Off to test a DBS and V12VS tomorrow...Any advice?
Discussion
Nijius Maximus said:
And buses in Sevenoaks don't accept contact less?! How dare you call your self part of London! 
Confused.
M25 (presumably in a car), but then a Sevenoaks bus. Funny way to get to Jardine. I must have misunderstood something.
Sevenoaks people think of their town as in the Kent countryside, but with a reasonably quick train service to London.
Not many of the locals have ever used a bus, so they probably would not know how to.
Lots do have their own buses though, which they call 4x4 and SUV.
They might be contactless (voice control perhaps). -
Edited by Jon39 on Wednesday 20th January 23:21
All your questions are about to be answered, including the curious case of the bus while driving...
But firstly, let's cut to the chase: I bought a BMW i8.
The piped in exhaust note is so amazing and real, the electric steering is so feelsome not forgetting the regenerative brakes.
Who needs a V12 growl when starting up when you have the Star Trek Enterprise OS boot up sound instead...?!
And let's be honest the BMW interior completely shows up any Aston. BMW use plastic. REAL plastic!!
But firstly, let's cut to the chase: I bought a BMW i8.
The piped in exhaust note is so amazing and real, the electric steering is so feelsome not forgetting the regenerative brakes.
Who needs a V12 growl when starting up when you have the Star Trek Enterprise OS boot up sound instead...?!
And let's be honest the BMW interior completely shows up any Aston. BMW use plastic. REAL plastic!!
Now, back to reality... 
(I was being sarcastic about the i8 above)
There's so much to report, so here's PART ONE:
GOOD
Gary at Brentwood and Paul at Sevenoaks were both great. I'm sure some of you must have met them before. Really friendly and really knowledgeable. Could talk to those two effortlessly about anything...even Astons! It amazes me how when you get more and more top end with cars the sales pressure just seems to completely vanish and it just ends up being a chat.
BAD
I completely messed up getting to Sevenoaks. It should have taken 45 mins from where I was having lunch. I think it took over 2 hours? If not more. There was an accident on the M25 and my damn Audi sat nav didn't match up with some of the signs on the motorway. Basically I was 2 miles away, missed a junction and ended up being 57 miles away.
Then later, take two, I was 3 miles away, missed a junction, and ended up being 17 miles away. Argh.
Then the icing on the cake: the sat nav told me that the garage was on the right hand side. I drove in. It was a Bentley garage. Apparently this mixup happens quite regularly with German based sat navs according to Paul.
Funny, right? Except at that point my display said I had ZERO miles of petrol left. So I left the car there and decided to walk. Then I realised it was 22 mins walk. Then I got the bus. That's when I realised a petrol station was literally 1 min drive away(!) Later Paul asked me why I didn't phone him up to pick me up. Good question...I'll ask that for the rest of my life.
GOOD
The DBS looked exactly right. It looked like an Aston SHOULD look. Perfect proportions. Although the boot was small I could imagine using the back seats as additional luggage space.
As I said earlier it was amazing how you could cruise around in it. I mean, I was doing only 59mph on the motorway. In my R8 that would never happen, you'd feel that you were just going too slow. Here I felt so relaxed and was talking away to Gary without a care in the world. What I mean is that the DBS made you feel like you DIDN'T need to go fast constantly to enjoy the car.
BAD
I found it more firm a ride than my R8 amazingly. In fact getting back into the R8 at the end it felt like I was driving a saloon! So smooth. But of course missing that connection and feeling to the road. I suppose I was expecting DB9 level of smooth and then Vantage levels of driveability at the flick of the suspension mode.
It also felt quite big and I never could fully tell where the front of the car was. It's a big bonnet. As I said earlier, I felt like I was riding IN it.
GOOD
The V12 Vantage S exhaust noise was ABSOLUTLEY INSANE. There's no other way to describe it! It'd louder than the DBS at start up and you can hear much more of it at idle and at low revs. But then the Sport mode is activated...CRAZY things happen. I'd say power wise it's similar to my R8 V10 but the way you hear and experience the power is completely different.
Later Paul at Sevenoaks dropped me off to Bentley in one of their V12S cars. It was freezing cold by that time. So the start up exhaust note sounded even more crazy and the short ride to Bentley was full of epic exhaust notes bouncing off walls and houses. All thanks to Sport mode.
It put a smile on my face. Every time.
GOOD
Then there was the size and feeling of the Vantage over the DBS. It felt so much smaller, so much more involving, so much more direct. I could place the front of the car so easily. As I said earlier, it felt like I was PART of the car rather driving in it.
