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IntelliChoice Value Rating
The chart above shows the purchase price versus ownership cost for each car from a specific vehicle class. The cars with better than average ownership cost/purchase price correlations are the best values, and these best value cars are represented by the dots below the curve. (i.e. the cars that have a lower ownership cost compared to its purchase price.) Those cars, which are worse than average or poor values, appear above the curve.
One way to view the graph is to draw a vertical line through any purchase price. You may see several dots that fall on this line - each of which is a car with a similar purchase price. However, notice the difference in ownership costs of each car represented by the vertical position of the dot. Two cars with the same purchase price can have thousands of dollars difference in ownership costs. This is what separates "good value" cars from "poor value" cars.
What is a good car value?
A "good car value" is one whose cost to own and operate is less than expected. The lower the cost to own and operate a car compared to what is expected, the better the value of that car.
But how do we know a car's "expected cost"?
For each car in the class, IntelliChoice plots the car's purchase price against the total five-year cost to own and operate it as determined by IntelliChoice research. Each dot on the above chart represents a specific car. Generally, we find that as the purchase price of the car increases, the cost to own and operate that car increases. This is why the dots on the graph tend to rise upward and to the right. This phenomenon also makes intuitive sense - as the purchase price rises, financing costs tend to rise, as do insurance, depreciation, taxes, and most other car ownership costs.
This is an important concept. It's normal for car ownership costs to rise as purchase price rises. Therefore, we can't just establish one "average" ownership cost number for each class, since cars in the class have different purchase prices. (This is why the "Relative" shown on each chart is different for cars in the same car class.)
Using statistical techniques, IntelliChoice "connects the dots" to form a curve that defines, for this car class, the relationship between the car's purchase price and car's ownership costs. This curve is our "expected cost" curve. The curve defines, for any car in the class, the five-year ownership cost that we would expect to see at each possible purchase price. If every car in the class were an average value, then all the dots would fall exactly on the curve. However, it's rare that any dot is exactly on the curve. Some dots are a little higher or lower, and some are a lot higher or lower. The dots that are a little lower are better than average car values, while the dots that are a lot lower are excellent car values (A dot that is a lot lower than the curve has ownership costs much lower than expected for a car of its purchase price). Conversely, a dot a little higher than the curve is a poorer than average car value, while a dot that is much higher than the curve is a poor car value.
Value is a relative term, not an absolute term. It is performing better than the logical expectation.
So is a Mercedes-Benz E320 expensive to own and operate? Certainly in an absolute sense. Most other cars cost less. But, when its cost to own and operate is plotted against cars with comparable invoice prices, the E320 costs less. So the E320 is not expensive to own and operate - it is a good car value. The Mercedes does not have low ownership costs, but it has low ownership costs for its invoice price.
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Review From Motor Trend Magazine
First Drive: 2006 Aston Martin V8 Vantage
| 2006 Aston Martin V8 Vantage | | Base price | $110,000 | | Vehicle layout | Front engine, RWD, 2-pass, 2-door hatchback | | Engine | 4.3L/380-hp/302 lb-ft, DOHC 32-valve V-8 | | Transmission | 6-speed manual | | Curb weight | 3461 lb | | Wheelbase | 102.4 in | | Length x Width x Height | 172.5 x 73.5 x 49.4 in | | 0-60 mph | 4.8 sec (mfr est) | | EPA city/hwy fuel econ | Not yet rated | | On sale in the U.S. | February 2006 |
What It Means For Aston Martin There are millions of gearheads worldwide who'd be delighted to see Aston Martin crashing Porsche's party. In the territory of our imaginations, Aston is a name that grossly overperforms. It isn't hard to see why: Le Mans wins in 1959 and a decent stab at it in the late 1980s, associations with the likes of Zagato; the name's Bond, James Bond. Most of all, it's about one simple question: When did you ever see an Aston Martin whose looks didn't make your knees buckle? And the V8 Vantage won't puncture that record. I've driven Astons (step forward the 1990 Virage Volante in particular) that were so clunky and incompetent I wanted to hurl the keys down a street grating before someone got hurt. And yet if I saw that same heap glide by right now, I'd be unable to suppress an inner smile. Give a car the right looks, and it can ambush your better judgment. Judgment (along with luck) has been a quality sorely lacking among Aston Martin management over the decades. The company has bungled from crisis to crisis, struggling to bolt together just 20,000 cars in total. But, 100 percent owned by Ford these past 11 years, it plans to build the next 20,000 within four years. This company's on the move, and the car that's going to be responsible for that acceleration in the owner body (numerically as well as in velocity) is the new V8 Vantage. Okay, so it's not exactly a dime-store supercar, but Aston has never before made something as relatively affordable as this. Perversely, the cheaper a car is, the less margin for error it'll be given. Aston's $255,000 Vanquish S is, on the average, the fifth car in a household. It'll be used as a special-occasion machine by an owner who'll indulge it the odd glitch. The V8 Vantage, stickering at half that, will be used more often, and as such will need to nuzzle closer to perfect behavior.
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