Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

And then there's the unmistakeable whiff of "golf club" and cheap cigars about them. Clarkson was right - they always seem to be driven by people on the edge of financial ruin, cads and bounders.

I'm not so sure about this. For a long time I thought the XK8 had a tough crowd when up against the DB7. But when I see one now, it has an air of elegance and timelessness that the Aston seems to lack.

As for Clarkson. The man should be listed under 'bounder' and 'cad' in the Oxford English.