General advice before I take the plunge again

[ShortTimers]

Hi long time reader but first time poster.... to be honest I wish I’d found this forum when I had my last AM as the advise your guys & girls give is brilliant, especially to people like me who can be bamboozled by all the technical stuff around these great cars.

I’m looking for a couple of bits of advice;

1)Anyone know of a good independent service centre in Hertfordshire or nearby? (I’ve tried the search but couldn’t find anything?)

2)My last N400 was an amazing car, should never of sold it, but I’m now looking at getting back into one. Probably 08 or 09 reg as I was pretty burnt buying new last time out. But my young lady who loved the car hated driving the sports shift at low rev’s as it jumped and lurched.... not great when trying to park... I’ve seen the post about making it smother by training the clutch... but how much of an improvement is it? Is it noticeably better? Are we talking 10%, 50% or 100%

3)As I was luckily enough to have the N400 I enjoyed the extra hp, am I going to notice it if I go for a normal 4.3 or should I be thinking about a 4.7? I’ve got about 60K to spend and I really want a cab this time round.

4)Last question is around mileage, what are the general thoughts about low mileage cars... I’ve seen a few posts about not touching a ‘garage princess’ as they probably haven’t had all the teething problems resolved? What should the average yearly mileage be?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Rich

[mikey k]

ShortTimers said:

2)My last N400 was an amazing car, should never of sold it, but I’m now looking at getting back into one. Probably 08 or 09 reg as I was pretty burnt buying new last time out. But my young lady who loved the car hated driving the sports shift at low rev’s as it jumped and lurched.... not great when trying to park... I’ve seen the post about making it smother by training the clutch... but how much of an improvement is it? Is it noticeably better? Are we talking 10%, 50% or 100%

3)As I was luckily enough to have the N400 I enjoyed the extra hp, am I going to notice it if I go for a normal 4.3 or should I be thinking about a 4.7? I’ve got about 60K to spend and I really want a cab this time round.

4)Last question is around mileage, what are the general thoughts about low mileage cars... I’ve seen a few posts about not touching a ‘garage princess’ as they probably haven’t had all the teething problems resolved? What should the average yearly mileage be?

Hopefully welcome back
If you've had an N400 with sportshift I'd highly recommend a 4.7 sport shift with Sport Pack.
They revised the ASM for the 4.7. One issue your finding is creep moded coming in at low speeds. The other things that cause an issue with ASM 1 is the antistall down change and high reverse gear. They all conspire to make slow speeds "awkward" I ALWAYS used mine on the paddles in manual mode and NEVER used comfort mode. I found these combinations made it much nicer to drive.

Shame you weren't looking a couple of weeks ago, Grange have just sold my 4.7 ASM1 Sport pack Roadster for £56k! Next 4-5 months will be a great time to by a roadster Which leads me on to garage queens!
Buy on condition, garage queens can suffer other ailmenrts like seized rear claipers, sticky handbrakes, electrical gremlins from flat batteries etc Mine was 23k miles in 3.5 years but was immaculate all over!

[steveatesh]

Fingers crossed you get what you want from the car. I can't comment on sport shift but re the point on garage queen or princess or whatever, you may want to read this thread:

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

for me personally I am in a position where I don't drive many miles and never have because I work from home and all amenities are nearby. However, and I think is is the important bit, my car is used just about every day and doesn't stand idle for periods of a time. In my experience it's the standing undriven that causes more problems to cars rather than mileage. Others may have different opinions of course and the above thread suggests 2 to 3 thousand miles a year should be fine, although they have not defined over what time period this should be maintained for your car to fall outside of the label garage queen! Whatever the car I wish you all the best with your search.

[marcelg]

It is worth looking at Chiltern Aston in Bovingdon.
Although it is not independent, I was quoted £900 for the last service as opposed to £1200 average for main dealers (4 year V8V)
I have not yet taken the car in, but have visited them before and the guys are professional, and have seen good feedback on this forum.

[yeti]

Eh? Chiltern is an independent garage and they're your guys around Herts.

Good luck with your search, how come manual isn't an option for you?

[marcelg]

I stand corrected - didn't realise they were indepedent as they have the big official Aston sign outside

[ShortTimers]

mikey k said:

Hopefully welcome back
If you've had an N400 with sportshift I'd highly recommend a 4.7 sport shift with Sport Pack.
They revised the ASM for the 4.7. One issue your finding is creep moded coming in at low speeds. The other things that cause an issue with ASM 1 is the antistall down change and high reverse gear. They all conspire to make slow speeds "awkward" I ALWAYS used mine on the paddles in manual mode and NEVER used comfort mode. I found these combinations made it much nicer to drive.

