New Vantage Reviews

[waremark]

Wayne95 said:

Just read the EVO review, Vantage came 4th behind R8, 540, 911 C4 GTS.

The Vantage review said it was great up to 8/10s, but then lost control after due to its weight, but the others ran better at the limit. Thing is, other than journo's, who actually drives above 8/10's, or even that on today's roads. Feeling special at normal speeds is just as important I would say.

Oh, and a Porsche 911 won again.

Interestingly they also reviewed the DB11 AMR, which was great at everything, but still got a negative comment in the last line.... They even still go on about the V12's Ford heritage - for goodness sake! Never seem to mention the Beetle engine in the 911 though

Agreed, Vantage will be a nicer place to be all the time and more special. It will come close enough as a machine to drive for any difference in that area to be insignificant.

My take on the DB11 AMR reviews is that they have suddenly discovered lots of bad things about the original DB11 which they completely missed in the 2016 reviews. Typical.

[Dblue]

Wayne95 said:

soofsayer said:

Read the Top Gear magazine review of the vantage. Put up against the mac, gtr, 911 the vantage scored 8 whereas the rest scored 9. Some interesting observations.

Just read the EVO review, Vantage came 4th behind R8, 540, 911 C4 GTS.

The Vantage review said it was great up to 8/10s, but then lost control after due to its weight, but the others ran better at the limit. Thing is, other than journo's, who actually drives above 8/10's, or even that on today's roads. Feeling special at normal speeds is just as important I would say.

Oh, and a Porsche 911 won again.

Interestingly they also reviewed the DB11 AMR, which was great at everything, but still got a negative comment in the last line.... They even still go on about the V12's Ford heritage - for goodness sake! Never seem to mention the Beetle engine in the 911 though

Beetle engine ?? What are you talking about, nothing remotely VW about a contemporary 911.

All the serious reviews, not the collections of banal, click bait, youtube'ers, are pretty much agreed. The Vantage suffers from excessive weight that inevitably compromises it's dynamics and Porsche are just really annoyingly brilliant at this car making lark.

I really rate Matt Becker but AM (and Jaguar actually, F Type has exactly the same issues) need to work out pretty damn quickly how to make a competitve modern car weigh the same , or at least nearly the same as the Germans do.Does british aluminium weigh more than german aluminium or something?

[PantsFire]

Dblue said:

Beetle engine ?? What are you talking about, nothing remotely VW about a contemporary 911.

All the serious reviews, not the collections of banal, click bait, youtube'ers, are pretty much agreed. The Vantage suffers from excessive weight that inevitably compromises it's dynamics and Porsche are just really annoyingly brilliant at this car making lark.

I really rate Matt Becker but AM (and Jaguar actually, F Type has exactly the same issues) need to work out pretty damn quickly how to make a competitve modern car weigh the same , or at least nearly the same as the Germans do.Does british aluminium weigh more than german aluminium or something?

Porsche make incredible cars, my previous car was 991.1 Carrera S and it was amazing and I miss it

The 991.2 and the upcoming 992's are powered by a 3.0 Turbo and go like stink, but they're soulless, there's no drama, Porsche keep all the fun for the GT's and then won't sell you one, I drove a 991.2 GTS and I don't care how quicker it's 0-62 time is, my Carrera S was more fun.

If you're buying a car to enjoy on the road and not the track, to roar out of a corner on a good B road and feel a sense of exhilaration then the Vantage wins hands down.

[Jon39]

PantsFire said:

Porsche make incredible cars, my previous car was 991.1 Carrera S and it was amazing and I miss it

The 991.2 and the upcoming 992's are powered by a 3.0 Turbo and go like stink, but they're soulless, there's no drama, Porsche keep all the fun for the GT's and then won't sell you one, I drove a 991.2 GTS and I don't care how quicker it's 0-62 time is, my Carrera S was more fun.

If you're buying a car to enjoy on the road and not the track, to roar out of a corner on a good B road and feel a sense of exhilaration then the Vantage wins hands down.

I floored the throttle when being followed by a Porsche yesterday, when leaving a roundabout at the beginning of a motorway.
Wonderful Aston Martin open exhaust sound, and the Porsche was left well behind.
After overtaking a couple of cars, I then pulled in to lane one to drive at traffic flow speed.
The Porsche then drove passed, probably at a speed above 120 mph!
Is that normal idiot driving for Porsche owners?
At least do that when no other traffic is about. The police use some unexpected plain cars.

[Dblue]

PantsFire said:

Dblue said:

Beetle engine ?? What are you talking about, nothing remotely VW about a contemporary 911.

All the serious reviews, not the collections of banal, click bait, youtube'ers, are pretty much agreed. The Vantage suffers from excessive weight that inevitably compromises it's dynamics and Porsche are just really annoyingly brilliant at this car making lark.

