Discussion
If you check out the DB9 GT link in my other post you will also see the new 16MY enhancements that cover the whole range, specifically the Vanquish style new infotainment system and console on Vantage/9/Rapide......
Vantage and Rapide S revised.......... here is AM's release.........
Not content simply with launching the DB9 GT, Aston Martin is also taking the arrival of 16MY cars to update, upgrade and enhance more of its core sports cars.
The sporting Vantage line-up and luxurious Rapide S four-door four-seat sports cars all benefit from a raft of colour, trim and equipment enhancements for 16MY, with the Vantage Coupe and Roadster models gaining a new touch-sensitive centre console fascia.
The AMi II infotainment system also makes its debut in Vantage and Rapide S, with the debut of corresponding new features such as visual vehicle status power and torque meters, offering real-time read-outs of engine bhp and torque.
New interior trim packs deliver the option of even greater personalisation for customers, with the addition of Vivid Red, Royal Mint, Black Damson and Bronze Metallic to 16MY leather palettes across the Vantage car lines.
Meanwhile, the striking Californian Poppy interior accent is now available for Vantage N430 and US-only Vantage GT buyers. Royal Mint, Spicy Red, Copper and Deep Purple stitching colours are new, too, along with revised alloy wheel designs.
New exterior colours Cinnabar Orange and Ultramarine Black debut on Vantage, too.
Aston Martin CEO, Dr Andy Palmer, said: “Our process of constant improvement, development and refinement of our core sports cars never stops and the arrival of the remarkable DB9 GT, along with these important 16 Model Year updates and enhancements for the Vantage and Rapide S, all clearly demonstrate that.
Vantage and Rapide S revised.......... here is AM's release.........
Not content simply with launching the DB9 GT, Aston Martin is also taking the arrival of 16MY cars to update, upgrade and enhance more of its core sports cars.
The sporting Vantage line-up and luxurious Rapide S four-door four-seat sports cars all benefit from a raft of colour, trim and equipment enhancements for 16MY, with the Vantage Coupe and Roadster models gaining a new touch-sensitive centre console fascia.
The AMi II infotainment system also makes its debut in Vantage and Rapide S, with the debut of corresponding new features such as visual vehicle status power and torque meters, offering real-time read-outs of engine bhp and torque.
New interior trim packs deliver the option of even greater personalisation for customers, with the addition of Vivid Red, Royal Mint, Black Damson and Bronze Metallic to 16MY leather palettes across the Vantage car lines.
Meanwhile, the striking Californian Poppy interior accent is now available for Vantage N430 and US-only Vantage GT buyers. Royal Mint, Spicy Red, Copper and Deep Purple stitching colours are new, too, along with revised alloy wheel designs.
New exterior colours Cinnabar Orange and Ultramarine Black debut on Vantage, too.
Aston Martin CEO, Dr Andy Palmer, said: “Our process of constant improvement, development and refinement of our core sports cars never stops and the arrival of the remarkable DB9 GT, along with these important 16 Model Year updates and enhancements for the Vantage and Rapide S, all clearly demonstrate that.
Edited by Grant3 on Wednesday 24th June 09:33
avinalarf said:
Excellent news ,pleased to see things are moving on,at last.
Touch screen sounds good to me.
Looking forward now to seeing the new models next year.
You may be misunderstanding 'touch screen', or I may be mis understanding your use of the word and apologies if so but to be clear (and pedantic) AFAIA the centre console has touch sensitive elements rather than conventional buttons but the main screen is NOT touch sensitive - that's partly redundant of course because the screen is too far away to touchTouch screen sounds good to me.
Looking forward now to seeing the new models next year.
I think most and certainly many on here knew that all this was coming for MY16 - it is of course a good thing but it is only really about keeping up sales until the new replacements come out
What I am more interested about in terms of the centre consoles/infotainment systems is whether they are planning on using these systems in DB9 & Vantage replacements, or whether the new cars, particularly by the time new vantage comes out, will have some merc electronics in.
UPDATED: Apologies - I see some car magazines also referring to it as touch screen. Aston themselves refer to it is touch sensitive infotainment system. That isn't actually very clear to me but if it is a touch sensitive screen, I am both wrong in my post above and surprised because as I mention, you can't actually reach the screen to touch it !
