RE: Spotted: Aston Martin Vanquish S manual
Discussion
I just came back from driving this very car, I had a DB7 Vantage for ten years and I also had a Ferrari 550 for a few years, so I may have some perspective or other.
In summary, it's really pretty good. Much better than I'd expected. I didn't like the old Vanquish gearbox, not because I'd read that Clarkson didn't, but because I drove one and it wasn't very good. In fact I drove one to a test drive of a Ferrari 550 and decided on the basis of the contrast to buy the 550. Three point turns were a sequence complex enough to launch a nuclear warhead.
The vanquish manual gear lever is in a better position than the new V12 Vantage, it's relaxing and effortless, it sounds great without being all shouty and hormonally challenged. Whether this particular car is the right one for me is open, but it's certainly the most interesting car I have driven for a while.
PS: If you still think cars are investments at this level do the maths: Let's say it costs £70k, servicing is £2k pa insurance £1k pa and let's ignore petrol,tax etc. 3k negative cash yield on a 70k asset is 4.3% pa. To beakeven you'd need to have a 21% capital increase in 5 years.
Add a couple of grand of tax and petrol each year and you need 36% capital growth just to cover the regular ownership costs.
To make a 5% real return you'd need approximately a 75% increase in value every five years (ignoring inflation). That's a tough to achieve,especially as they do break from time to time at great cost, and indeed it explains why why cars are free of CGT...
As ownership costs don't rise in line with price, the maths does get easier as a car value increases of course.
In summary, it's really pretty good. Much better than I'd expected. I didn't like the old Vanquish gearbox, not because I'd read that Clarkson didn't, but because I drove one and it wasn't very good. In fact I drove one to a test drive of a Ferrari 550 and decided on the basis of the contrast to buy the 550. Three point turns were a sequence complex enough to launch a nuclear warhead.
The vanquish manual gear lever is in a better position than the new V12 Vantage, it's relaxing and effortless, it sounds great without being all shouty and hormonally challenged. Whether this particular car is the right one for me is open, but it's certainly the most interesting car I have driven for a while.
PS: If you still think cars are investments at this level do the maths: Let's say it costs £70k, servicing is £2k pa insurance £1k pa and let's ignore petrol,tax etc. 3k negative cash yield on a 70k asset is 4.3% pa. To beakeven you'd need to have a 21% capital increase in 5 years.
Add a couple of grand of tax and petrol each year and you need 36% capital growth just to cover the regular ownership costs.
To make a 5% real return you'd need approximately a 75% increase in value every five years (ignoring inflation). That's a tough to achieve,especially as they do break from time to time at great cost, and indeed it explains why why cars are free of CGT...
As ownership costs don't rise in line with price, the maths does get easier as a car value increases of course.
f328nvl said:
I just came back from driving this very car, I had a DB7 Vantage for ten years and I also had a Ferrari 550 for a few years, so I may have some perspective or other.
In summary, it's really pretty good. Much better than I'd expected. I didn't like the old Vanquish gearbox, not because I'd read that Clarkson didn't, but because I drove one and it wasn't very good. In fact I drove one to a test drive of a Ferrari 550 and decided on the basis of the contrast to buy the 550. Three point turns were a sequence complex enough to launch a nuclear warhead.
The vanquish manual gear lever is in a better position than the new V12 Vantage, it's relaxing and effortless, it sounds great without being all shouty and hormonally challenged. Whether this particular car is the right one for me is open, but it's certainly the most interesting car I have driven for a while.
PS: If you still think cars are investments at this level do the maths: Let's say it costs £70k, servicing is £2k pa insurance £1k pa and let's ignore petrol,tax etc. 3k negative cash yield on a 70k asset is 4.3% pa. To beakeven you'd need to have a 21% capital increase in 5 years.
Add a couple of grand of tax and petrol each year and you need 36% capital growth just to cover the regular ownership costs.
To make a 5% real return you'd need approximately a 75% increase in value every five years (ignoring inflation). That's a tough to achieve,especially as they do break from time to time at great cost, and indeed it explains why why cars are free of CGT...
As ownership costs don't rise in line with price, the maths does get easier as a car value increases of course.
…but what is the value of being able to drive it - priceless!In summary, it's really pretty good. Much better than I'd expected. I didn't like the old Vanquish gearbox, not because I'd read that Clarkson didn't, but because I drove one and it wasn't very good. In fact I drove one to a test drive of a Ferrari 550 and decided on the basis of the contrast to buy the 550. Three point turns were a sequence complex enough to launch a nuclear warhead.
The vanquish manual gear lever is in a better position than the new V12 Vantage, it's relaxing and effortless, it sounds great without being all shouty and hormonally challenged. Whether this particular car is the right one for me is open, but it's certainly the most interesting car I have driven for a while.
PS: If you still think cars are investments at this level do the maths: Let's say it costs £70k, servicing is £2k pa insurance £1k pa and let's ignore petrol,tax etc. 3k negative cash yield on a 70k asset is 4.3% pa. To beakeven you'd need to have a 21% capital increase in 5 years.
Add a couple of grand of tax and petrol each year and you need 36% capital growth just to cover the regular ownership costs.
To make a 5% real return you'd need approximately a 75% increase in value every five years (ignoring inflation). That's a tough to achieve,especially as they do break from time to time at great cost, and indeed it explains why why cars are free of CGT...
As ownership costs don't rise in line with price, the maths does get easier as a car value increases of course.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff