Standard DB9 purchasing questions

Standard DB9 purchasing questions

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Luffield

Original Poster:

30 posts

160 months

Friday 24th July 2015
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Hey folks

We're in the market for a used Db9 for (Mrs Luffield)and are seeking some basic advice on what we should be thinking about and not thinking about when selecting a car.

Basically, I have a few relatively simple questions that I'd like to get some thoughts on from more experienced and knowledgable folk.

We'd like to try and keep the cost below £40k, but this could buy anything from a low mileage 2004 through to a higher mileage 2008. What determines pricing for these cars? Age? Mileage ? History? I guess all 3, but it's hard to gauge, as the prices seem all over the place. What criteria should we be basing our search on?

Do people think the older cars are at the bottom of their depreciation curve, or are they likely to get cheaper? I can remember seeing original vanquishes around £45k not so many years ago, but they're way up again now. I guess that's the Newport Pagnell factor? Do people see DB9's going up in the future or are they too numerous to do that?

We live very close by to Appleby Engineering and not too far from Aston Martin Works and to be honest I'd be happy to get it serviced at a recommended specialist, but in reality does it affect the resale value significantly for cars like this? I get my (old) C4s serviced at a specialist, without too many concerns, but would this reduce the desirability for future AM buyers? Should we beware of non dealership stamps when looking at potential cars?

Looking at colour combinations, the cars on the market seem to be affected by colour combinations, with plenty of silver/ blue, grey/ grey etc. Do colour combinations affect the value? We have pretty much agreed onyx, obsidian and piano, but there are fewer examples. Is that from desirability or the opposite? We also really like the dark grey cars with black grill, wheels and dechromed window surrounds, but again are concerned that (eventual) resale value will be affected. Are we right in thinking to avoid coloured interiors?

Finally, we have a relatively sporty car, so we aren't looking for the Aston to be 'racey' and neither of us would 'hate' a volante. Apart from the same reason we got a 911 coupe rather than a convertible (they just look better) early volante's get terrible reviews regarding the driving experience. Are they really a poor drive compared to the coupe, or is it just over enthusiastic journalists?

I'm looking forward to all your informed advice and experience.

Thanks

Matt


Gdc

220 posts

141 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
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Hi Matt

You and the Mrs have great taste.

I have owned a MY2010 DB9 Volante for 4 years, my third AM and for me the best.

To me market price is first affected by mileage, then condition, colour , service history and warranty.

I don't believe DB9s will appreciate in value anytime soon. Too many have been made and a new model is rumoured to launch next year or soon thereafter.

Model years are important. Mine has 470bhp and ADS electronic suspension as standard. Older cars are 450bhp and non ADS. Newer cars are 510bhp+. ADS transforms the cars ride.Also newer Volante models have front and rear shear plates and older cars do not. Again a positive handling improvement

Buy Grant's excellent book to see all the variants.

I have had indie Bamford Rose add a switchable exhaust to mine taking it to 520bhp when I want it with a sound like thunder. Makes me LOL every time I use it. They also fitted a shear plate to improve the handling markedly and service my car as out of warranty. I budget £2k to £5k per annum for servicing, tyres and improvements.


Any non grey/silver/black colour will be cheaper to buy but harder to resell but for me I like to drive my car for pleasure and I don't see it as a financial investment. It loses money not gains it. Choose the colour you like.

hope that helps
Michael


Gdc

220 posts

141 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
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Oh I forgot to say

There is a reason why many DB9s have been sold

It is a truly great car

An effortless comfortable long distance cruiser one minute and the next a killer sports car the next. A real Jekyll and Hyde

The V12 engine is monumental, especially when tuned.

Buy one!

Luffield

Original Poster:

30 posts

160 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
quotequote all
Thanks for the sound advice. All very helpful. It made me laugh about the exhaust, as I have a pse on my 911 and set off car alarms as I drive through the village most days. The Porsche one is always on and you have to turn it off, which I seldom do...

To be honest, we're buying one as we love them, have always wanted one and both the coupe and the convertible are drop dead gorgeous. Reading my original post, it does seem that I'm obsessed about the value, which isn't the case, I just wouldn't want to expect to lose 2/3rds of its value in just a couple of years (like our Range Rover or X5 did).

I guess the target should be as low mileage as possible on a well specced car in a decent colour set, which makes sense. My only concern is that some of these cars are 10 years old and have done such low mileage they seem a bit of a risk (certainly in the porsche world, cars that sit around in garages tend to be the ones that develop problems whilst the ones getting used don't develop them, or get them resolved under warranty. I'd expect this to be the case with AM's being hand built super cars as well. Is that generally the case or am I way off? Would we be safer with a car with a full dealer history and 40,000 on the clock over one with less? (it's amazing how many there are with ridiculously low mileage).

