Bond sells ruined DBS

The Aston Martin DBS that crashed and sank to the bottom of Lake Garda during filming for the new Bond film Quantum of Solace has been bought by a collector for £200,000.

The DBS was destroyed in early April, when the driver – an Aston Martin engineer - lost control of the car during a torrential race storm. The Aston smashed through the barriers and sank to the bottom of Lake Garda, with the driver unconscious inside. He regained consciousness when the car hit the bottom of the lake, and swam 150 feet to the surface with only minor injuries.

The car was, unsurprisingly, a complete write-off, but that didn’t dissuade the unnamed enthusiast from paying some £64,000 over the list price of a brand new, working DBS for a piece of battered Bond memorabilia. Maybe he’s hoping it’ll buff out.

This news has us even more confused about the whole credit crunch, though.

On the one hand, we’re being told that we can’t have a Hyundai Genesis Coupe because it’s too pricey, but on the other we’re told that the Ferrari California is sold out until 2010, almost all the Aston One-77s have already been bought and that a smashed-up, rusty lump of soggy DBS is worth £200k. What’s going on?

Wonder what he'd pay for a ruined One-77? That you can read about in the new issue of Top Gear magazine.