Corona times also have something good, such as cleaning up the home office. While clearing up I discovered some old Aston Martin Owners Club magazines.

10 years ago: I made it into the anniversary issue of the Aston Martin Owners Club

The background:
On my 50th birthday I bought in England an Aston Martin V8 Vantage (you don't treat yourself to anything else…do you?). At the same time I was accepted into the Swiss Aston Martin Owners Club and 2010 at the first event in Switzerland, my wife and I already won the rally.

2010 - In the first year as a member of the Swiss Aston Martin Owners Club and at the first event in Switzerland, my wife and I already won the rally ….two fine examples of genuine Swiss precision ;-)

By the way, I sold my Aston Martin Vantage in 2014 after four years - but I still have my wife ;-) After all, life is more important than beautiful cars.

„After all, life is more important than beautiful cars. “

— roland steffen

A short story about my Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Aston Martin has had ups and downs in over a hundred years of history and has been on chapter eleven many times. At the end of the eighties, Aston Martin sold few more than 10 units per year in Switzerland...and all of them kept coming back to the importer Emil Frey in Zurich because of technical issues.

So I wanted to see the quality for myself and flew with my wife to the Aston Martin factory in Gaydon, England. At that time Ulrich Bez was still CEO of Aston Martin and I was allowed to meet him personally during my time at the Aston Martin Club Switzerland.

During this visit to the Aston Martin headquarter I was able to see for myself the quality and craftsmanship that still goes into all models.

After this visit in September 2009 my decision was made - I will order the Vantage V8. At that time the English Pound was at an all time low and the Swiss Franc was correspondingly strong. After comparing prices between Aston Martin offers in Switzerland and England, I decided to order the Vantage in England (this was still possible at that time, but was stopped a few months later by Emil Frey). I asked for quotes via email from various Aston Martin dealers in England and finally decided on the best offer from Stratstone Aston Martin Mayfair in London (hello Martin Brownless, still there?). In the end I saved 26% including costs for transport and import compared to the best Swiss dealer offer - a bargain…;-)
At this time the world wide financial crisis was still going on and there were only a few orders at the Aston Martin factory in Gaydon (normally you wait approx. 12 month for your new Aston). So I was lucky and already after 6 months of production, in March 2010 I was able to pick-up my Vantage V8 Convertible at Stratstone Aston Martin Mayfair in London. The transport company I have organized took the car from London and delivered it to my door three days later...

…and by the way, during this four years as an Aston Martin owner I had never a technical issue with the car!