost every technical aspect, but I don’t think it is worth the extra 100,000 $. So people, when you do buy one (either one), do give me a call.

(Phoro Credits : Aston Martin , Jaguar and Volvo website)