All experiencecand advice welcomed.

Edited by Luffield on Saturday 25th July 07:41

divetheworld

2,565 posts

134 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
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Full history, even with a "well" respected indie, is essential. Value is affected by this.
If you buy a high miler, it's already deprecated more than others. Adding more miles won't take off much more (proportional) value.
Buying a low miler is more expensive and the miles you put on it will proportionately reduce the value more than on the aforementioned high miler.
But...the low miler is more desirable and easier to sell.
Swings and roundabouts.
Oh, and depreciation is never 2/3 unless it's new. Older ones are near the bottom of the curve. Some early cars won't lose more than a grand or so a year.
Find the car with the colour and spec you want. Then enjoy the crap out of it.
Don't worry about ultra low miler cars. They really don't throw up snags very often, even if garage queens.
I don't drive any of mine over winter and when the temperature rises to the point that the Corsas aren't trying to kill me, they fire right up and rock my world all over again.
Oh, and Grants book is the bible. Buy it, best move an enthusiastic owner or prospective owner can make.

Edited by divetheworld on Saturday 25th July 08:17

Luffield

Original Poster:

30 posts

160 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
quotequote all
More great advice. Thanks.

A couple more questions if I may. I've seen a few manual gearbox cars around, which claim to be rare or desirable in the adverts. Usually they have had a new clutch by 40,000 miles. Is that about the expected life span of a v12 clutch? Are they more desirable than the auto units?

I guess we need to have a look at a few and decide whether we want a coupe or a volante. I think we are pretty set on the colour set and don't want to compromise on it, although I'd be prepared to swap out wood trim for piano black if it was the right car otherwise.

downr

3,803 posts

127 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
quotequote all
I would for to for condition over mileage myself. The engines etc on later cars are pretty bullet proof (some of the early ones had issues with oil starvation)

The key changeover in the car was the 2009 MY (confusingly built from circa august 2008) where the Bhp was upped by 20, suspension tweaked as above and the dash modernised. So buy one from that date on if you can stretch to it

The manuals are rarer, most people went for the touchtronic (which I love, it suits the GT nature of the car, but I switch to paddles when hustling it a bit). The trick is to test both if you get a chance, but I'd imagine the TT would suit a volunteer even more

On this forum there should be a thread showing pictures of how to change the sky slope and door cappings. So if you find the right car but without piano, don't let that be a complete deal breaker.

Oh and if you really like loud; get a quicksilver exhaustsmile

Big Brin

529 posts

240 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
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First off, the DB9 is a great car for lots of reasons and in no particular order in my opinion its the badge, the V12, the ride comfort, the admiring looks, the noise, the styling, the road presence....I could go on. To me though, colour combination is of prime importance....I have to be happy with it...though, the adage that you must be able to sell it on should apply if you're not going to keep it forever. Fortunately for me I like the 'best selling' grey / obsidian black combination. It is is archetypical Aston Martin DB9 and for good reason. If you find one with wooden dash, do swop the wood for piano black.

I have had two DB9's. The first was a 2004...an early one with 24k miles on the clock. It was tungsten grey and obsidian black, had wooden dash, the 450 horses and the 10 spoke wheels. Lovely car, super noise...I bought from Aston main dealer, serviced it at the same dealer (which was surprisingly cost effective) and maintained the full AM history. As this was my first Aston, I was cautious and bought from the main dealer. The warranty and goodwill was worth any premium, and as I bought the car in the dead of winter (January - just after Christmas) the price was keen. I had a company called garnishdip treat the wooden dash to make it piano black. That was about £300. I did have some teething troubles with the car; but this was to do with the fact that it was a very early car and had some internal trim fit problems...which rattled. And I got rattled! They were solved by the goodwill of the selling dealer. I had a radio problem (kept losing signal) and this was sorted under warranty with a software re-boot or such like. This car helped me discover that it is important on these cars t have matching tyres. The car pulled left under acceleration. A big puzzle which turned out to be that the rear right tyre was newer rubber than the left. And that made a difference. When I sold the car 20 months later (because I found I was never using it), the resale price was exactly what I had paid. Luck....probably, but the next owner wanted this colour, history etc.

