Do I buy an Aston? Help!

Do I buy an Aston? Help!

Author
Discussion

993UED

Original Poster:

15 posts

112 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
Right, here we go. I run a 993 C2 with track suspension a LSD and a few other trick components. It is a daily driver (for my mere 4K or so miles a year). Love the car to bits, but any air cooled Porsche comes with a todo list. Having looked at an Aston v8 vantage up close in a dealership, I was stunned by the quality of the workmanship and the product in general. Now I am thinking of taking the Porsche off the road for a couple of years and using an Aston instead, which should be lighter in maintenance but provide enough of a laugh at the same time.

Thoughts are, 2007 and beyond (has to have the newer seats). Manual box. Roadster. I want to pay no more than £45k but could stretch slightly upwards if it meant getting an n400 or 4.7. Taking a guess at running costs, I would think about £3.5k per year max and a loss on sale after 2 yrs of £5-8k, if it goes back to a dealer. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Is it best to buy privately (with all the necessary checks) or go through Aston directly? Any horror stories that mean I should reconsider? Also the model has been running for 10 yrs now. Is a new model on its way that is going to kill residuals?

divetheworld

2,565 posts

134 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
Your running costs and depreciation estimate is way off.
2007my cars aren't depreciating, quite the contrary.
Servicing is 650-850pa and extremely reliable. If you get it from an authorised dealer, you get a premium warranty. If not, it'll cost you something like 1600gbp to get one.
Running the very limited mileage you do, I'd expect to get the majority of my money back on sale at the end of your ownership.
Lastly, don't discount the sportshift box. Driving it like a manual in sport mode and not using the auto function is rewarding.
I've had two touchtronic, two manuals and a sportshift. I wouldn't discourage you from any Aston gearbox.

montecristo

1,043 posts

176 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
I'd say your running costs and depreciation estimate are spot on.

£650-£850 service costs seems conservative; certainly it would be in London (we don't know where the OP is). And there is always something to replace at the annual service, be it tyres, some electrical thing gone wrong (not saying that the cars are unreliable, but they are old), clutch (an 07 may well need a clutch in the next three years, which amortizes to a grand a year). I end up paying around £1,500-£2,000 a year in total costs of that nature. Plus maybe an extra tyre a year, since in London the streets are paved with nails.

I agree with divetheworld that there isn't depreciation, but that's on the surface - if you buy a £40k car from a dealer, you would be very lucky to get £40k back for it 2 years and 10k miles later. The dealer might resell your same car for £40k, so no depreciation there, but he'll only give you £30k-£35k.

RobDown

3,803 posts

127 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
What he said, your annual costs are too high unless you're going through a set of tyres and brakes every year (not a problem with your mileage)

There is a new model coming in about 12 months time, will likely use the AMG V8. But I'd be surprised if it had any major effect on residuals given how far down the depreciation curve you are with a 2007 model

Only think I would check is the clutch wear as replacing that can be expensive

V8V Pete

2,496 posts

125 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
If you buy from and trade back to a dealer after 2 years your margin of £5-8K is probably about right but you can reduce that to almost nothing if you're prepared to buy and sell privately as depreciation really is zero or negative at present.

IMHO you'd be very unlucky to experience running costs of £3.5K PER year. OK, if the clutch goes (£2.5K) then you're going to have one £3.5K year but the next few years will be much closer to £1.5K at that mileage. They really are reliable cars especially if they are used regularly. Several good independents around who will service for a little less than main dealers and do a quality inspection of a car if buying privately.

You won't regret it. Most beautiful car on the road and very rewarding to drive and own.

jazzybee

3,056 posts

248 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
I've been running a 2008MY '57' plate Manual V8V Roadster for the last 3.5 years, and have put on 32k miles in that time. As has been said, Main Dealer servicing around London is £650-1000 after negotiating. I pay £1866 per year for the Premium warranty, and there is the annual Tracker fee to consider for insurance. Outside of that you have Brake maintenance and the Clutch to consider. I changed my clutch last year at around 48k miles.

