The production ready Rapide was eventually unveiled in September 2009 at the 63rd Frankfurt Motor Show with production starting shortly afterwards. Early production cars appeared at dealers during launch events in the early Spring 2010 with customers taking delivery of cars from April 2010. The Rapide was the first production 4-door Aston Martin since the William Towns styled AM Lagonda which ceased production in 1989. Although not badged as a Lagonda, the Rapide is certainly a true descendant of both the DB4 based Lagonda Rapide of the 1960s and V8 powered wedge Lagonda from the 1970s and 80s.

Some photos on this page were taken at the Geneva Salon 2010 and show the car in the new paint finish of Silver Blonde. Others show a US demonstrator in Morning Frost White at the 2010 AMOC Lime Rock meeting.

Following the recession that began in mid-2007 and subsequent sluggish recovery, AM production in general decreased leaving spare capacity for the Rapide in the UK. Production of the Rapide was ended prematurely at the AMRP in Austria during the Summer of 2012 and was transferred to Gaydon from the Autumn of 2012. Production of the regular Rapide ended at the end of 2012 with the introduction of the updated Rapide S. In total, 2,872 examples were completed, mostly in Austria. The UK built standard Rapide is therefore a particular race beast.