The Aston Martin DB9. Power, Beauty, SOUL. One of the most beautiful cars to ever make production. A thoroughbred GT car with beautiful, elegant and graceful styling combined with a wonderfully musical V12 engine to make it one of the most desirable automobiles of the present day.

Minichamps makes this 1:18 scale model of the DB9 and although they are well known for making quality cars, their products were not exactly cheap. Here’s where this car comes in, Minichamps have started a brand new line of model cars targeted at the semi-budget customers in mind. Priced below their normal range of cars, but slightly higher then Maistos/Hotwheels. It’s almost like the modern day equivalent of UT Models.

Paint

The Aston Martin DB9 Coupe comes in a silver-grey with a very very slight hint of purple mixed in. It’s a very good color for this car. (Although i would have preferred a lighter shade of silver) Paint application on this car is as good as the higher priced cars Minichamps produces, nothing to complain about here. Very smooth and even paintwork throughout the car’s body. Paint matching between the metal body and some plastic panels are very good as well. Aston Martin insignia logos are all painted on and very finely detailed.

Exterior

After going through the wonderful paint application, we will now look at the exterior bodywork of the car. The stance of the car is spot on and almost perfect but there are a number of things to highlight here, mostly bad, probably due to the nature of this car being in the “semi-budget” range of cars. From the front we see the the grille, very well done, but below the grille, the air vents up front are simple black moulded plastics with no proper openings at all. Lights are slightly above average at best, but nothing to shout about. Side turning indicators are also, painted on. Rear lights are colored plastic lenses which are good, but could do with a little bit more detailing to make them even better. The third brake light under the rear glass is a single stripe of silver paint.

Panel gaps all around are not consistant, some slightly more obvious then others. Panel gaps for the doors are very obvious though. The airvents on the sides have a nice strip of chrome attached to them, but again, no proper openings, just a black piece of plastic to simulate the airvent. Air vents on the engine are again, not real mesh, but simulated mesh using painted plastics. The most obvious fault of this car is revealed once you open the side doors, they have very little spring resistance and will open at the slightest touch. The real car has doors that swing slightly upwards, but on this model, they don’t just not swing upwards, but due to the low spring tension, they even droop slightly. Very poor here. If budget manufacturers like Maisto can make proper doors, i don’t see why Minichamps cannnot.

Front engine hood opens up to reveal a very plastic engine, the underside of the engine hood is painted the same shade of silver as the body, not much on the engine either. The boot opens up to reveal again, a very plastic luggage compartment. The plastic used here is very harsh and unpleasant. Overall, though there are many instances of cost cutting here, if you keep your car doors, engine hood and boot closed. It still looks pretty good because of the wonderful stance of the car. From a few feet away, you can easily mistake it for a higher-end model, just don’t get too close. Admire from a distance. (And never open the boot)

Interior

Interior is another casualty of cost-cutting on this model. When you open the sagging doors, you are again, greeted with the same harsh plastics used in the engine and the luggage compartment. Simply using beige/brown paint to simulate wooden panels just doesn’t cut it. Detailing here is kept to the minimum without compromising the overall look of the interior. What is needed is here but if you want more, looks elsewhere. Carpeting is non existant. The dials are fully made up using a single piece of sticker. The only nice feature here is the thin chrom rings around surrounding the Aston Martin badge on the steering wheel and the chrome surrounds on the side air-con vents. One thing to take note of though, is that unlike budget manufacturers which will usually leave their interiors unpainted, this car has paint where it is needed. Seatbelt buckles, centre console buttons are all painted. Looking up towards the ceiling of the interior, we notice there is no headling but simple use of moulded plastic for the sun-visors. A very average interior indeed.

Wheels & brakes

The rims of this car are of a rather simple design, but they are made well enough. Detailing here is above average, with the lug nuts appearing to be individual units. Aston Martin logos are painted on and look very good. Great detailing on the logos here. The same cannot be said of the brake calipers and brake disc, both being made of the same plastic material which has very slightly silver flakes to simulate metal. The brakes look very plastic although the disc spin independly with the wheel. The rear has 2 seperate calipers, one for the normal brakes, another for the handbrake. Great detailing here marred by the use of cheap plastic materials. (Most likely due to cost cutting measures) They get point for their effort though. Tyres are again, “brandless”.

Summary

When this car was announced i was waiting for it with great anticipation. It took quite a while before it reach local shores. The price was slightly higher then what i expected. I had high hopes for this car but these high hopes were dashed the moment i opened the doors. The cost-cutting measures with the use of plastics i can live with, but i do not understand how Minichamps could have released the car with sagging doors. The doors are the main fault of this car. Aside from that one major flaw, this still remains a very desirable model to have, mainly because of the beauty and style of the real car. As well as the fact that the only other manufaturer to make this model is Solido, another semi-budget maker. Given a choice between the 2, i’ll take the Minichamps version. Taking into account the slightly lower price, this model represents good value for money. so pick one up if you have the chance, at the price range, it’s pretty good. Although it can’t compete with Autoart or the normal range of Minichamps on the fine details, it still manages to look very good next to those higher price cars. Why? Probably because of the almost perfect stance of the car, which lucky for us, Minichamps paid proper attention to. Is the new semi-budget line the UT Models of the present day? Almost… but for now, that honour goes to Jadi Models.

Overall: 6/10
( A model in this range reflects an average model. Its positves and flaws balance each other out making it an adequate model. Not the worst, but also not the best.)

*Rating system and review was written with reference to DiecastXchange’s review guidelines*

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 6th, 2005 at 10:10 am and is filed under Updates, 1:18 Reviews, Aston Martin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.