Thinking of buying V8 Vantage.

[macdeb]

Hello, I'm thinking of buying an AMV8 Vantage, budget around £40k, maybe more for right car. Anything I should look for? I know about clutches and brakes but anything else? I appreciate any input.
PS; to the bloke that had one advertised on here in Leic's with a Larini exhaust and updated wheels, well thanks for ignoring me and just taking advert down. A simple 'sorry mate it's sold' or similar wouldn't have taken long to type.

Edited by macdeb on Tuesday 21st February 17:23

Edited by macdeb on Saturday 25th February 17:09

[bogie]

Things to look out for based on experience of my 2006 4.3 and what went wrong over the years:

Paint bubbling around door handles and edges of doors.

Engine Not getting fully up to temperature (9 oclock position) combined with poor heater output (engine thermostat needs replacing)

wheel bearings (any noise from wheels during test driver)

Plug in ODBII reader and check for any stored codes - possible O2 sensors on the way out

Stiff gearchange from cold, 1st to 2nd should have been remedied - it should have had later spec oil and possibly lighter/later part OE clutch by now

[telum01]

bogie said:

Stiff gearchange from cold, 1st to 2nd should have been remedied - it should have had later spec oil and possibly lighter/later part OE clutch by now

There's also an updated shift linkage to help with that

[ChilliWhizz]

macdeb said:

Hello, I'm thinking of buying an AMV8 Vantage, budget around £35k. Anything I should look for? I know about clutches and brakes but anything else? I appreciate any input.
PS; to the bloke that had one advertised on here in Leic's with a Larini exhaust and updated wheels, well thanks for ignoring me and just taking advert down. A simple 'sorry mate it's sold' or similar wouldn't have taken long to type.

Welcome to the AM forum

Nice bunch of people here Mac, not very different to the TVR community...

[bogie]

Many of us had/have TVRs too...and thats how we first ended up here

[mioh]

macdeb said:

Anything I should look for?

THE BOOK! http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[davek_964]

The book mentioned above is well worth buying - although be careful, since reading it will convince you that you actually need a £50k+ model of at least 2010 (fortunately I resisted that!).

Only thing I'd check carefully is the colour - it seems that some owners accidentally bought silver or grey, when everybody knows black is the only colour.

I doubt you'll regret your decision - they are very special cars.

[steeviegeebies]

Don't get a sports shift unless it's had a new clutch. Manual is strong. As mentioned look for paint bubbles with corrosion round door handles and recesses, and bottom of doors. Also wing mirror arms. Check aircon works.
Don't get black get tungsten - known to be fastest

[Murph7355]

Just do lots of reading on here. There's probably at lest one thread on every page that covers it...and if you think there's a specific point that hasn't been covered, ask up. But there will be nothing

[Frances The Mute]

Drive as many as you can to get a real idea of what a good one feels like. Believe it or not,there are some absolute pups out there.

Enjoy the journey. There's nothing quite like looking for your first Aston.

[rossyl]

Would you buy one private sale that had small paint bubbles?

[bogie]

rossyl said:

Would you buy one private sale that had small paint bubbles?

Yes if the price allowed you to spend a grand or two fixing it.

[steeviegeebies]

bogie said:

Yes if the price allowed you to spend a grand or two fixing it.

Ditto as long as the price is right

[macdeb]

Seems the car in Leic's that I was seriously interested in (where the guy ignored me) may have turned up at a dealers in Cumbria, minus larini exhaust and standard wheels of which I would've paid him asking price. Wonder how much he got in the end?

[V8VTim]

I looked at that one with the Larini exhaust too. Emailed him twice and got the same result as you SFA! Bought an N400 in the end, was blinded by the Karussell Orange paintwork. Must be the rarest fastest colour out there!!! The advice on the book is spot on, I thought I'd gleaned a lot from these forums, but the book has some hidden gems. Three weeks with mine now and loving it, NO regrets

[macdeb]

V8VTim said:

I looked at that one with the Larini exhaust too. Emailed him twice and got the same result as you SFA! Bought an N400 in the end, was blinded by the Karussell Orange paintwork. Must be the rarest fastest colour out there!!! The advice on the book is spot on, I thought I'd gleaned a lot from these forums, but the book has some hidden gems. Three weeks with mine now and loving it, NO regrets

At least I'm not alone. What's wrong with people? It wouldn't take a huge amount of effort to type a polite reply (the knob-end) instead of keeping us hanging on. Anyhow, I'll check out 'the book' as I'm still looking, cheers.