Yes, it was stiffer still than the DBS. But without that how would get such an involving drive?!
Part Two to follow in ten...
(I was being sarcastic about the i8 above)There's so much to report, so here's PART ONE:
GOOD
Gary at Brentwood and Paul at Sevenoaks were both great. I'm sure some of you must have met them before. Really friendly and really knowledgeable. Could talk to those two effortlessly about anything...even Astons! It amazes me how when you get more and more top end with cars the sales pressure just seems to completely vanish and it just ends up being a chat.
BAD
I completely messed up getting to Sevenoaks. It should have taken 45 mins from where I was having lunch. I think it took over 2 hours? If not more. There was an accident on the M25 and my damn Audi sat nav didn't match up with some of the signs on the motorway. Basically I was 2 miles away, missed a junction and ended up being 57 miles away.
Then later, take two, I was 3 miles away, missed a junction, and ended up being 17 miles away. Argh.
Then the icing on the cake: the sat nav told me that the garage was on the right hand side. I drove in. It was a Bentley garage. Apparently this mixup happens quite regularly with German based sat navs according to Paul.
Funny, right? Except at that point my display said I had ZERO miles of petrol left. So I left the car there and decided to walk. Then I realised it was 22 mins walk. Then I got the bus. That's when I realised a petrol station was literally 1 min drive away(!) Later Paul asked me why I didn't phone him up to pick me up. Good question...I'll ask that for the rest of my life.
GOOD
The DBS looked exactly right. It looked like an Aston SHOULD look. Perfect proportions. Although the boot was small I could imagine using the back seats as additional luggage space.
As I said earlier it was amazing how you could cruise around in it. I mean, I was doing only 59mph on the motorway. In my R8 that would never happen, you'd feel that you were just going too slow. Here I felt so relaxed and was talking away to Gary without a care in the world. What I mean is that the DBS made you feel like you DIDN'T need to go fast constantly to enjoy the car.
BAD
I found it more firm a ride than my R8 amazingly. In fact getting back into the R8 at the end it felt like I was driving a saloon! So smooth. But of course missing that connection and feeling to the road. I suppose I was expecting DB9 level of smooth and then Vantage levels of driveability at the flick of the suspension mode.
It also felt quite big and I never could fully tell where the front of the car was. It's a big bonnet. As I said earlier, I felt like I was riding IN it.
GOOD
The V12 Vantage S exhaust noise was ABSOLUTLEY INSANE. There's no other way to describe it! It'd louder than the DBS at start up and you can hear much more of it at idle and at low revs. But then the Sport mode is activated...CRAZY things happen. I'd say power wise it's similar to my R8 V10 but the way you hear and experience the power is completely different.
Later Paul at Sevenoaks dropped me off to Bentley in one of their V12S cars. It was freezing cold by that time. So the start up exhaust note sounded even more crazy and the short ride to Bentley was full of epic exhaust notes bouncing off walls and houses. All thanks to Sport mode.
It put a smile on my face. Every time.
GOOD
Then there was the size and feeling of the Vantage over the DBS. It felt so much smaller, so much more involving, so much more direct. I could place the front of the car so easily. As I said earlier, it felt like I was PART of the car rather driving in it.
Yes, it was stiffer still than the DBS. But without that how would get such an involving drive?!
Part Two to follow in ten...
Edited by Nijius Maximus on Wednesday 20th January 23:50
Edited by Nijius Maximus on Wednesday 20th January 23:52
So here's PART TWO of my strangely good and bad Aston day out...
GOOD
I definitely want an Aston again. I miss all the little things, like the crystal key. The Audi key is the same as you get on an A1 no doubt! So boring. The swan doors - cos they look cool and actually stop you kerbing the doors. The flyaway hand brake. Yeah it takes a bit of getting used to. But it's always cool trying to get your friends to unlock the hand brake and failing every time. It's like a secret only Aston owners know...
The door handles. I remember going to a car wash and they couldn't even figure out how to open the door! Genius. The counter clockwise rev counter. I don't know why but in no other car have I paid so much attention to the rev counter before. Maybe because it's on the right hand side or because it's counter clockwise or just both? And of course the jewel like dials in the first place all lit up elegantly.
The real metal and glass. The glass buttons for example, well on the newer models such as the V12VS, just look and feel so expensive. Along with the leather all over the place. The startup noise. Nothing more needs to be said. No matter how tired I was in the morning my old Vantage's exhaust start up woke me up straight away and put a smile on my face.