BTW - I am looking to sell my car in part-ex this week to buy a newer one with lower miles...

Edited by jazzybee on Saturday 30th July 15:16

993UED

Original Poster:

15 posts

112 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
Very interesting and well balanced comments - thanks. So it sounds like factor in clutch wear into the purchase price and £3.5k would be more like top end of the spectrum including tax and insurance.

Will be interesting to see what the new one looks like and what it does to residuals.

Wouldn't normally consider main dear for cars in general, but having watched the market for a while, it seems that stock turns over pretty slowly and there are a lot of good and low mileage cars out there. So could take a while to sell privately.

Zuman

188 posts

112 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
I'm sure you already know this, but if your objective is the best performance for cost you'll probably do better staying with Porsche.
Aston Martins are much more of a "gestalt" ownership experience. You can certainly make plenty of performance enhancements that are as much fun to create as they are to use, but there's a certain dignity and presence about an Aston that goes far beyond going fast and flat.
Many people talk about Astons delivering a "sense of occasion." If that's appealing, by all means get one. Mine is the most rewarding car I've ever owned...totally different from my Lotus (far less edgy), but creating more smiles per gallon than anything else.

divetheworld

2,565 posts

134 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
993UED said:
Will be interesting to see what the new one looks like and what it does to residuals.
Look at the DB10 and you'll have all the clues you need. whistle
Unlikely to prise V12V owners out of their steed until they make a super performance model.
Regarding V8V, new cars are so out of the price bracket that it won't have much effect on entry level or mid level cars.
Late V8V owners will probably be pricing up the second hand market for kidneys and livers to own one. IMHO of course!

Jon39

12,782 posts

142 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all

The budget that you mention puts you so close to a 4.7.
Many worthwhile improvements.

Annual UK new sales of the 4.3 model considerably exceeded those of the 4.7 (due to the recession 2008). Fewer used 4.7 now around, so strong demand.

The replacement Vantage is due next year, but the present shape is still very much admired. Remarkable, considering that the original unveiling was 13 years ago. The new car will have a Mercedes turbo engine, so possibly demand for the present N/A engine cars might even increase. Who knows?




Edited by Jon39 on Saturday 30th July 21:42

petop

2,135 posts

165 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
quotequote all
What Jon says.

If you can get into a 4.7 then great but any V8V will bring a smile to your face.
As for the new version, whilst i hope it will be a good car and carry on the tradition, with the DB11 there has been certainly 2 sides of the room as to its looks and that "sound". When the DB9 came out there was less of a division so with the new Vantage there maybe the same sort of opinion as the DB11 has had. So the demand for both 4.3 and 4.7's may firm up even more.


Speedraser

1,656 posts

182 months

Sunday 31st July 2016
quotequote all
993,
I have a 993 (16 years and counting) and a MY09 V8V (from new). Neither is a daily driver. Both have been superbly reliable. Other than the annual service, my V8V has cost me a total of $150 in non-routine maintenance/repairs, except for new tires I bought last month. I did not extend the original warranty. Both are wonderful cars.

arp489j

26 posts

122 months

Sunday 31st July 2016
quotequote all
Quite a dilemma because they are all great cars but no comparison to a Porsche which is brilliant, for a mass produced car! Any Aston gives you so much more than a Porsche could deliver, and everybody smiles at you. You also get let out at junctions, unlike with a Porsche.

I am biased of course but definitely stretch to a 4.7. The N400 has a great spec and will be collectable one day, but it is still a tweaked 4.3. The 4.3 is a great car and of course looks the same from the outside but beauty is skin deep. If you read "the book" you will see the huge list of improvements they made in creating the "facelift" 4.7.

As an allrounder, a low mileage 2009 V8 Vantage with a new clutch and flywheel plus full service record is hard to beat for the money.

