RE: Spotted: Aston Martin V8 Vantage

[Ari]

Gorbyrev said:

Ari said:

mikey k said:

Ari said:

Ok so if I could scrape £30K together to buy one, could I afford to run it?

I've got a SLK of similar vintage at the moment, what are we talking, twice as dear to run the Aston, three times?

~£900 year insurance
Set of rear tyres ~£550
Annual service ~£500-900 depedning on age
MOT & Tax
Repairs? they are generally reliable, ocassional thermostat and some electrical gremlins (like most modern cars )

That sounds worryingly not bad...

That has got to be a better proposition than buying £250K worth of Peugeots and losing £125K in depreciation over 20 years. Lets face it, many PHer's lose those kind of cost in depreciation alone. It's funny how running costs seem bad and depreciation is just a shrug of the shoulder. It's not like its going to be worth £10K in 5 years time. If you can, enjoy!

Nope. If you need to buy a family car for yourself, another one for your wife, sort out cars for your kids, and aren't much interested in cars particularly then one single small oldish expensive to buy, run, fuel and insure 2 seater sportscar to try and share over all those bases and keep going for twenty years would be a stupid proposition.

[Harry Flashman]

There's a burgundy metallic Volante in the classifieds with white leather, sadly sold.

So pimp.

Want so much.

[Grant3]

Pugsey said:

Bit suprised by some of the comments re performance. The 4.3 was almost on a par with the 977S of the time. On a give and take b road you'd find it very hard to split them. The Aston was heavier and a bit 'slow witted' compared to the Porsche - it's secondary damping over bumps being a particular problem. But it certainly wasn't slow. And of course it looks gorgeous.

Times move on and now a great buy at this price - given the alternatives.

+1


Pugs... How are you and what beastie is sitting in your drive at the moment?

[captainflash]

A superb car and tremendous value for what you get. The depreciation curve has more or less plateaued to an acceptable level for most.

It's all very well listing your personal circumstances - family commitments, finance etc - and ruling it out. That doesn't rule it out as a superb option if you're in the market for a two seat sportscar and can afford it though. Don't knock it just because it's not feesible for your presents circumstances.

[mikey k]

+1 from my experience the biggest cost will be fuel.
Super unleaded at 17 mpg, so around 250 miles for £100.

[Pugsey]

Grant3 said:

Pugsey said:

Bit suprised by some of the comments re performance. The 4.3 was almost on a par with the 977S of the time. On a give and take b road you'd find it very hard to split them. The Aston was heavier and a bit 'slow witted' compared to the Porsche - it's secondary damping over bumps being a particular problem. But it certainly wasn't slow. And of course it looks gorgeous.

Times move on and now a great buy at this price - given the alternatives.

+1


Pugs... How are you and what beastie is sitting in your drive at the moment?

Hi G. Not seen you around for a bit. I'm good - had a clear out recently, so currently tooling round in X5 (much reviled by Greens etc.). I do get to use g/f's old nail though - you know, the one for peeps who think the 4.3 AND 4.7 are slow Trying to decide what to get for summer and a few Continental jaunts. The new Boxster looking good bet to me although now have this weakness for something Red as you know.

Anyway will e.mail you so as not to bore good folks on here!

[gmh23]

hmm, 30k on a british, good looking, great sounding V8, fast, comfortable:
http://pistonheads.com/sales/3746734.htm

[PaulB81]

gmh23 said:

hmm, 30k on a british, good looking, great sounding V8, fast, comfortable:
http://pistonheads.com/sales/3746734.htm

Oooh didnt know they could be had for that money!

[cayman-black]

Trommel said:

A 4.3 Vantage wouldn't see which way an SL55 went.

If it was me driving, i hope nobody would see which way it went.

[Cassius81]

If you are worried about whether or not it is faster than some M3 or similar, surely the point is being missed entirely? It is an Aston Martin. Pull over, let them go and show their "superiority" and enjoy driving such a beautiful, hand made car...