I really rate Matt Becker but AM (and Jaguar actually, F Type has exactly the same issues) need to work out pretty damn quickly how to make a competitve modern car weigh the same , or at least nearly the same as the Germans do.Does british aluminium weigh more than german aluminium or something?

Porsche make incredible cars, my previous car was 991.1 Carrera S and it was amazing and I miss it

The 991.2 and the upcoming 992's are powered by a 3.0 Turbo and go like stink, but they're soulless, there's no drama, Porsche keep all the fun for the GT's and then won't sell you one, I drove a 991.2 GTS and I don't care how quicker it's 0-62 time is, my Carrera S was more fun.

If you're buying a car to enjoy on the road and not the track, to roar out of a corner on a good B road and feel a sense of exhilaration then the Vantage wins hands down.

I respect that POV and I don't want to undersell but the Vantage , I absolutely agree that the Aston will always be an event in the way the 991 is not but I don't agree a GTS is souless - it makes a very nice noise, has a fabulous lag free and very enjoyable motor and a chassis that is clearly better than everything else in this class except the baby McLaren. Not unrelated to it being much lighter IMHO.

[Buster73]

Jon39 said:

I floored the throttle when being followed by a Porsche yesterday, when leaving a roundabout at the beginning of a motorway.
Wonderful Aston Martin open exhaust sound, and the Porsche was left well behind.
After overtaking a couple of cars, I then pulled in to lane one to drive at traffic flow speed.
The Porsche then drove passed, probably at a speed above 120 mph!
Is that normal idiot driving for Porsche owners?
At least do that when no other traffic is about. The police use some unexpected plain cars.

The most ironic post of the day award has just been won .

[cowboyengineer]

Dblue said:

I respect that POV and I don't want to undersell but the Vantage , I absolutely agree that the Aston will always be an event in the way the 991 is not but I don't agree a GTS is souless - it makes a very nice noise, has a fabulous lag free and very enjoyable motor and a chassis that is clearly better than everything else in this class except the baby McLaren. Not unrelated to it being much lighter IMHO.

I owned a 991 GT3 for 2 years and 20000 miles.

I was going to order a gts as a new daily instead of an AM Vantage, but drove it last Saturday and was thoroughly disappointing. It was an excellent car, but I found it really clinical and boring, I felt the same thing about the golf r, and I am now not going to order one.

Need to drive the vantage, it won't be half as good as the gts, but will be more fun.

[Jon39]

Buster73 said:

The most ironic post of the day award has just been won .

Thank you for the award Buster, but you did not attempt to answer my contentious (tongue in cheek) question.

[AstonV]

July 2015 issue 210 of Evo magazine tested the AMG GT, Nissan GT-R, 911 Turbo, BMW i8 and Aston Martin N430.

N430 came in 2nd place. A nice showing against new tech.

1st place went to the AMG GT.

Edited by AstonV on Monday 11th June 20:06

[hornbaek]

That Aston Martin cannot beat its peer group on technology (or weight) is very well known. It used to make up for the deficit (on paper) by being understated and damn cool. Time will tell whether the new Vantage can live up to that heritage.

[kitz]

I’ve just read the EVO review and they just stop short of calling it a dog .Unstable at 120 mph and the slowest .
I did 20k on the 4.3 and knew it was not as good as my previous 911 but God it was gorgeous.

[tuffer]

Dblue said:

Beetle engine ?? What are you talking about, nothing remotely VW about a contemporary 911.

All the serious reviews, not the collections of banal, click bait, youtube'ers, are pretty much agreed. The Vantage suffers from excessive weight that inevitably compromises it's dynamics and Porsche are just really annoyingly brilliant at this car making lark.

I really rate Matt Becker but AM (and Jaguar actually, F Type has exactly the same issues) need to work out pretty damn quickly how to make a competitve modern car weigh the same , or at least nearly the same as the Germans do.Does british aluminium weigh more than german aluminium or something?

The light weight of the Porsche may have something to do with the interior. I had a terrible buzz/rattle in mine right by the drivers ear, I reached up to the seatbelt opening and tried to just give it a tweek, whole thing just came off in my hand. Very cheap plastic and flimsy card/felt pillar liner, a lot of the interior feels inferior to my 991.1. Overall the interior on the .2 is better but their are some elements like the stereo controls that are very cheap looking.

[nickv8]

kitz said:

I’ve just read the EVO review and they just stop short of calling it a dog .Unstable at 120 mph and the slowest .
I did 20k on the 4.3 and knew it was not as good as my previous 911 but God it was gorgeous.

