Which Aston?

[crisisjez]

Gibberish said:

crisisjez said:

Don't like the rear of the DB9...think it is starting to look a little dated.

Edited by crisisjez on Saturday 20th April 13:18

Yes, I think you’re right. The back of a Vauxhall Monaro VXR is an image of timeless beauty in comparison to a DB9 rear end.

No offence meant, its all IMO and as I am the one who is going to buy it I wanted to give a reason why I have discounted the DB9.

[crisisjez]

Jon39 said:

There was a Topic a few months back that you might find helpful, concerning things to look out for with Vanquish cars.

Sorry cannot provide a link, but it was started by a new owner, who thought everything had been checked, then it was discovered a (I think) front subframe had rusted. An unexpected considerable repair cost followed.

Vanquish, what a car. My own is a humble 4·7 Vantage, but with now (at last) with the sun shining, it is time to go for a drive.

Yes, I read it. I tend to read up then put my overalls on when buying cars.

[crisisjez]

e600 said:

With that sort of commute and a healthy regard towards servicing I would say the Vanquish is back on the table. Don't buy a trailer queen, get something with 25k miles on, make sure gears, subframe and coil packs are done and enjoy it. If its not the best looking thing on the road I don't know what is
Regards

Thats good advice, was thinking along those lines.

[crisisjez]

slippery said:

I think the 6.3 Virage is a wonderfully Brutish looking thing. If only a Vantage 600 was 60k, your choice would be an easy one!

I would prob sell the GT2 if the right one of those came up

[Guycord]

It is often said that the first decent car Aston ever made was the DB9.
It is also often said that prior to the Gaydon and Bloxham cars, the definition of an optimist was "someone who thought they could just afford to own an Aston".

From experience, I can tell you that aside from petrol/insurance etc...the V8V 4.3, 4.7 and the V12V are perhaps the cheapest cars I have ever owned in terms of running cost.

I can also tell you from experience, the vintage stuff continually sweats invoices out of just about every orifice on the vehicle.

If your on a budget of 60k, buy the best Gaydon car you can.

Edited by Guycord on Saturday 20th April 16:35

[franki68]

michael gould said:

Vanquish is a totally ridiculous first Aston experience.......if you get the wrong one you could end up paying 15k to put it right........they need servicing twice a year.......prices are no longer going up on the older models.......they can be a constant drain on your wealth

If you wait until November I think you will see DBS,s with prices around your 60k budget

The last paragraph ....I hope you're wrong

[V8LM]

crisisjez said:

V8LM said:

If it were me and looking to spend circa £60k on my first Aston, it would be a DB9.

6.3 Virage - would cost a lot more to get one sorted, and expensive to run. Plus it'll piss you off quickly.
(S/C) Vantage - see above only potentially even more costly.
DB7 - today, may as well buy a DB9 or V8V
Vanquish - a £60k one would potentially be a heap of trouble, or may be the best buy of the century. Either way, expensive to run and not really a car for daily use.
V8V - I'd prefer a V12 DB9
DBS - you'll be buying at the low end.

Personally I would rather have a well maintained, newer, cleaner, known DB9 than a bottom-of-the-pile DBS.

Why would the 6.3 Virage piss me off? I agree about the running costs but depeciation would be relatively small so would offset that I would hope.
Don't like the rear of the DB9...think it is starting to look a little dated.
Plus there are too many of them.
Regards the Vanquish, my commute isn't daily its about 10 times a month and mainly motorway with a few B roads. Can a Vanquish not cope with that? I have a 65 year old car that can easily do it.
I'm not expecting it to perform without attention between driving days when necessary either.

Edited by crisisjez on Saturday 20th April 13:18

Because it would go wrong, probably quite quickly. It could be something like the engine weeping so liners needing replacing, something reasonable for a car of that age like the radiator rusting through from the bottom, or something trivial like a split in a vacuum pipe (under the plenum). So you'll fix it. Then you'll find the brakes are st, so spend some cash there. Then a fuel pump will go. Then the other one.

Oh, and then you'll come to replace the tyres. Which are no longer made.