I could go on and on...but you get he picture. There's a lot of cool things that add up to make something truly different and special.
BAD
The only bad thing left is the non-availability of the car I want. Grange had a 2013 V12VS with only 10k miles and in amazing Flugplatz Blue, i.e. like this:
For £99.9k. The magic number as I don't want to spend more than a £100k. Unfortunately it was sold before I enquired about it. However they may have access to another one so are gonna get back to me...
BAD
The other bad things is that I didn't get to try out the ORIGINAL V12 Vantage. Sevenoaks literally sold it in between me phoning them up to come down to me (eventually) arriving. A customer was test driving it when I was on the phone...but what are the chances!
And the other V12V isn't actually in stock yet. They'll call me when it is. I do still want to try the original V12V just so I know I'm gonna make the right decision. But in all fairness after all the driving today and how much my left foot and leg hurt from using the clutch in traffic I think I'd be well happy with a semi-automatic. More relaxing than a manual but more involving than a torque converter. Perfect.
CONCLUSION
It was a great day seeing and driving the Astons and the roads around Brentwood were amazing. In fact after the test drives I drove my own car along the same route when leaving! The icing on the cake was driving over Dartford Bridge. It was an amazing view. Almost felt like a dream.
At the moment the V12VS is at the top of my list. Sevenoaks had a coupe version in grey but it had 27k miles if I remember correctly and I really want it to be less than 20k.
So now the waiting game begins...although hopefully inter spread with a V12V test drive this week to keep me going and help make my absolute decision.
Ah, now off to sleep! Cheers everyone.
GOOD
I definitely want an Aston again. I miss all the little things, like the crystal key. The Audi key is the same as you get on an A1 no doubt! So boring. The swan doors - cos they look cool and actually stop you kerbing the doors. The flyaway hand brake. Yeah it takes a bit of getting used to. But it's always cool trying to get your friends to unlock the hand brake and failing every time. It's like a secret only Aston owners know...
The door handles. I remember going to a car wash and they couldn't even figure out how to open the door! Genius. The counter clockwise rev counter. I don't know why but in no other car have I paid so much attention to the rev counter before. Maybe because it's on the right hand side or because it's counter clockwise or just both? And of course the jewel like dials in the first place all lit up elegantly.
The real metal and glass. The glass buttons for example, well on the newer models such as the V12VS, just look and feel so expensive. Along with the leather all over the place. The startup noise. Nothing more needs to be said. No matter how tired I was in the morning my old Vantage's exhaust start up woke me up straight away and put a smile on my face.
I could go on and on...but you get he picture. There's a lot of cool things that add up to make something truly different and special.
BAD
The only bad thing left is the non-availability of the car I want. Grange had a 2013 V12VS with only 10k miles and in amazing Flugplatz Blue, i.e. like this:
For £99.9k. The magic number as I don't want to spend more than a £100k. Unfortunately it was sold before I enquired about it. However they may have access to another one so are gonna get back to me...
BAD
The other bad things is that I didn't get to try out the ORIGINAL V12 Vantage. Sevenoaks literally sold it in between me phoning them up to come down to me (eventually) arriving. A customer was test driving it when I was on the phone...but what are the chances!
And the other V12V isn't actually in stock yet. They'll call me when it is. I do still want to try the original V12V just so I know I'm gonna make the right decision. But in all fairness after all the driving today and how much my left foot and leg hurt from using the clutch in traffic I think I'd be well happy with a semi-automatic. More relaxing than a manual but more involving than a torque converter. Perfect.
CONCLUSION
It was a great day seeing and driving the Astons and the roads around Brentwood were amazing. In fact after the test drives I drove my own car along the same route when leaving! The icing on the cake was driving over Dartford Bridge. It was an amazing view. Almost felt like a dream.
At the moment the V12VS is at the top of my list. Sevenoaks had a coupe version in grey but it had 27k miles if I remember correctly and I really want it to be less than 20k.
So now the waiting game begins...although hopefully inter spread with a V12V test drive this week to keep me going and help make my absolute decision.
Ah, now off to sleep! Cheers everyone.
Edited by Nijius Maximus on Thursday 21st January 00:27
Nijius Maximus said:
I completely messed up getting to Sevenoaks. It should have taken 45 mins from where I was having lunch. I think it took over 2 hours? If not more. There was an accident on the M25 and my damn Audi sat nav didn't match up with some of the signs on the motorway. Basically I was 2 miles away, missed a junction and ended up being 57 miles away.