Edited by jonby on Wednesday 24th June 10:51
The "new" dash is in essence the same as the Vanquish, but this has been developed since launch, so is introduced to Vantage/DB9 GT/Rapide with the enhancements mentioned. In essence (in the finest A.M. tradition) the new addition was also part-financed by the new GT12, being the first Vantage with the new console.
Aston's current philosophy is not to use touch sensitive screens (it's placed too far away for comfortable use anyway!)they claim the console operated "mouse" system is more effective and intuitive - although I personally don't agree - but the console buttons are touch sensitive. Of course it now means that you need the screen open to control/view most functions (not just nav) but it is a nice big step up over the tiny infotainment screen and fiddly controls that went before and certainly makes the car's even more appealing IMO.
With regards to the park brake, the image above is of a Rapide S, which has always had the electronic park brake!
For the future my guess (there is no official word on this yet!)is AMi III will feature on the new models with integrated Merc tech, probably unveiled on a Vanquish MY update first!
Aston's current philosophy is not to use touch sensitive screens (it's placed too far away for comfortable use anyway!)they claim the console operated "mouse" system is more effective and intuitive - although I personally don't agree - but the console buttons are touch sensitive. Of course it now means that you need the screen open to control/view most functions (not just nav) but it is a nice big step up over the tiny infotainment screen and fiddly controls that went before and certainly makes the car's even more appealing IMO.
With regards to the park brake, the image above is of a Rapide S, which has always had the electronic park brake!
For the future my guess (there is no official word on this yet!)is AMi III will feature on the new models with integrated Merc tech, probably unveiled on a Vanquish MY update first!
Grant3 said:
The "new" dash is in essence the same as the Vanquish, but this has been developed since launch, so is introduced to Vantage/DB9 GT/Rapide with the enhancements mentioned. In essence (in the finest A.M. tradition) the new addition was also part-financed by the new GT12, being the first Vantage with the new console.
Aston's current philosophy is not to use touch sensitive screens (it's placed too far away for comfortable use anyway!)they claim the console operated "mouse" system is more effective and intuitive - although I personally don't agree - but the console buttons are touch sensitive. Of course it now means that you need the screen open to control/view most functions (not just nav) but it is a nice big step up over the tiny infotainment screen and fiddly controls that went before and certainly makes the car's even more appealing IMO.
With regards to the park brake, the image above is of a Rapide S, which has always had the electronic park brake!
For the future my guess (there is no official word on this yet!)is AMi III will feature on the new models with integrated Merc tech, probably unveiled on a Vanquish MY update first!
Useful as everAston's current philosophy is not to use touch sensitive screens (it's placed too far away for comfortable use anyway!)they claim the console operated "mouse" system is more effective and intuitive - although I personally don't agree - but the console buttons are touch sensitive. Of course it now means that you need the screen open to control/view most functions (not just nav) but it is a nice big step up over the tiny infotainment screen and fiddly controls that went before and certainly makes the car's even more appealing IMO.
With regards to the park brake, the image above is of a Rapide S, which has always had the electronic park brake!
For the future my guess (there is no official word on this yet!)is AMi III will feature on the new models with integrated Merc tech, probably unveiled on a Vanquish MY update first!
So is it just the console that's changing and the different doors etc are just because its a rapide?
I know the vibrating buttons were introduced first on the Vanquish 2.
Is the purpose of this feature, so that a driver can identify each control just by feel, and so keep eyes on the road?
If so, then presumably each control has a unique vibration, but how long does it take to learn all of the different vibrations?
Should that not be how it works, then what is the point?
Edited by Jon39 on Wednesday 24th June 21:11
Jonsv8 said:
Useful as ever
So is it just the console that's changing and the different doors etc are just because its a rapide?
In essence yes, but remember the whole infotainment system has been upgraded, which will cover interaction with phone, audio, trip, nav, camera, etc, so it is a nice upgrade as the exterior styling, interior class and driving dynamics are already very good........ plastic seat controls aside So is it just the console that's changing and the different doors etc are just because its a rapide?
Here is the image AM posted for Vantage (looks like an earlier V8S photo with the new console photoshopped on
but still does the job)
I absolutely despise touch screens in cars. One MUST look at the screen to operate it, thereby requiring the driver to take eyes off the road. Truly daft, it's technology over common sense. With buttons and/or knobs, of course, one can operate them entirely by feel while still looking at the road. How could it be that requiring the driver to take eyes off the road is better than not requiring that 
I'm not a great fan of haptic feedback, either, although the console looks nice. But it looked nice before. While I'm at it, I don't like that the screen has to be raised to use nearly any of the controls, even just the radio. But at least the screen isn't permanently stuck on top of the dash like in new Mercs, BMWs, Audis, etc., which is horribly ugly IMO.