I think it depends on why you want an Aston. If you were a 10 year old and marvelled at the 2-ton V8 Vantage superlorry when all your friends has Ferrari posters. If you were in your 20s when the Twin Supercharged Vantage was launched. In other words, if you grew up when there was nothing on earth like an Aston, and you now have the means to get the aspirational, unobtainable car from your youth, then buy the 6.3 Virage or Vantage or V8 Zagato or whatever it was that tugged on your wedding vegetables. You will forgive it everything that it throws at you (and believe me, it will be a lot). That's me.

BUT, if you think it's just time to get into an Aston, because you're fed up with other stuff, then be careful. An Aston Martin will test your loyalty. A hand built 'proper' one infinitely more so.

My first was a lowly i6 DB7. Lovely car. Even the wife drove it. But it wasn't the car I wanted. The Aston I really wanted was the Vantage. I later bought one. Two things I learnt from this. 1. The Vantage is VERY expensive to run. As I've said several times before, I sold the '7 to pay for one bill on the Vantage. But more importantly - 2. I'm SO glad the Vantage wasn't my first Aston. I really do not think I would have one now, let alone four, if my first experience of Aston ownership was the Vantage.

Vanquish is fantastic. But to me the biggest reason for its greatness is that it's a Newport Pagnell Aston. The F550 (or possibly 575) is almost certainly a better car.

Can it cope? Yes, sure. I love mine. Just slightly concerned that a well sorted Vanquish is not £60k. I always hear horror stories of Vanquish purchases. A recent one was someone buying one and taking it to be fettled, only to be told that forget the fettling, it'll cost £50k to sort the basic car out. The Vanquish was high-tech (new to Aston) fabric over pretty ropy basic underpinnings, as it was built to a budget.

The V8V was built as a 60k car to compete with Porsche. Problem was it was laucnhed at 80k so, to me, never the car it should have been.

The DB9 is fairly unique, as a car. Not as pretty to me as the DB7 is from as many angles, but it almost has the traditional Aston quality that there is not much like it, or at least not built to compete against something.

[crisisjez]

Thank you for taking the time with that post, a very useful insight into ownership.
In answer to your question...yes I remember seeing a 550 in the showroom in Chichester and marvelling at the sheer brutality of the thing.

[DJRC]

V8LM said:

crisisjez said:

V8LM said:

If it were me and looking to spend circa £60k on my first Aston, it would be a DB9.

6.3 Virage - would cost a lot more to get one sorted, and expensive to run. Plus it'll piss you off quickly.
(S/C) Vantage - see above only potentially even more costly.
DB7 - today, may as well buy a DB9 or V8V
Vanquish - a £60k one would potentially be a heap of trouble, or may be the best buy of the century. Either way, expensive to run and not really a car for daily use.
V8V - I'd prefer a V12 DB9
DBS - you'll be buying at the low end.

Personally I would rather have a well maintained, newer, cleaner, known DB9 than a bottom-of-the-pile DBS.

Why would the 6.3 Virage piss me off? I agree about the running costs but depeciation would be relatively small so would offset that I would hope.
Don't like the rear of the DB9...think it is starting to look a little dated.
Plus there are too many of them.
Regards the Vanquish, my commute isn't daily its about 10 times a month and mainly motorway with a few B roads. Can a Vanquish not cope with that? I have a 65 year old car that can easily do it.
I'm not expecting it to perform without attention between driving days when necessary either.

Edited by crisisjez on Saturday 20th April 13:18

Because it would go wrong, probably quite quickly. It could be something like the engine weeping so liners needing replacing, something reasonable for a car of that age like the radiator rusting through from the bottom, or something trivial like a split in a vacuum pipe (under the plenum). So you'll fix it. Then you'll find the brakes are st, so spend some cash there. Then a fuel pump will go. Then the other one.

Oh, and then you'll come to replace the tyres. Which are no longer made.

I think it depends on why you want an Aston. If you were a 10 year old and marvelled at the 2-ton V8 Vantage superlorry when all your friends has Ferrari posters. If you were in your 20s when the Twin Supercharged Vantage was launched. In other words, if you grew up when there was nothing on earth like an Aston, and you now have the means to get the aspirational, unobtainable car from your youth, then buy the 6.3 Virage or Vantage or V8 Zagato or whatever it was that tugged on your wedding vegetables. You will forgive it everything that it throws at you (and believe me, it will be a lot). That's me.