Then later, take two, I was 3 miles away, missed a junction, and ended up being 17 miles away. Argh.
Then the icing on the cake: the sat nav told me that the garage was on the right hand side. I drove in. It was a Bentley garage. Apparently this mixup happens quite regularly with German based sat navs according to Paul.
Funny, right? Except at that point my display said I had ZERO miles of petrol left. So I left the car there and decided to walk. Then I realised it was 22 mins walk. Then I got the bus. That's when I realised a petrol station was literally 1 min drive away(!) Later Paul asked me why I didn't phone him up to pick me up. Good question...I'll ask that for the rest of my life.
If you do buy an Aston, your navigational problems will be at an end. Aston only use the finest cutting edge technology. Then later, take two, I was 3 miles away, missed a junction, and ended up being 17 miles away. Argh.
Then the icing on the cake: the sat nav told me that the garage was on the right hand side. I drove in. It was a Bentley garage. Apparently this mixup happens quite regularly with German based sat navs according to Paul.
Funny, right? Except at that point my display said I had ZERO miles of petrol left. So I left the car there and decided to walk. Then I realised it was 22 mins walk. Then I got the bus. That's when I realised a petrol station was literally 1 min drive away(!) Later Paul asked me why I didn't phone him up to pick me up. Good question...I'll ask that for the rest of my life.
Thanks for the report, I enjoyed reading about it. Although I'm bias towards the V12V I completely understand why you'd choose an automatic over it, living in London. Good luck with your search, exciting times.
Great write up. So you actually enjoyed SportshiftIII? Did you find it an improvement over the earlier version you had in your V8?
I somehow knew you were going to be smitten after driving the V12VS.
27k miles wouldn't scare me, these are virtually bombproof, 27k is just nicely run in.
I somehow knew you were going to be smitten after driving the V12VS.
27k miles wouldn't scare me, these are virtually bombproof, 27k is just nicely run in.
Ha nice story, I take back back the strong cheese comment
I have a flugplatz blue S coupe, you won't be disappointed.
I'm 1300 miles / 3 months into ownership and loving every minute!
I recommend one with lightweight bucket seats, really suit the sporty nature of the car. Mine also has B&O hifi, which is also superb when you can hear it over the exhaust!
Good luck with your hunt and let us know how you're getting on.
I have a flugplatz blue S coupe, you won't be disappointed.
I'm 1300 miles / 3 months into ownership and loving every minute!
I recommend one with lightweight bucket seats, really suit the sporty nature of the car. Mine also has B&O hifi, which is also superb when you can hear it over the exhaust!
Good luck with your hunt and let us know how you're getting on.
I'll get stabbed in the face for saying this here but...
Why aren't you using the opportunity to get a 12c. They're being snapped up pretty quickly (just based on what ma happening inthr Mac forum) and by ex Aston owners like me. Massive step up, none of the Ferrari gareishness, stacks of power, super comfortable and a proper statement on the road (like Aston). Going for bargain basement prices right now but starting to creep up as the market starts to notice of mclaren. They're on fire right now!
Why aren't you using the opportunity to get a 12c. They're being snapped up pretty quickly (just based on what ma happening inthr Mac forum) and by ex Aston owners like me. Massive step up, none of the Ferrari gareishness, stacks of power, super comfortable and a proper statement on the road (like Aston). Going for bargain basement prices right now but starting to creep up as the market starts to notice of mclaren. They're on fire right now!
SlartiF430 said:
I'll get stabbed in the face for saying this here but...
Why aren't you using the opportunity to get a 12c. They're being snapped up pretty quickly (just based on what ma happening inthr Mac forum) and by ex Aston owners like me. Massive step up, none of the Ferrari gareishness, stacks of power, super comfortable and a proper statement on the road (like Aston). Going for bargain basement prices right now but starting to creep up as the market starts to notice of mclaren. They're on fire right now!
I can't see any for less than £100k?Why aren't you using the opportunity to get a 12c. They're being snapped up pretty quickly (just based on what ma happening inthr Mac forum) and by ex Aston owners like me. Massive step up, none of the Ferrari gareishness, stacks of power, super comfortable and a proper statement on the road (like Aston). Going for bargain basement prices right now but starting to creep up as the market starts to notice of mclaren. They're on fire right now!
And any that do come up for that kind of money tend to be early cars with relatively high mileage.
Good luck buying one without an ironclad Mclaren warranty. My mates old one spent more time at the dealership than on the road.
Hardly a stab in the face
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