For the record, I am not opposed to change, really I'm not. But I don't like change primarily for change's sake, especially when the change doesn't work as well as the previous thing.
Did I mention that touch screens, which force the driver to look at the screen -- rather than the road -- to use them have no place in moving vehicles?
I'm not a great fan of haptic feedback, either, although the console looks nice. But it looked nice before. While I'm at it, I don't like that the screen has to be raised to use nearly any of the controls, even just the radio. But at least the screen isn't permanently stuck on top of the dash like in new Mercs, BMWs, Audis, etc., which is horribly ugly IMO.
For the record, I am not opposed to change, really I'm not. But I don't like change primarily for change's sake, especially when the change doesn't work as well as the previous thing.
Did I mention that touch screens, which force the driver to look at the screen -- rather than the road -- to use them have no place in moving vehicles?
Speedraser said:
I absolutely despise touch screens in cars. One MUST look at the screen to operate it, thereby requiring the driver to take eyes off the road. Truly daft, it's technology over common sense. With buttons and/or knobs, of course, one can operate them entirely by feel while still looking at the road. How could it be that requiring the driver to take eyes off the road is better than not requiring that
I'm not a great fan of haptic feedback, either, although the console looks nice. But it looked nice before. While I'm at it, I don't like that the screen has to be raised to use nearly any of the controls, even just the radio. But at least the screen isn't permanently stuck on top of the dash like in new Mercs, BMWs, Audis, etc., which is horribly ugly IMO.
For the record, I am not opposed to change, really I'm not. But I don't like change primarily for change's sake, especially when the change doesn't work as well as the previous thing.
Did I mention that touch screens, which force the driver to look at the screen -- rather than the road -- to use them have no place in moving vehicles?
This really isn't going to be your thing then..I'm not a great fan of haptic feedback, either, although the console looks nice. But it looked nice before. While I'm at it, I don't like that the screen has to be raised to use nearly any of the controls, even just the radio. But at least the screen isn't permanently stuck on top of the dash like in new Mercs, BMWs, Audis, etc., which is horribly ugly IMO.
For the record, I am not opposed to change, really I'm not. But I don't like change primarily for change's sake, especially when the change doesn't work as well as the previous thing.
Did I mention that touch screens, which force the driver to look at the screen -- rather than the road -- to use them have no place in moving vehicles?
I must admit it is a bit in your face when driving but you soon get used to it and the driving sensation is miles from anything I've ever experienced - 0-60 in 3.1s in almost total silence
Back to Aston - its mild evolution that's buying time before the new models start arriving.
Tesla, yes fast. But it's actually all very old tech. For example, the 'million mile motor' in it is a from a train. Plus laptop batteries. And let's not worry about where the electricity is generated from.
Back to infotainment, I can see the point of this in the rear of cars, and for the rear passengers of the Rapide for example it needs to be great. But for the front? i can already play music, radio, streaming from iPod/iPhone, make calls and have the SatNav. Ok ditch Garmin for Tom Tom as the service provider and its better. But not sure what else is necessary or desirable to have or able to use...
Also, as I've posted before...the iPad type devices are going to slowwww down over time and need replacing. McLaren charge £7k (discounted to £3k) to upgrade their Iris 1 - I was told by the dealer, to only expect it to do one thing without crashing!! At least when I need a new phone or iPad it's only going to cost me £500.
I like gadgets and tech as much as anyone, but in their right place/function.
Ergonomics are just as important.
Back to infotainment, I can see the point of this in the rear of cars, and for the rear passengers of the Rapide for example it needs to be great. But for the front? i can already play music, radio, streaming from iPod/iPhone, make calls and have the SatNav. Ok ditch Garmin for Tom Tom as the service provider and its better. But not sure what else is necessary or desirable to have or able to use...
Also, as I've posted before...the iPad type devices are going to slowwww down over time and need replacing. McLaren charge £7k (discounted to £3k) to upgrade their Iris 1 - I was told by the dealer, to only expect it to do one thing without crashing!! At least when I need a new phone or iPad it's only going to cost me £500.
I like gadgets and tech as much as anyone, but in their right place/function.
Ergonomics are just as important.
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