It has been said on a number of occasions that when William Towns designed the Aston Martin Lagonda, he was locked in a room with a piece of paper, a pencil, and a ruler. The car that resulted contained some of the straightest lines ever seen on a production car and its appearance has always tended to polarise people. You will find this Lagonda for sale here on eBay. Located in Independence, Oregon, it is being offered for sale with a clear title. Bidding on the Lagonda has been remarkably brisk, and has raised the price to $18,200 at the time of writing.
To understand just how radical the design was for the Lagonda, you need to stand in front of one. On the majority of large production cars, the top of the grille is at about waist height. With a Lagonda, it is barely above your knees. What was squeezed under that ultra-low hood is quite amazing, and we’ll get to that. The body on this Lagonda looks to be in good condition. These were essentially a hand-built car, and they were not particularly prone to rust. This one looks quite clean and straight, with only a few marks on the body to address. The paint is generally quite good, although it has deteriorated on the top.
When it was being designed and built, the instrumentation and electronics for the Lagonda went close to bankrupting an already cash-strapped Aston Martin. By the time the first cars were delivered, the development cost of these items alone had blown out to four times the development budget for the entire car! The Lagonda was the first production car to feature digital instrumentation, and the early production cars were plagued with problems. Over the years the company was able to iron out the majority of these issues. Thankfully, the system on this car is said to be working perfectly, and the rest of the interior presents quite well. The seller is claiming that the car has traveled a mere 8,000 miles. I would hope that they can provide documentation to back this claim, but with a Lagonda, this claim is quite plausible.
The opulent leather upholstery looks really nice, and the Lagonda was packed with every conceivable luxury item available at the time. The thing that was often noted by motoring journalists at the time was that in spite of the car being a large luxury car of considerable length (wheelbase of 114.6″) rear legroom was surprisingly tight. Looking at this shot definitely confirms this.
This is what is squeezed into the engine bay, and what makes the concept of that low hood all the more amazing. That is a 326ci quad-cam (two cams per cylinder bank) Aston Martin V8. It is backed by a TorqueFlite automatic transmission. The engine pumps out 280bhp and is capable of pushing the Lagonda up to 149mph. This engine runs, and the standard Weber carburetors have been properly rebuilt. The seller does recommend that the car not be driven as it requires a tune-up, and there is an unspecified issue with the automatic transmission. That may not be a big problem, as the inner working of the transmission are regular TorqueFlite components. The seller states that the car sometimes runs rough when in gear, but that may be related to the transmission.
While the Lagonda remained in production for a total of 14 years, production numbers reached a mere 645 cars. During that entire run, the Lagonda was the most expensive production sedan in the world. Today they don’t command the sort of sale prices that these numbers would suggest, but prices are still reasonably healthy. Good examples of the late Series 2 Lagonda the same as our feature car usually start at around $40,000, and can push up into the mid $90,000 range. This Lagonda needs some work, but with values like that, the spirited bidding is probably justified.
After finally seeing one in person, I fell in love.
These were amazing looking cars, but a maintenance nightmare. As a result the resale values dropped like a rock. The dealer I worked for wouldn’t even take them in trade.
I LOVE these! I always thought they would make a great car for a villian to drive. Black of course.
always loved them…..especially the bulldog version used in Chapion spark plug ads of the era…
uhh huh …. “maintenance nightmare” is a huge understatement. I love the cars – but no way I would want to try to keep one running – especially if it was a 4 door family car I wanted to drive every day. I’ve known two people that have had one of these – lots of horror stories about maintenance. There is a 3rd car I’ve seen – which has been sitting outside a shop for about 5 years now. I’ve wondered how difficult an engine swap would be — but do that and bye bye to the dash instrumentation — really no options seem good for a guy like me. If you’re a collector and don’t plan to drive it much — or rich and can afford to keep it running then perhaps — but no dice for me.
Been looking for a new instrument panel for mine lol
I’d put this one into the “interesting but not pretty” category. The oddball looks aren’t worth the maintenance hassle and expense, IMO.
There is a guy here in UK, that as over a dozen of these, along with about 200 other cars and bikes, that he hires out regularly to movie makers.
AH HAH! Long live the Atari Martian Longada! Beautiful body surrounding a Vic Commodore 64.
What are you on about?
I remember Damon Killian in the movie “Running Man” had one as a limo ………. Pretty cool!
When these came out,the Marchioness of Tavistock at Woburn Abbey,bought one for her husband with her Amex card.Aston Martin delivered it on a transporter,with TV & the Press in attendance for a publicity shoot.Trouble was,it then wouldn’t start!I have only ever seen one on the road.
Sweet looking Aston Martin Lagonda. I’ve seen pics of the car, and I’ve always had mixed feelings about its appearance. From some angles, it looks beautiful, from other angles, it looks hideous. It looks beautiful from the front and from the side, but I’ve always found it hideous from the rear. I don’t know why, particularly given it’s an Aston Martin car.
The engine is worth $18000.
Nice looking car, but an example of dumb development. They spent a great deal on dashboard electronics that were unnecessary, particularly since a lot of these were driven by chauffeurs. The company had no real expertise in that area and it drove costs way up.
007’s family car
this has always been my dream car but after seeing the inside of this one its awful it looks like a citroen and a arcade game. the dash is horrendous and there is more than just sprucing up needed. I must have seen another year that was more dynamic inside than this one. i remember lots of buttons not touch pads that fail every week. body looks good but thats about it notice the ac isnt connected either
I first saw one of these in Spokane, had to stop it from driving on fresh asphalt. The driver was Evil Knievel and he had a home made trailer behind it for his golf clubs. Nice guy and a beautiful car.
Know a guy who loves V12’s. Has a Benz, BMW, Jaguar, and two of these V8 oddballs…one is in the garage, one in the driveway of one of his rental house in Lake Stevens, Washington. The other is in said house’s garage. Neighborhood jackass busted the windshield on the one left outside.
Always thought they were ugly
If you look at the odometer in the eBay photos, you’ll see 68,000 miles.
I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing one in person; a truly beautiful car, that for some odd reason I picture the Pink Panther riding around in.
I had one in my showroom for sale back in the noughties so drove it several times to demonstrate to potential buyers (Tyre kickers). Beautiful car but it didn’t have the complicated dash that was originally specified for the finished product as it was too expensive and temperamental. The engine had an engraved plate mounted on it giving the name of the engineer that had built it. Only had one serious buyer for it (as it was deemed to be too eccentric), who was very happy with it.
I’ve worked in electronics and semiconductor manufacturing for years, so the Lagonda dash has fascinated me. Easy to criticize them for going down that rabbit hole, but I came up with a few projects like that myself.