WASHINGTON – James Bond is known as much for his flashy cars as his sexy women and the ability to get out of a sticky situation with ease and grace.
The new Bond movie, “Skyfall”, is now in theaters and 007 is back to driving his iconic 1960s Aston Martin DB5.
While that car is most closely associated with the Bond franchise, there have been some other very good – and very bad – Bond cars throughout the years.
One of his best spy cars wasn’t an Aston Martin – it was the nimble, wedge-shaped Lotus Esprit from “The Spy Who Loved Me.”
“It’s trying to evade a helicopter with machine guns on it and drives off a pier right into the water and then proceeds to turn into a submarine,” says Edmunds Automotive Editor James Riswick.
Riswick thinks the franchise went too far in Die Another Day by giving Bond’s Aston Martin Vanquish the power to become invisible.
“It was almost like an uber-caricature of a Bond car,” he says.
All the best and worst Bond cars are featured on the Edmunds Automotive website.
WTOP’s John Aaron contributed to this report. Follow @JohnAaronWTOP and @WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2012 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