BUT, if you think it's just time to get into an Aston, because you're fed up with other stuff, then be careful. An Aston Martin will test your loyalty. A hand built 'proper' one infinitely more so.

My first was a lowly i6 DB7. Lovely car. Even the wife drove it. But it wasn't the car I wanted. The Aston I really wanted was the Vantage. I later bought one. Two things I learnt from this. 1. The Vantage is VERY expensive to run. As I've said several times before, I sold the '7 to pay for one bill on the Vantage. But more importantly - 2. I'm SO glad the Vantage wasn't my first Aston. I really do not think I would have one now, let alone four, if my first experience of Aston ownership was the Vantage.

Vanquish is fantastic. But to me the biggest reason for its greatness is that it's a Newport Pagnell Aston. The F550 (or possibly 575) is almost certainly a better car.

Can it cope? Yes, sure. I love mine. Just slightly concerned that a well sorted Vanquish is not £60k. I always hear horror stories of Vanquish purchases. A recent one was someone buying one and taking it to be fettled, only to be told that forget the fettling, it'll cost £50k to sort the basic car out. The Vanquish was high-tech (new to Aston) fabric over pretty ropy basic underpinnings, as it was built to a budget.

The V8V was built as a 60k car to compete with Porsche. Problem was it was laucnhed at 80k so, to me, never the car it should have been.

The DB9 is fairly unique, as a car. Not as pretty to me as the DB7 is from as many angles, but it almost has the traditional Aston quality that there is not much like it, or at least not built to compete against something.

Much like Jez, thanks for that post. The wife has just authorised an Aston purchase and like you I was of an age growing up whereby I used to drool over the twin screw Vantage and have since spent my yrs dreaming of them. Such knowledge of monumental bork obviously goes out of the window when "man vision" is engaged, so thankyou for bringing me back down to reality. She has only really just about forgiven me for the episodes the Sagaris used to inflict upon us and the less said about the Ferrari the better. Presenting her with the dream Aston and then a £15k bill the next month probably wouldnt go down well.

I can pass a DB7V off as a cheap i6 instead

[Jockman]

DJRC said:

Much like Jez, thanks for that post. The wife has just authorised an Aston purchase and like you I was of an age growing up whereby I used to drool over the twin screw Vantage and have since spent my yrs dreaming of them. Such knowledge of monumental bork obviously goes out of the window when "man vision" is engaged, so thankyou for bringing me back down to reality. She has only really just about forgiven me for the episodes the Sagaris used to inflict upon us and the less said about the Ferrari the better. Presenting her with the dream Aston and then a £15k bill the next month probably wouldnt go down well.

I can pass a DB7V off as a cheap i6 instead

Welcome to the Aston forum DJ - beats NPE anyday - there are a couple of other Swiss owners on here too

[Araantonak]

I faced that decision revently and bought a 2009 V8 4.7 Vantage for 95k CHF (with 19k miles)

For me it had to be a manual offering a maximum of driving fun so I went for the Vantage over the DB9 as it's more agile.

Since you are in Switzerland I suggest you test drive the silver one at Emil Frey in Safenwil. I almost bought that one as it has a special silver metallic color that looks really neat. In the end got a better deal in Geneva but that silver color with the clear lights is quite something :-)

http://www.autoscout24.ch/fr/d/aston-martin-v8-van...

[DJRC]

Jockman said:

DJRC said:

Much like Jez, thanks for that post. The wife has just authorised an Aston purchase and like you I was of an age growing up whereby I used to drool over the twin screw Vantage and have since spent my yrs dreaming of them. Such knowledge of monumental bork obviously goes out of the window when "man vision" is engaged, so thankyou for bringing me back down to reality. She has only really just about forgiven me for the episodes the Sagaris used to inflict upon us and the less said about the Ferrari the better. Presenting her with the dream Aston and then a £15k bill the next month probably wouldnt go down well.

I can pass a DB7V off as a cheap i6 instead

Welcome to the Aston forum DJ - beats NPE anyday - there are a couple of other Swiss owners on here too

Er Jock...Ive got posts on the Aston forum from about 5 yrs ago old boy when I was looking at swopping the Sag in for a Vanq. My old reviews of the Vanq and Vanq S are probably still around on here somewhere. I just buggered off again whilst I swapped out of my English phase into my Italian phase.