I've left a deposit on a Vantage!!

[rash_decision]

Hi all. So after years of admiration for the V8 Vantage, I've managed to find a 1 owner low mileage 2007 MY car. To say I can't wait to pick it up is an understatement.

Having never owned one (I know, I know...........and leaving a deposit!?!?), what are they like to live with folks? I work offshore, so have a week to wait to view the car in the flesh and have a drive. I've had a browse and can't really find many negatives about them. Nothing more than any other car of the same ilk, but it has Aston warranty for a year, so what can go wrong!?!?

[rash_decision]

The car has done less than 7k miles, should the clutch still be a consideration????

Oh, and how much does the clutch cost to have replaced??? Roughly??

Edited by rash_decision on Thursday 26th November 21:54

[rash_decision]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The clutch was the only 'common', if you like, issue that seems to keep cropping up. Can the parts be purchased over the counter, as unless there are any specialist tools required, I have no doubt in my mind that I could replace a clutch. I've changed a couple of 944 Turbo clutches over the years which sound very much like a similar set up?? Incidentally, these were for friends, and I have never had to replace a clutch on any of my cars over the years, so hopefully the previous owner was as sympathetic (careful??) a driver as I am.

I'm in agreement to a degree about the car having such low mileage, as I have always believed anything mechanical should be used. However, I'd be far more concerned if it had been a couple of thousand miles. The car has been in to Aston Martin (original supplying dealer) every year for it's annual service, whatever that should include, so has a full dealer history. It's being serviced by the dealership I am buying from this week, so hopefully any niggles they find (if??) will be resolved prior to me seeing it. So in buying it from a dealership I have the full warranty. That follows on to my next question............are they good to deal with on claims?

The 'campaigns' mentioned........are these like recalls?? Can anyone point me to, or tell me what a 2007 MY car should have had checked/fixed/replaced under these 'campaigns' and I can ask. Are AM good at alerting owners to these campaigns or do they just deal with them when problems/issues arise?

Given the car has such low mileage, I feel that I can afford to drive it, and put some on it without compromising it's worth. So should any niggles crop up in my early ownership they can be dealt with by the dealership.

Edited by rash_decision on Friday 27th November 07:11

[rash_decision]

Grumpydev said:

7k? Personally i would be worried about a car with so few miles.. No time for the niggles to be wriggled out and I would be concerned it was a short trip shopping trolley.

These cars are made to be driven, averaging 1k a year would leave me with serious questions.

Hopefully I am worrying about nothing and it works out for you though.. How many owners has it had?

Judging by the condition of this car, and the history that I have been told about, it's been no shopping trolley! It looks to have been someone who wanted an Aston, and it has been a garage queen.

What serious questions would you have about the car?? I'm interested, then I can ask for answers from the dealer.

[rash_decision]

Grumpydev said:

Oh, for what its worth, one other piece of advice I would give when buying from a dealer would be to ask them to put you in touch with the previous owner - nothing would allay my fears more that having a long chat with the guy/gal to try and get a feel for whether they have the same mechanical sensibilities that you do.

Cheers, just noticed your replies, my page hadn't refreshed!

I'll ask about the warranty now that I know there are 2 available! Good shout!

I'm not sure that in this day and age with privacy etc they will put me in touch with a previous owner??? If he's a long standing customer he isn't going to want to put the car down anyway, I wouldn't have thought! Lol. I'm convincing myself that someone in the position to buy a brand new Vantage V8 and average 14 miles a week has loved and cherished the car!

[rash_decision]

Grumpydev said:

As I said, I'd try and speak to the owner rather than the dealer as even the best dealer will tell you what you want to hear - the previous owner has no vested interest now so is more likely to tell you the truth

I'm sure others know much more than I do, but general questions / concerns:

• Has it ever been tracked? The low mileage could be because it was used as a track car.
• What kind of journeys were done in it for such a low mileage? Infrequent longer journeys (> 20miles or so), short trips or infrequent short trips?
• If it was generally used for longer journeys was it only driven infrequently? If so, how long was it generally "laid up" for, and was the battery kept on trickle charge for the shorter periods, and/or were the instructions followed for "storing" the car for anything longer than a couple of months.
• How was it driven? Spirited driver or kept at low revs and wafting along? (the latter being more of an alarm bell than the former) if you want to really get into specifics as them about how they use the clutch (holding the pedal in at lights, holding it on the clutch on hills, reversing up hills frequently)