RB

V8V Pete

2,496 posts

125 months

Sunday 31st July 2016
quotequote all
jazzybee said:
and there is the annual Tracker fee to consider for insurance.
Don't bother with the Tracker subscription. Why pay £250 of your own money to insure the insurance company against a total loss? Certainly Aviva don't insist on it below about £75K on an Aston so spend the money on petrol instead and smile

Banks570

48 posts

111 months

Monday 1st August 2016
quotequote all
Tracker. I paid a one off payment of £200 which covered my Aston for the time that I own the vehicle. Suggest speaking to Tracker to replicate this deal.

As an aside, I have two Astons, both much older than those you are looking at. Whilst I can not comment on the more modern cars, I can recommend Aston ownership. Great fun!

bogie

16,344 posts

271 months

Monday 1st August 2016
quotequote all
I did the same when I bought the car, Tracker had a lifetime offer deal on, this was in 2007. Paid £200 ish and no more since.

In my experience my vantage has been very reliable and one of the best cars ive owned in the last 15 years or so. In 80K miles ive had a few things go wrong, nothing major, the most expensive an aircon compressor at about 65k miles. 3 out of 4 wheel bearings have been replaced at a few hundred quid per side. Thermostats, aux drive belt, coolant sensor.

I would estimate under £2k of non consumable repairs in the last 9 years/80K miles. Tyres, brakes etc all similar wear to running a premium German car.

I count the clutch as a consumable, that was £2500 last year, the original lasted 73K miles, so fitted another which is a big improvement in feel, as the design changed some time ago.

There are well over 10K Vantages in the world now, so there is the odd horror story of a dodgy car out there, where someone has had some bad luck. Generally though the majority of owners on here mention the same niggles/service items and there are known fixes for all. If you do some jobs yourself (brake pads etc) and stay away from using dealers at £150 per hour labour, then I think you can run a Vantage for similar cost to a BMW 3 series smile

AdamV8V

1,379 posts

155 months

Monday 1st August 2016
quotequote all
I am totally biased (owning a manual V8VR in green with a bitter choc interior!) but this car looks cracking:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/a...

Cali Sage is lovely Aston heritage colour.

Another £3k (pre negotiation) gets you in to a really low mileage 4.7, if you can live with the interior...

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/a...

Happy hunting!

Edit


Sorry, the green one is SportShift. As has been said above, no bad thing if you use it for fast road driving etc. But if this is for a DD, I'd go with a three pedal manual (or an auto DB9!)


Edited by AdamV8V on Monday 1st August 14:42

NeinFondue

860 posts

155 months

Monday 1st August 2016
quotequote all
AdamV8V said:
I am totally biased (owning a manual V8VR in green with a bitter choc interior!) but this car looks cracking:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/a...

Cali Sage is lovely Aston heritage colour.

Another £3k (pre negotiation) gets you in to a really low mileage 4.7, if you can live with the interior...

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/a...

Happy hunting!

Edit


Sorry, the green one is SportShift. As has been said above, no bad thing if you use it for fast road driving etc. But if this is for a DD, I'd go with a three pedal manual (or an auto DB9!)


Edited by AdamV8V on Monday 1st August 14:42
The black with chancellor red interior looks stunning!

jazzybee

3,056 posts

248 months

Monday 1st August 2016
quotequote all
NeinFondue said:
The black with chancellor red interior looks stunning!
I test drove this car on Saturday. The red is not quite as bright as the photos suggest. With the Sports pack it is a really good drive (possibly best handling V8V I have driven).... Its one of the two I am currently considering. Likely to buy one of the cars over the next day or two, but just waiting for reasonable cash bid on my car before I accept a trade-in deal.

993UED

Original Poster:

15 posts

112 months

Tuesday 2nd August 2016
quotequote all
NeinFondue said:
The black with chancellor red interior looks stunning!
Best of the bunch at the moment. Also love the green, but can't get over the missing pedal!