2001 Aston Martin DB7 Vantage For Sale Has 42K Miles, A V12, A 6-Speed, And A Color That Belongs To Lexus

These days, if you'd like a V12 with a manual transmission, you're looking at ultra-limited, ultra-expensive supercars, if not hypercars, like the Pagani Utopia, Gordon Murray's T.50, and Aston Martin Valour. But it wasn't always this way. Back in 2001, Aston Martin offered the relatively common DB7 with a 5.9-liter V12, three pedals, and a six-speed. That's just what automakers of its ilk did. 

There's a 2001 Aston Martin DB7 Vantage for sale on Cars & Bids right now that lets you relive those days, but the powertrain combo is far from the most unique thing about it because, yes, that headline isn't us being cute: this specific shade of bronze literally comes from Lexus. Being sold out of Missouri, this DB7 originally came from Canada and was apparently a special commission that saw the factory paint it Lexus' Antique Bronze Mica. 

According to a comment by the seller, the original owner custom ordered it from Aston "because he apparently had a Lexus in that color and loved it," and the work is corroborated by an Aston Martin Heritage Trust certificate that comes with the car. Doing a quick search of "Lexus Antique Bronze Mica" shows that it indeed was an option on the GS and LS sedans from the DB7's era. Naturally, the seller claims that it's the only DB7 ever painted this color, and we're inclined to believe them.

According to the listing, this car has 42,300 miles on the odometer and a clean Carfax report. It also has an aftermarket exhaust (the brand isn't listed), a head unit and amp from Alpine, and a radar detector installed. Early DB7s from the '90s used a straight-six, but the revised Vantage version got a V12 that made 420 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque with no turbos, and with the power headed straight for the rear wheels. This wasn't some limited-run special edition that enthusiasts had to beg for, either. This is just what cars like this were like back then. 

The deliberately, hilariously unassuming — let's call it what it is — beige Lexus paint, and this is probably one of the coolest used cars I've seen in my many years of writing posts like this about cool used cars. Notably, the DB7 is an Aston that appears in zero James Bond movies, as it was out during the era that had Pierce Brosnan driving BMWs. A Lexus-bronze DB7, however, might just have been the perfect spy-mobile that would've let 007 blend into traffic while still fulfilling contractual product placement obligations.