Then some general things to check (which is quite likely telling you how to suck eggs!):

• The lights - they all steam up a bit, but ask about whether there have been any issues with them.
• The noise - in my experience shopping trolleys generally sound pretty nasty, there shouldn't be any rattles or clattering from the engine, they should sound good even from cold.
• The battery - depending on how its been stored the battery might be on its way out - the voltage does get checked on the service so you could check the history, but I'd push on getting them to cover it under the warranty.
• The clutch - make sure there's no noise engaging/disengaging it, try and pull away in 2nd/3rd, if the car doesn't struggle then the clutch is probably slipping - if you get back from the test drive and it smells a bit that's not too much of a concern by the way, they are a bit "whiffy" sometimes.
• The painwork - go over it with a fine tooth comb, check for signs of bubbling around the door handles, and check for signs of a respray around the panel/door edges - if its got bad paint I don't believe its covered by the corrosion warranty as its not actually corroding.

Hope none of that scares you off, it's just a bit of a brain dump of what I went through when I bought mine recently

Do you mind if I ask what age yours is and what mileage?? Just out of curiosity, and if you actually uncovered any issues that were dealt with?? Dealer/Private?? Just for real world experience.......

I will ask about being put in touch with the previous owner, but have my doubts.............

[rash_decision]

Grumpydev said:

I don't mean they give you his / her phone number, I mean they speak to them and ask if you can contact them or get them to contact you - if it's a well loved car I don't think the previous owner will have an issue with that, I certainly wouldn't

Yeah I get you, I'll do that this morning.

[rash_decision]

Grumpydev said:

Mine is a 2007 with 21k, which was low enough to make me concerned - I bought privately though and had a very long chat with the owner then spent 4-5 hours with him and the car before I bought it. There were no issues (touch wood!) with my car and no claims on the warranty, which he was almost bitter about given how expensive the warranty is It has also been serviced fairly recently and had new tyres on the last service which was good, hopefully it will mean I won't have to spend anything on it (other than fuel) until the middle of next year.

The warranty is of course a huge piece of mind, but anecdotally it seems that if you have issues with things like the lights the car will keep having issues even after they are replaced - whether that's the car, the way its stored, the local climate or pure bad luck I don't know - same goes with the paint, if you have a "bad one" it will keep coming back to bite you.

Thanks for that.

I've sent an email asking if the dealer can put the previous owner in touch with me for an insight into how the car was used. I'll see what they come back with. The salesman wanted to give me his personal mobile number in case I had questions out of hours!! Given that level of keen, he should hopefully have no issues with my query. Hopefully he doesn't just pass on my email address to one of the other salesman to pose as the owner!!!

I think you are right in saying a bad car will always be a bad car. Although I also believe this of any marque. I've been lucky, (touching wood!), over the years with cars that friends have had huge issues with! Some surprising, some allegedly common........

Would I be right in saying to extend the warranty, it's £1500?

[rash_decision]

Grumpydev said:

Last invoice I have was £2249 for 2 years, but you also have to pay for a £500 inspection too.

Cheers.

£500 for an inspection? I wonder if the dealer I am buying from would charge that, given they have serviced it all it's life and sold it from new come renewal time? I might ask about that, and see if they can waiver that charge next year as a negotiation.

I've been told that the previous owner is quite a 'private' gentleman, so not sure if he would get in touch or not.........Oh well. I'll see what the car is like when I view it and drive it. I've also stated that I want it on a ramp for me to have a look around the underside.

Edited by rash_decision on Friday 27th November 11:01

[rash_decision]

Jon39 said:

I think a few owners have been unlucky, but many others, who would tend not to be heard, have trouble free Aston Martins.

Hoping not to temp fate, but I have owned my V8V for four years, with no claim on dealer warranty which was not renewed, and nothing has gone wrong at all.

Obviously many of these cars originally cost over £100,000 with options, so we must expect some big bills if faults do arise. We enjoy everything associated with the marque, and we certainly cannot accuse AML of profiteering from us.

