The Aston Martin Rapide is a four-door, high-performance sport saloon, which British luxury marque Aston Martin introduced in early 2010 to compete with the Maserati Quattroporte, Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, and Porsche Panamera along with the upcoming Audi A7 and Lamborghini Estoque. It was first presented as a concept car at the North American International Auto Show in 2006. The Rapide name is a reference to the Lagonda Rapide, a saloon car produced by Lagonda, now part of Aston Martin. The car is based on an Aston Martin DB9. The base price for the Aston Martin Rapide is $199,950 (USD)and the first cars were rolled out in May 2010.
The Rapide is built at a dedicated plant at the Magna Steyr facility in Graz, Austria. Production began in 2010 and the factory plans to build 2,000 per year.
The production version features a full-length glass roof and LED light bars on the rear end, two firsts for Aston Martin.
