Is an Aston going to ruin me?

[raceboy]

'The Book' arrived a few days ago....very good reading and not as off putting as I was expecting.

[raceboy]

V8 Animal said:

Had my 3 TVRs in here and the 3 Astons
This is a modern house with single garage and the picture is the bigger DBS model.

Finally got the dealer to pop a car round to the house (big thanks to Stratstone Derby) and it's really a lot tighter than I'd like, it fits, but getting out the car is a squeeze and getting the arse through the door is Rizla paper tight, on paper there's 3" a side, in reality it feels a whole load closer.
It makes the TVR seem tiny although the dims aren't s'posed to that much different

[vankypanky]

diet

[raceboy]

Unfortunately it'd have to be the car going on a diet due to it's fat (but lovely) arse.
Currently looking into new garage doors that might release a few extra inches.

[mikey k]

Park it in forwards and climb out the boot

[SlartiF430]

DB4DM said:

It's unwise to think you can "just" afford an Aston, they can bite, whatever age. How would you deal with say an unforeseen bill of £5K?

But isn't that the case with anything that's not a ford or Vauxhall?

[Greenslade]

SlartiF430 said:

DB4DM said:

It's unwise to think you can "just" afford an Aston, they can bite, whatever age. How would you deal with say an unforeseen bill of £5K?

Fully agree with this, with no contingency you are asking for trouble.

Also if you decide to do a continental driving holiday you can burn through £100 a day in fuel quite easily ( although it will be cheaper now with exchange rates/oil price per barrel etc.

[fredflanagan]

Just before I bought my DB7 I asked the same question. Someone replyed " the definition of an optimist.. Someone that thinks that can run an Aston on a budget"...I laughed. I am not laughing anymore. Spares parts prices are beyond ridiculous. I called Chiltern Aston and asked about some 'pattern' parts, after a long stoney silence during which I felt I had insulted the salesmans mother, I was politely informed " it's an Astom Martin sir, we don't do pattern parts ". I know if you do a lot of digging you can match parts from the Ford/Jag parts bins but most parts are bespoke to Aston and therefore VERY expensive. Just have a very long think about what you're getting into..... I haven't eaten for six months but by God it's been worth it. Astons Rock.

[downr]

wow, you've done well. Chiltern Aston have never called me Sir! Maybe I spend enough with them to be on first name terms

There are quite a few threads on here and the AMOC forums where people have identified, identical Ford/Jag/Other parts (I think that's what you mean by pattern parts). So definitely worth doing a search if its something specific you're after

[DB4DM]

It was always that way. Rob, you'll know that your older car shares parts with various VW and Porsche 356, Bedford CF truck, E type, Ford Zephyr, etc, etc. Some bespoke bits I agree are expensive (new hornpush £800 anyone?) but it can be cheaper to re-engineer than to replace

[downr]

Agree - the DB5 seems to be an amalgamation of Lucas parts and a ZF gearbox