Taking as much care as possible when buying is obviously sensible, but usually it is quick to spot a car previously owned by a careless person.

Good luck with your purchase, and we look forward to seeing the photos.

Thanks Jon. I'm going into this with my eyes open, and feel that I would be able to spot a lemon. I have the comfort of buying this from a main dealer, so it comes with premium warranty, I therefore have some peace of mind.

[rash_decision]

Guys who do you insure with?

I've a decent quote at £589 fully comp, and I'm happy at that, but have time to make a few more calls if anyone can recommend a specialist insurer.

[rash_decision]

Thanks for the replies. I guess the main concern for me is a company that will pay the car's worth, and not what the book says. My current quote is with Admiral, who I have been with for a few years now. I have no complaints other than them starting to throw admin charges onto things whenever I've called recently. They were always good for not charging for a few taps on a keyboard, but I guess times have changed!! Adrian Flux were almost double Admiral's price which surprised me!!

As I said, I'm happy with my quote, but wasn't sure if I would have had a resounding response, recommending a particular AM specialist type insurer.

[rash_decision]

So guys...........a few weeks down the line, but the purchase never went through.

I went to view the car, and it was pretty rough in my opinion!

There was rust starting on both rear wings, at the bottom where the wings meet the side skirts. Both door edges were corroding, with the driver's door having a blister the size of your finger nail, both front wings had been painted at some point, noticeably, and the rear driver's side wing had been painted, again, poorly.

The garage's answer was, 'Oh, sorry, we never noticed, but we'll paint it!'. bks! When I pointed out the issues, they came as no surprise to the sales team. They knew. Coincidentally, their body shop guy was on site this day, and he came in for a look. He agreed on the corrosion, agreed on the poor paint to the rear wing, and the door edges corroding. The reply?? 'We can flatten and polish the wing, repair the corrosion, and blow in the door edges'. I asked him and the sales manager to listen to what they were telling me, and if it sounded reasonable, on a 1 owner car, with 5k miles, and sold to me on the phone as being in new condition!?

I was told the car was as new, being 1 owner and 5k miles, but it was far from it! Funnily enough, a friend had been in the garage the weekend before I viewed the car. I had mentioned this to the salesman before he went through, just in passing conversation, and looking back, this would explain why the car was in the valet bay, and the valeter had 'left with the valet bay keys!'.

I had foolishly convinced myself that buying from an AM main agent would have been a pleasant experience, but it was quite apparent that they were no better than any other sales garage. I have no doubt in my mind that they were hoping that I would either miss the flaws and poor repairs and just buy the car, saving them a few bucks, or at least if I didn't, allow them to paint the car. I am very disappointed with the experience, to say the least.

Back to the drawing board......................

[rash_decision]

hashluck said:

You did well not to get caught up in the emotion of it and the low miles and walk away. Sounds awful. Some things are not at all mileage dependant. Also I am afraid most AM dealers are just the same as any other dealer. They are just lumps of metal to be shifted.

I'm sure that they were hoping I would have got carried away and caught up with emotion!

How someone can bare faced lie in such a way is beyond me!

[rash_decision]

Thanks for the comments guys. I haven't given up on the car, but definitely that dealer!!

In a way I am glad the car was presented to me in such a poor state. Had they dickied up the corrosion, and I bought the car for it to come back in 3 months time, as corrosion tends to do, I would have been in a far worse place!

[rash_decision]

Murph7355 said:

tbf that paint doesn't sound too far off "as new"

If you're worried about "corrosion" (poor paint), walk away from the marque.

Really?? They all have poorly painted/repaired front wings, and spuriously panels?? I don't think so. This was just a rough example.

I knew of the issue around the door handles and the wing mirrors, but this was quite clearly corrosion blistering along the lower lip of the rear wing. Along the edge below the stone guard sticker, spidering up the wing at 22-25mm lengths. Nothing like I had seen before or been prepared for. Clearly from the inside out. This was just a poor example that had not been looked after at all. The car must have been kept in a damp garage all it's days with no air circulation to dry it out after a run. Looking underneath it, there was lots of corrosion on mounts, nuts/bolts etc, that looked to me like it was never allowed to dry. With poor repairs to the rear wing and front wings thrown in for good measure.

I'm not gonna let one bad car spoil the marque.