My second DB9 is entirely more desirable (IMHO), as it is an '08 with the updates; so the 470 horses, revised interior, piano black dash and door trims, it has a sports pack and the ride is more 'refined'. It seems quieter to me. More luxurious. Less growly (until fuse 22 was removed - which I am sure you will know from research keeps the exhaust valves open). It is a special colour Titanium Gringio with the obsidian black and piano black dash. All the reasons for buying are the same as the first...but, this time the car has higher miles and came from a specialist with a bought in warranty. The car has done 43k miles but it has a full AM history, that last being organised by the specialist prior to sale (which btw is yearly - unlike Porsche if I remember, which is miles or every two years). With the car having a higher mileage it came into my budget, but as it has been well cared for, properly used and is stunning, it did not fuss me at all that it had 40-odd thousand miles on it. Will this be a keeper...? Probably not. I know myself and I get bored easily. But note it won't be because I will tire of the car. Anyway, for this reason, the sell-ability of colour combo was a factor in my selection again.

I have no experience of the Volante but, via a car dealing acquaintance of mine who sold one, I know he had an issue and a court case to fight about the roof mechanism. Apparently, he had to fork out 'substantial thousands' to fix the roof on a car that went bad within months of him selling it. It wasn't covered under the bought in warranty cover provided....he has sold plenty of coupes, but won't touch a Volante (as a seller) again. Lesson there I suppose, is get the roof mechanism checked before you buy, or be certain its warranted.

I have bought cars before that were never quite right. I compromised. My advice would be to hold out for exactly the one you want...the colour combo and spec' that you and yours want. If you get that right, then the question in my mind would be whether you go for an early car of the revised one's past 08 (this was the crossover year) that comes into budget because of the mileage.....

Good luck anyway - you won't be disappointed and I hope this is helpful.

Rgds, Brin

Philip0

329 posts

112 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
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If your budget is c £40,000, I'd aim for a 2007 model coupe, which has upgrades such as better seats, better wheels. Ensure it has a full history, and hold out for the spec you want with as many options as possible - such as parking sensors, bright grille, uprated Linn hi-fi. I didn't want the ubiquitous silver/grey/black paint options (there are plenty of these available), and finding a different colour may take time, but I thought it was worth it - the blues, reds and greens are fabulous. My dealer told me I would never find the spec I wanted for the budget, but I did. If it's been kept outdoors look out for signs of corrosion (door mechanism) and paint bubbles around door handles. Check carefully for stone chips - hopefully it will have the protective film at least in front of the rear wheel arches. Don't be worried about condensation in the headlights, apparently they all suffer from that. I bought mine privately, and got AM Works to give me a report, which was very helpful and convinced me to buy it. You'll love it. Definitely buy Grant's "Definitive Guide...", it's very helpful.

Edited by Philip0 on Saturday 25th July 13:34


Edited by Philip0 on Saturday 25th July 15:48

Luffield

Original Poster:

30 posts

160 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
quotequote all
Fantastic advice guys, many thanks!

I think this thread needs a few pictures.Please could you post a few of your cars? I'd love to see your cars, exterior and interior if you can?

Matt

kippax

2,788 posts

248 months

Saturday 25th July 2015
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My 2006 Grigio Titanium Volante






V8V Pete

2,496 posts

125 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
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Luffield said:
I think this thread needs a few pictures.Please could you post a few of your cars? I'd love to see your cars, exterior and interior if you can?

Matt
Try this thread http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=141...

g18

65 posts

190 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
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My 2007 Islay Blue volante

JonV8V

7,177 posts

123 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
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Luffield said:
Fantastic advice guys, many thanks!

I think this thread needs a few pictures.Please could you post a few of your cars? I'd love to see your cars, exterior and interior if you can?

Matt
I'm not sure if you get the same adverts that I do on here but McGurks who are a well know indy dealer appear all the time. They usually have a good selection of stock with lots of pictures. It will also give you a reasonable idea of price from a non franchise specialist and IIRC they all come with a warranty.

Luffield

Original Poster:

30 posts

160 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
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Yes, have seen Mcgurks.

They haven't got anything that tickles our fancy at the moment, but will keep an eye out to see what stock they do get in.

They are not far from us either, which is handy

SLacKer

2,622 posts

206 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
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Different colour to the norm





It might be for sale soon whistle

g18

65 posts

190 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
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whistlewhistlewhistle

Luffield

Original Poster:

30 posts

160 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
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Beautiful, although the wood would need to go. What colour is it?

willow65

36 posts

120 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
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Slacker's car looks to be Titanium Silver and in my opinion the best colour for a DB9!

DB9VolanteDriver

2,612 posts

175 months

Sunday 26th July 2015
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SLacKer said:
Different colour to the norm

How so? Looks like silver/gray/black to me. wink

Edited by DB9VolanteDriver on Sunday 26th July 23:16