Had a 4.3 Volante in the family for about a year - it was a lovely, if costly and sometimes unreliable machine, but I don't think I ever felt the need to race anyone... It just looked so good and sounded superb, even when just cruising along. So that is what I did most of the time.

[tommy vercetti]

A 911 or an M3 might be better and more reliable, but for me this just looks too too gorgeous to not consider.

[gmh23]

PaulB81 said:

Oooh didnt know they could be had for that money!

XKR's can be had for well under 30k. Think thats where my hypothetical cash would go,

[no-worries88]

Ive been looking at getting a new (2nd hand) car in the next couple of months,with a £35k budget i never even considered these,seeing what there is now though,and the price,they are now up there at the top.


Goes away to trawl the classifieds.

[Chris1973]

Would love one, but if you think they are a bit slow and heavy, you would be looking at something different anyway. It'll not be long until Nissan GTR's will be down to this price, if you want something "fast" you'd probably not go much wrong....

[Morningside]

Been out in the Vantage again today and I was given a look at the engine. It looked like new, I suspect someone has been polishing it!
(Next time I will take some photos).

Anyhow...It warns of being a dry sump. What are the pros and cons of this?

Pro: I suppose it to lower centre of gravity by moving the engine further down.

Any other reason? Is it ever possible for the engine to get starved of oil?


Another thing. The door handles. Clever design, but is it just me thinking some clumsy person could yank and break it?

Edited by Morningside on Thursday 22 March 19:51

[sjc]

Cassius81 said:

If you are worried about whether or not it is faster than some M3 or similar, surely the point is being missed entirely? It is an Aston Martin. Pull over, let them go and show their "superiority" and enjoy driving such a beautiful, hand made car...

Is the V8 Vantage a hand made car then? I didn't think it was..?

[mikey k]

sjc said:

Cassius81 said:

If you are worried about whether or not it is faster than some M3 or similar, surely the point is being missed entirely? It is an Aston Martin. Pull over, let them go and show their "superiority" and enjoy driving such a beautiful, hand made car...

Is the V8 Vantage a hand made car then? I didn't think it was..?

Hand assembled and finished at Gaydon

[Wills2]

Pugsey said:

But.Thing is it's rare to drive anywhere in the UK in a dead straight line and just as rare to be repeatedly doing max acceleration runs against other cars during those rare moments. Which is why those on here with decent longterm experience of the Aston don't give a flying fig for the odd tenth of a second to 60/whatever. Similarly throwing the V8 down your fave b road is a very different experience to doing the same in a 997S or M3 but the end result will be a very similar journey time. Which you prefer will lead to your choice of car but whichever one it is I'll bet as you step out grinning from ear to ear ultimate 0-60/0-100 times or top speeds won't figure in your thoughts.

Well said, but I still maintain the V8V has more than enough fire power in a straight line too.

[GJOB]

+1

For me it's about the package - Performance, Exterior looks, Interior ambiance, quality of materials, rarity, the grin factor, the dealer/brand experience, the noise, the running costs etc...

If I wanted the fastest round car around I would have probably gone for a GTR (I tried one), I didn't, I wanted the perfect all rounder hence going for Aston Martin (I've had 2 and have driven every model).

The only downside is that I cannot find anything else that serves up the whole package better than Aston so I'm "stuck" with the brand which is obviously not a bad complaint.

Now apply all those factors to all the cars mentioned in this thread and see which comes out on top

I've never experienced a problem with the standard set, merely a few observations regarding the long gearing and long accelerator, both things can be driven around.

Regarding running costs and faults - I've experienced only minor issues - In fact it has been the most reliable car I've owned.My Range Rover has had more faults in 6 months than mine had had in it's 6 year life.

HTH
GJOB

[BarryGibb]

GJOB said:

Now apply all those factors to all the cars mentioned in this thread and see which comes out on top

The R8?