2005 - Aston Martin Db9 on 2040-cars

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The AM37 is literally the Aston Martin of boats

While sports car companies such as Porsche and Lamborghini are looking to SUVs to expand their offerings, Aston Martin has taken a page from Mercedes and designed a boat. Specifically, it's a 37-foot powerboat appropriately named the AM37. The boat was developed with help from Mulder Design and Quintessence Yachts, and is available in two different versions, both of which should the aquatic equivalent of Aston Martin performance. The standard AM37 is available with two different pairs of engines from Mercury, either 370-horsepower diesel engines or 450-horsepower gas engines. If that's not enough, Aston also offers the AM37S, which comes with a pair of 520-horsepower gasoline Mercury engines. Like road-going Astons, this boat is absolutely gorgeous. The lines are simple, crisp and clean. It features a beautiful wood deck, and an impressive double-curved, single-piece glass windshield. And if you get tired of the sun, the AM37 features a powered, carbon fiber bimini top. The interior completes the package with a carbon fiber dashboard, lots of leather and polished steering wheel, throttle and joystick. It's also incredibly well-equipped with seating for eight, air conditioning, mood lighting, refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker, a bed that folds out from the table, and even a bathroom. Aston Martin didn't release pricing or availability for the AM37. However, we suspect that if you really want this boat and have the means, pricing doesn't matter, and you're probably willing to wait. Related Video: Image Credit: Aston Martin Auto News Aston Martin Mercury Luxury boat

Aston Martin DB5 hood used to make Atelier Jalaper watches

There are more than a few famous movie cars, like Eleanor, Doc's DMC-12, the Bandit's Trans-Am, and Bullitt's Mustang, for instance. There are hardly any movie cars that are famous, beautiful, and lustworthy, and that 60 years later are still having a moment. Consider that Aston Martin produced the DB5 from 1963 to 1965, sending only a touch more than 1,020 units into the world, but it seems like every six months we get a new take on either the car itself or something having to do with the car. Atelier Jalaper is the latest to make an entry in the latter category. Two gents got the idea to produce a watch using something from a historic car. After putting the Jaguar E-Type, AC Cobra, Ferrari F40, and Aston Martin DB5 donor cars up for vote on Instagram, the people chose Bond, and the results are the AJ-001 and AJ-002 watches. The journey started with a successful Kickstarter campaign, which was the easy part. With money in hand, it took the two men behind the company a year to find an authentic hood from an original DB5. To ensure provenance, Atelier Jalaper had Aston Martin Works verify the hood, a two-hour process that produced a 20-page report on the Silver Birch unit. The men then visited Switzerland to find the engineers and watch maker who could turn the metal into a timepiece. The engineering involved tasks like flattening the hood and removing the nine layers of paint while leaving the metalworking marks and patina of the raw steel, and a 58-minute-long process of lasering texture into the dial. The actual watch bits include a Miyota automatic movement visible though the clear back, numerals that resemble the odometer figures in the DB5, and a choice of two complications. The AJ-001 features the date, the AJ-002 features the day and date. Both are available in a polished steel case or a matte black PVD case. The series is limited to 600 units, each serial engraved into a button on the left side, and customers can choose a serial number if it hasn't been taken already. Prices start at ˆ800 ($814 U.S.) for the AJ-001 in stainless steel and go to ˆ1,150 ($1,170 U.S.) for the AJ-002 in black PVD.     Related video:

Aston Martin losses shrink, still amount to nearly $10k per car

Aston Martin's current lineup may be the best it's ever been, but that doesn't mean the automaker is making money off its Vantage, DB9, Vanquish and Rapide dream machines. In fact, the company lost $41 million in 2013, but that pretax figure is actually a third lower than in 2012. Revenue was up a promising 12.6 percent, according to Reuters. The Kuwaiti-owned British manufacturer blames its losses on the still troubled global economy, acknowledging that it's seen a small recovery in the ultra-high-end segment of the market. Global sales were up from 3,800 to 4,200 in 2013. To put it all in perspective, $41 million in losses on 4,200 units works out to around $9,700 lost per vehicle sold. That's no way to run a railroad. While the company's CFO, Hanno Kirner, told Reuters the company is hoping for a big bounceback by 2016, Aston's fortunes in the United States remain uncertain due to a new federal side-impact standards. The company has filed for exemption, although the jury is still out on the success of that petition.