Edited by macdeb on Tuesday 21st February 17:28

[blade runner]

macdeb said:

At least I'm not alone. What's wrong with people? It wouldn't take a huge amount of effort to type a polite reply (the knob-end) instead of keeping us hanging on. Anyhow, I'll check out 'the book' as I'm still looking, cheers.

Knowing how tricky Astons are to sell privately, I was also surprised how many sellers like this I came across in my search. There was a really nice looking silver car I found when I was looking, but it was in Essex so a day-long round trip for me to go and look at. Several emails to even get a reply from the guy and then a few blurred pictures of random parts of the car were begrudgingly sent after I requested some specific shots of some key areas to review before deciding to view. A few more emails to try and get more information/pics were then ignored, so I just gave up...

Good luck with your search - be patient and keep plugging away and I'm sure you'll find your perfect car at some point.

[macdeb]

blade runner said:

macdeb said:

At least I'm not alone. What's wrong with people? It wouldn't take a huge amount of effort to type a polite reply (the knob-end) instead of keeping us hanging on. Anyhow, I'll check out 'the book' as I'm still looking, cheers.

Knowing how tricky Astons are to sell privately, I was also surprised how many sellers like this I came across in my search. There was a really nice looking silver car I found when I was looking, but it was in Essex so a day-long round trip for me to go and look at. Several emails to even get a reply from the guy and then a few blurred pictures of random parts of the car were begrudgingly sent after I requested some specific shots of some key areas to review before deciding to view. A few more emails to try and get more information/pics were then ignored, so I just gave up...

Good luck with your search - be patient and keep plugging away and I'm sure you'll find your perfect car at some point.

Thanks, appreciate the thought. It seems my assumptions were correct and he is selling off the 'extras' on gumtree, so I made an offer and again ignored. It pains me to say as I wish no malice to anyone. The Knob. All I want is to buy the right car at the right price.

Edited by macdeb on Wednesday 22 February 17:44

Edited by macdeb on Thursday 23 February 09:42

[johnnyBv8]

macdeb said:

blade runner said:

macdeb said:

At least I'm not alone. What's wrong with people? It wouldn't take a huge amount of effort to type a polite reply (the knob-end) instead of keeping us hanging on. Anyhow, I'll check out 'the book' as I'm still looking, cheers.

Knowing how tricky Astons are to sell privately, I was also surprised how many sellers like this I came across in my search. There was a really nice looking silver car I found when I was looking, but it was in Essex so a day-long round trip for me to go and look at. Several emails to even get a reply from the guy and then a few blurred pictures of random parts of the car were begrudgingly sent after I requested some specific shots of some key areas to review before deciding to view. A few more emails to try and get more information/pics were then ignored, so I just gave up...

Good luck with your search - be patient and keep plugging away and I'm sure you'll find your perfect car at some point.

Thanks, appreciate the thought. It seems my assumptions were correct and he is selling off the 'extras' on gumtree, so I made an offer and again ignored. Please tell me that not all Aston owners are as ignorant as I don't wish to be viewed in the same light. It pains me to say as I wish no malice to anyone, but hope the dealer robbed him. The Knob. All I want is to buy the right car at the right price, where's the crime?

If he didn't respond to the original ad enquiry, it's perhaps not surprising that he didn't respond to the Gumtree ad. You're getting yourself wound up un-necessarily tbh; insulting a random person on an internet forum usually isn't massively effective, and neither is asking for forum reassurance on sweeping generalisations about Aston owners.

There are as many strange sellers as there are strange buyers; if you don't get a good vibe about a seller or if they don't respond, just move on. I'm sure you'll find the right car soon; I'm on my second one and they're fantastic (I've bought a Vantage privately twice and sold privately once!).

Edited by johnnyBv8 on Wednesday 22 February 17:57

[shropshireAston]

Check Out Mcgurks - always have nice stock.. and great place to buy from .. I got my first Aston from there and they made it an amazing experience :-)

Welcome :-)