Thanks to Lee we were lucky enough to get a visit to the Aston Martin factory at Gaydon. We were due there at 9:30 but in typical fashion arrived about 15 minutes too early. We met our guide Sally and she explained that they had only just started doing tours for the public and that they generally cost £350 and there was a waiting list, so were clearly in a privileged position!
We started off in a 'spec room' where people come to choose the finishes for their Aston Martin, not just the paint colour, but also the leather, brake calipers and endless other details that need deciding when you spend £200-300,000 on a car.
We were then taken on to the factory floor and shown workers building seats, dashboards, and various other internal trimmings. Then on to the machines which detail the leather, including punching and cutting (and also embroidering Aston Martin logos onto the headrests) before seeing the ladies (mostly ladies) who sew the leather together.
From there we moved on past the shell store and saw an automated robot pick up a bodyshell and trundle off with it. Then we got to see the paint shop (through a window) and then back to the production line proper. We saw the 'Vantage' production line from start to finish which was pretty interesting, and it was pretty cool to see so many hyper expensive Astons all together in endless bespoke colour variations.
I really quite looked the matt dark grey paint finish, but you just know that it would be a nightmare to keep looking good. There was also an extremely bright 'lime' green Vantage that looked really cool and looking at some of the detailing on the side panels I could see where TAG Heuer had got the circles/hexagon design for the AM Carrera.
The visit lasted a couple of hours and at the end Sally have us each an Aston Martin lapel badge and a copy of the Aston Martin magazine, which I noticed had an advert for Patek Phillipe on the back rather than TAG Heuer.
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