“I came here from South Africa in 2007 with £312.98 to my name. I’ve always remembered the pennies!” says Manni Azizi, a retired entrepreneur.
“I couldn’t afford a car so I rode a bicycle.” Today, 18 years later, he has considerably more than £300 to his name at least enough to afford his rather fine, £225,000 Aston Martin Vanquish V12.
“It is my first Aston,” he says. “I had a couple of Bentleys before – a GT and a GTC – but I’d always wanted an Aston. In South Africa, a Vanquish was my poster car. When I decided to buy my own, it had to be a second-generation model. I wanted the naturally aspirated V12 engine, because it marked the end of an era. The car had to be in the colour combination of red with a pale interior. This one took me months to track down.”
Manni has owned his Vanquish for a little over a year. He can’t recall when it was first registered (that’s a mere detail when you’re spending nearly a quarter of a million pounds) but says it was showing around 15,000 miles when he bought it from Aston Martin Sevenoaks. He has since added 7000 miles.
“It’s my daily driver now I’m retired,” he says. “It’s garaged, but I always use my cars: I put mileage on them. If the Vanquish gets marked, I’ll just have it repaired. I love it, but I’m not precious about it.”
Of course, ownership of a Vanquish doesn’t stop with paying for it. There are running expenses to consider too. On that point, a recent service cost Manni around £1000 and he has just spent £1300 on a new set of tyres.
He appears quietly accepting but brightens up when he tells me what his insurance premium is. “It was £1500 through a comparison website!” he says. “I was pleasantly surprised. The cover is limited to 8000 miles per year, but that’s as much as I drive anyway.”
And when he does, he says the Aston never disappoints: “It’s amazing and everything I’d hoped for. The power is everywhere and, unlike in my turbocharged W12 Bentleys, so linear.
“The engine sits much farther back in the car than you think. It corners flat and is extremely comfortable. It’s rear-wheel drive, and in the wet the back gets a little squiggly but not in a dangerous way.”
