V8 Vantage S as everyday car on UK roads

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What is the general opinion on driving a V8VS as an everyday car compared to a V8V?

Is the suspension much harder?

Does it sound much different?

Is ASM2 easy to live with every day?

I've test driven a 12.25MY V8V and it felt much stiffer than an early V8V, in both steering and suspension, whilst also being a fair bit quieter and more mechanical/metallic sounding, is that a fair assessment?

Thanks!

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Do you have any trouble with the ground clearance? Is it much different to a standard V8?

You've given me hope that it is usable every day!

Do you know if 2011 is new enough to stream spotify via bluetooth or do I need a newer model? I can't find anything about this in Grants book.

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Is the comfort suspension is the same as the standard one? or is there "comfort" suspension?

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Jonsv8 said:

ASM is a pain in stop start traffic if you do a lot of that although generous use of neutral helps.

You have me worried now since I live in London...

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Phil74891 said:

I've driven a manual V8 and ASM II and III in London. I'd take ASM every time. Definitely no worse than a clutch pedal thingy. Clicking into neutral does help too. Plus, you can always stick it in 'D' as well if you fancy a laugh.

Thanks! How did you find the ride in London?

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Grant3 said:

Bluetooth streaming was only introduced for the 15MY so it is only covered in the latest editions of the guide. But... A.M. have now introduced a new Bluetooth upgrade kit which can (for £££££££) be fitted to a 2011 car to give you streaming, see here"..... http://www.astonmartin.com/en/accessories/v8-vanta... this is fully covered in detail in the latest 10th edition

The S has the same ride height as the standard V8 and ground clearance is good for a sports car.

There really isn't any issues with using an S as a daily driver, bar depreciation from higher miles, and it's worth test driving a standard V8 as well as this will offer slightly better comfort on a bumpy road. ASM2 is probably better than a manual in a daily driver, although not for ultimate driving involvement.

Grant or anyone else, any idea what ££££££ converts into?

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timbals said:

Grant or anyone else, any idea what ££££££ converts into?

Ok, going to answer my own question!

http://www.pistonheads.com/Gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

If that thread is to be believed, it looks like for a S it would be about £300 + labour, which isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be

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theaxe said:

I went with a V8Vs manual as my daily. It's only been a month or so but so far so good. The roads near to me are terrible but for a sports car I think it rides very well.

I got a Tune2Air for Bluetooth streaming (haven't tried Spotify though) and it works perfectly.

The only problem I have with the car is reversing, still getting the hang of getting around the corners and up into the garage without stalling or cooking the clutch.

I test drove one the other day, I thought as a driver it wasn't too bad but in the passenger seat it seemed pretty hard. That said, I'm usually only a passenger in a Range Rover.

Does using Tune2Air stop you using the in car phone bluetooth?

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I'm looking at getting the bluetooth upgrade (the 15MY year one), it says it works with Siri, anyone know if it also works with Google now on an Android phone? If it does that sounds perfect.

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So, I've put a deposit down on a V8VS and the dealer brought it down to my parking space which is in a stacking system with a ramp. The front just scrapes when going up the ramp if you go faster than very very slowly. He said they can raise the suspension by half an inch. Has anyone done this or have any advice for/against (apart from reversing up )

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Ironic considering your username! I'd just like piece of mind I'm not going to damage the splitter

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Right now I'm looking at some rubber mats to reduce the angle a little bit to guarantee some safety. Hopefully that will be enough along with going slowly!

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So it has been a while so I thought I'd give a bit of an update.

Firstly an obligatory photo! This is the parking where I live in London, you can probably see why it was such a big concern. You can see the red rubber mats that have done the job perfectly and I have no ground clearance issues even if I don't go really really slowly and I didn't have to get the suspension raised.



For bluetooth streaming I am using a tune2air at the moment. It seems to work OK, gets a bit confused while skipping multiple songs if using Spotify. As reported by numerous other people, the premium audio sounds great.

As for using it every day, at first I found the suspension quite hard, but having driven it a bit, I'm getting used to it. I've put a cushion on my seat to help with the hard suspension and the back support not being quite right for me despite the plethora of settings (perfect with the cushion). Apart from that, the seats and general comfort is way better than in my previous car (Audi).

The gearbox is a bit jerky at low speeds, but otherwise its great, relaxing when you want to relax and fun when you want to have fun. I've even found D mode usable, I can pretty much guess from the revs when it will change gear, hear it start to change, lift the gas enough to make it smooth. The only thing I dislike about D mode is its tendency to shift down when I put down my foot which basically pauses you for half a second while it gets its *#?! together at the exact moment you want to accelerate.