New Vantage owner

[josh bear]

Dear All,

Been meaning to post about my new car for a few weeks but know the rule about having pics to post and had no chance for photos as work has ruled. A few very amatuer pics below. Looking at getting some professional ones done.

Owned a vantage from new in 2009 through to March 2011 when I sold. I eventually went for a Range Rover Sport and whilst that has been a great car for the Winter it doesn't fill your heart with joy when you press the start button.

After a couple of months browsing the classifieds I ended up talking to the Aston Martin Dealers in Amersham and Reading. Got strong engagement from Reading immediately. They were friendly, responsive to emails and phone calls, provided great information and in short after a negotiation I signed the deal for a new MY12 vantage. Thanks to Chris at Reading for a very professional service.
For completeness I should say there was a problem with the car on day one but again the service from the dealership team was nothing short of superb and everything was resolved to high satisfaction.

So onto the car. Loving being back in a vantage again. A few things have changed since my MY09 e.g. the sat nav. but the driving experience is still truly invigorating. If anyone is sitting on the fence of purchase, my advice is stop waiting and take the plunge. It is a car to own at least once in a lifetime. (IMHO).

Anyway pics below.

Best Regards

Josh

[JA51ON W]

Welcome back !!!

[paddy328]

Nice one mate.

[CatalystV12V]

Looks stunning

[bogie]

nice pics

[silverspeed]

Lovely car and fantastic colour. Is it meteorite silver?

[v8woollie]

Congratulations on a great looking car. Just shows the power of the brand and the enjoyment of the driving experience in that you came back

[josh bear]

Yes it is Silver speed. Last time I had tungsten. Think I prefer this colour.

Josh

[josh bear]

Hi all
Can anyone help with a question. Would love DAB radio in the car. If I bought a battery operation dab radio, put it in the arm rest and connected it to the car via the aux port. Would that work?

I am finding that FM signal in the vantage is a little weak on things like radio 1

Thanks

Josh

[kent_phil]

josh bear said:

Hi all
Can anyone help with a question. Would love DAB radio in the car. If I bought a battery operation dab radio, put it in the arm rest and connected it to the car via the aux port. Would that work?

I am finding that FM signal in the vantage is a little weak on things like radio 1

Thanks

Josh

Agree that lack of DAB is a pain but if you have an iPhone hookup then you can play some if the channels if they have apps available - I do this to get Absolute radio and it streams fine on the move.

Cheers,

Phil

[BingoBob]

There are plenty of aftermarket DAB tuners available for integration with car hifi. Does the 2012MY vantage have an aux in then? Or are you talking about using the headphone jack aux input in the center console?

I think using an iMiv was an option for having aux AV / audio inputs on the Vantages with the Volvo GPS, but not sure about the later version.

The issue with DAB on the move is getting a strong enough signal. You could try piggy-backing off the OE aerial, perhaps.

You could always give it a try with a domestic unit. I use a Revo Pico radio which is excellent, but I'v never tried it on the move.

[BingoBob]

kent_phil said:

Agree that lack of DAB is a pain but if you have an iPhone hookup then you can play some if the channels if they have apps available - I do this to get Absolute radio and it streams fine on the move.

I do this sometimes, too. It works suprisingly well, but you'd better make sure you have unlimited data on your mobile phone contract.

I use the free F-stream app to get any radio station that IP broadcasts, I believe. I only use it with Radio 2 though.

[BingoBob]

P.S. Lovely looking car. Great colour. I thought the 20 spokes were only on the 2009/2010 cars, though.

[KarlFranz]

To the OP, great car although I'm surprised no one has suggested removing the front plate holder after seeing the pics. That usually seems to be one of the first comments people have.

Also, what was the problem the car had that they resolved by the service department?

[josh bear]

Hi

Thanks for the information bingo bob (is that a ref to the west wing btw). Re the wheels Must be a 12 option unless the car has been with the dealer for 2 years unregistered. Karl. It was a faulty rear light unit. Like I said had great service to resolve it.

Best regards

Josh

[josh bear]

All

Used my iPhone today to listen to the radio in the car through the iPod connector. Sound quality was superb. Unfortunately the signal was lost and the app stopped working. Fm signal pretty poor.

Josh

[sukh_m]

josh bear said:

Hi all
Can anyone help with a question. Would love DAB radio in the car. If I bought a battery operation dab radio, put it in the arm rest and connected it to the car via the aux port. Would that work?

I am finding that FM signal in the vantage is a little weak on things like radio 1

Thanks

Josh

James from paralight can fit an integrated DAB Radio to your vantage.
Contact him on [e-mail]

[AMDBSNick]

sukh_m said:

James from paralight can fit an integrated DAB Radio to your vantage.
Contact him on [e-mail]

Can he. Is this now available?

[sukh_m]

AMDBSNick said:

Can he. Is this now available?

Yes, tested and working.

[Paralight]

Well, tested yes. Working, yes. But in my X-Type estate with a prototype aerial switch box from Germany. Mind you it is bloody excellent having it and I listen to nothing else but nowadays. Mostly absolute 80's

As is always a problem with radio reception, proper antennae. Most of the Aston range, bar early Gaydon V8, has aerials built into the screens or the boot lid. This doesn't give fantastic reception, so the aerials have amplifiers built in to give better (?) am/fm reception. The problem is that these amplifiers cut off frequencies above the fm wave band 108 MHz. So utilising the switch box that gives am/fm and DAB from the existing antenna is nigh on impossible.

The other option is then to go for the stick on screen aerial that comes with a number of DAB Tuners. Again in tests across the Cotswolds, down to the west country and the M4 corridor they do not give the sort of reception I would be happy to offer as a solution to Aston Martin customers.

I am trying to get time to strip a 12MY V8V and try the antenna switcher in the very near future (end of next week).

My ideal is;

It has to work efficiently
It has to look part of the car
It has to be of reasonable cost

If I can't satisfy all of those criteria, then I'm not happy with fitting it. Having said that, these are early days of DAB still and reception is getting better all the time. But I still wouldn't be happy fitting it with iffy reception and saying 'don't worry, it should get better!'.

I am sorry to be a bit of a doom monger but I prefer to be realistic.

Finally if anybody does want to be a bit of a guinea pig at £399 inc vat fitted with steering wheel control ( if you have them for phone/audio)' then you can be sure I will do the best job possible and if a better antenna solution is found subsequently then I will come and upgrade it.