Shame you weren't looking a couple of weeks ago, Grange have just sold my 4.7 ASM1 Sport pack Roadster for £56k! Next 4-5 months will be a great time to by a roadster Which leads me on to garage queens!
Buy on condition, garage queens can suffer other ailmenrts like seized rear claipers, sticky handbrakes, electrical gremlins from flat batteries etc Mine was 23k miles in 3.5 years but was immaculate all over!

Thanks Mikey, i’ll add the 4.7 with Sports pack to the possible list... sounds like I missed a good deal on your car... I’ve been told that the cars in this bracket are about to take a hammering on price so I was going to wait until the end of October but if the prices are likely to drop over the winter even more I might just wait a little longer.

You answered my next question before I got to ask it.... about what else i’m likely to encounter if I buy a 3 year old car with sub 10K miles... I spotted this one... it’s been on PH for months, I think, and the dealer stated the high price was due to the low mileage...

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1761489.htm

I must admit I’ve been drawn to the brighter colour.... I used to love the orange on the N400... but my more sensible side always pushes me to black or silver... Might have to go a bit wild this time.

[ShortTimers]

Thanks Guys for your comments so far.

I've now found 'Chiltern’ on the web so I’m going to give them a call as they are only half hour away.

Yeti, the manual question is a good one. I’ve not discounted it but I’ve not seen that many in the colour/price I wanted, they mostly seem to be Sport shift... but my better half also spotted your post and I spent the rest of the evening discussing the pros and cons of manual v sport shift..

[Shmee]

ShortTimers said:

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1761489.htm

I must admit I’ve been drawn to the brighter colour.... I used to love the orange on the N400... but my more sensible side always pushes me to black or silver... Might have to go a bit wild this time.

There's something suspect about that car, it was up for sale when I started looking for mine last September so with at least 13 months listed in the ads the price has got to be set wrong.

However, yellow is awesome!

[George H]

Shmee said:

However, yellow is awesome!

Agreed.

Although I would edge to the N400 Roadster in Karussell orange that's in the classifieds if I wanted a bright coloured V8VR.

[mikey k]

ShortTimers said:

Thanks Mikey, i’ll add the 4.7 with Sports pack to the possible list... sounds like I missed a good deal on your car... I’ve been told that the cars in this bracket are about to take a hammering on price so I was going to wait until the end of October but if the prices are likely to drop over the winter even more I might just wait a little longer.

You answered my next question before I got to ask it.... about what else i’m likely to encounter if I buy a 3 year old car with sub 10K miles... I spotted this one... it’s been on PH for months, I think, and the dealer stated the high price was due to the low mileage...

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/sales/1761489.htm

I must admit I’ve been drawn to the brighter colour.... I used to love the orange on the N400... but my more sensible side always pushes me to black or silver... Might have to go a bit wild this time.

You are welcome
Ironically that yellow one is 5 miles down the road from me!
CN's have had it for well over a year!
It was up for £67k when I bought my 4.7 last May!
I'd be happy to give it the once over for you if you are serious.
Having said that I've not found them very easy to deal with in the past.
Very limited test drives and not open to "a deal"
It does look "suspect" because it is a late 4.3 with the N400/sport pack wheels

Edited by mikey k on Tuesday 4th October 18:00

[ShortTimers]

mikey k said:

You are welcome
Ironically that yellow one is 5 miles down the road from me!
CN's have had it for well over a year!
It was up for £67k when I bought my 4.7 last May!
I'd be happy to give it the once over for you if you are serious.
Having said that I've not found them very easy to deal with in the past.
Very limited test drives and not open to "a deal"
It does look "suspect" because it is a late 4.3 with the N400/sport pack wheels

Edited by mikey k on Tuesday 4th October 18:00

Thanks Mikey for the offer much appreciated, I’m up in Manchester in a couple of week’s time so I’ll pop in and see what it’s like…

I thought it had been on PH for a while but hadn’t realized it had been with them for that long… if it’s not moved in over a year I think I might pass as god knows what will go wrong when it starts getting used regularly…. Especially if they won’t move on the price.

I think I’m going to go have a look at the Orange N400 as it definitely makes a statement.
Thanks for your help.

[mikey k]

ShortTimers said:

Thanks Mikey for the offer much appreciated, I’m up in Manchester in a couple of week’s time so I’ll pop in and see what it’s like…

I thought it had been on PH for a while but hadn’t realized it had been with them for that long… if it’s not moved in over a year I think I might pass as god knows what will go wrong when it starts getting used regularly…. Especially if they won’t move on the price.

I think I’m going to go have a look at the Orange N400 as it definitely makes a statement.
Thanks for your help.

Let me know when you are up I'm happy to go in with you as I live the other side of the town.
I've never had a close look at that one.
Don't be put off by it standing for a while many of these cars do