Indeed. Had been a long time Evo subscriber until a year ago but couldn’t resist buying the latest issue off the shelf with the new Vantage review.

I don’t know who the reviewer was (I was familiar with all the old guard full time Evo authors such as Henry Catchpole) but it did slate the new Vantage on many levels. The questionable interior quality comment based on a door pull (IIRC) was a surprise.

Perhaps this particular reviewer’s personal preference for some marques and approaches to car design came through heavily, but it does matter. I bought my Vantage because the impression given by the various Vantage reviews in Evo since 2005 stuck with me and I had a high regard for the car before I started to look in earnest.

We will all make up our own minds when we get to test drive the new one (for me, probably when they become 3 years old). Time will also reveal quality issues as it did for Porsche’s engine issues in the late naughties - and perversely for stereotypes, how solid the AM cars are.

[JaseB]

Catchpole wrote the original April Evo review and didn't mention anything untoward, like has been said the comparative review just issued is almost the polar opposite, maybe it was a fault with that particular car on the day?!

[kitz]

I would imagine EVO thought long and hard before before publishing that review.
For obvious reasons .

[AlexT]

Would love to read that review as I am on the fence about purchasing. My initial inspection of the car left me ambivalent. The rear and side profile of the car were tremendously appealing to me, the front not so much (although my wife really liked it). Interior-wise, I was satisfied (much better than the AMG GT), although I didn't feel as if I was sitting in an Aston. On this point, I think Aston should have taken some inspiration from the Bugatti Chiron. Before you think I'm crazy for suggesting a $3 mill car, those familiar will realise how beautifully simple the interior is. No centre screen, an analogue speedo, elegant lines. Subtle technology. It's suprisingly and indeed refreshingly timeless. Aston could have easily designed something along those lines and kept it all in budget. That would have truly made the car stand out in its class and live up to the Aston name.

EDIT: Also whoever signed off on those wheel choices needs talking to. Would be nice to have a good looking 5-spoke option at the very least!

I wonder if the new DBS interior will impress. I am hoping that it will be excellent.

Edited by AlexT on Friday 22 June 09:32

[dbs2000]

AlexT said:

On this point, I think Aston should have taken some inspiration from the Bugatti Chiron.

I said the exact same thing to a few others a couple of weeks ago. The iPad and lack of any analogue gauges feels like a stuck on option. The Chiron really has integrated everything so well but they have endless money and backing to do so.

The DBS interior I've seen, I guess 4 more days until we can all talk about

[MarkM3Evoplus]

Was a dreadful write up for the Vantage in the EVO comparison test and the same car was significantly slower than the Autocar test, mainly due to not being able to get away quickly in the group test.

Instability at 120mph with all the aerodynamic addenda and iffy handling in that test suggest maybe the alignment has gone out, as would be surprised a near 200mph car would be released with that issue.

[cayman-black]

PantsFire said:

Porsche make incredible cars, my previous car was 991.1 Carrera S and it was amazing and I miss it

The 991.2 and the upcoming 992's are powered by a 3.0 Turbo and go like stink, but they're soulless, there's no drama, Porsche keep all the fun for the GT's and then won't sell you one, I drove a 991.2 GTS and I don't care how quicker it's 0-62 time is, my Carrera S was more fun.

If you're buying a car to enjoy on the road and not the track, to roar out of a corner on a good B road and feel a sense of exhilaration then the Vantage wins hands down.

I fully agree! I would never buy a 3.0 turbo engined 911.

[Wayne95]

AlexT said:

Would love to read that review as I am on the fence about purchasing. My initial inspection of the car left me ambivalent. The rear and side profile of the car were tremendously appealing to me, the front not so much (although my wife really liked it). Interior-wise, I was satisfied (much better than the AMG GT), although I didn't feel as if I was sitting in an Aston. On this point, I think Aston should have taken some inspiration from the Bugatti Chiron. Before you think I'm crazy for suggesting a $3 mill car, those familiar will realise how beautifully simple the interior is. No centre screen, an analogue speedo, elegant lines. Subtle technology. It's suprisingly and indeed refreshingly timeless. Aston could have easily designed something along those lines and kept it all in budget. That would have truly made the car stand out in its class and live up to the Aston name.

EDIT: Also whoever signed off on those wheel choices needs talking to. Would be nice to have a good looking 5-spoke option at the very least!

I wonder if the new DBS interior will impress. I am hoping that it will be excellent.

Edited by AlexT on Friday 22 June 09:32

Alex,
If you are close to buying maybe an extended weekend drive might be offered?

Not in a position myself right now having just changed to a V12, but we do need an owner on here to let us know what it’s like to live with over time. You gotta take one for the team and I’m sure you will Iove it the more you see it and drive it.

Let us know how you get on