So what have you done with your Aston today?

[anonymous-user]

Greg66 said:

Sent it off to AM Cambridge to have AMI III - better satnav and Apple CarPlay - installed. I get it back on Saturday.

I had a little play with AMI III a couple of weeks ago and was mightily impressed (obviously as I then agreed to pony up the not inconsiderable chunk of change required to have it done). Really integrates the AMI system into a coherent whole and CarPlay is excellent for giving a much greater degree of control over many more apps than the iteration I have.

... and the verdict is: It's bloody good if eye wateringly expensive. The satnav is a huge step up (IMO) over the Garmin effort, and CarPlay is excellent for allowing navigation of spotify, audiobooks and podcasts from the car. You have to connect by cable - official apple cable (I had a knock off which refused even to charge the phone, let alone connect to the car) but the upside is that the audio quality is noticeably superior to audio over BT. Definitely no regrets about doing it.

[Shnozz]

Added drops of superglue to my wiper arm to hold the wiper in place. For reasons unknown the drivers side wiper does not like being in the vices of the arm. At 70 ish mph that is "interesting" when it disconnects.

[zafod]

Updated the satnav maps to 2018. 2 x DVDs to the HDD and took around 3 hours (with battery conditioner attached). All works well now and I can input the full postcode - DVD disk 1 has to be left in the DVD player.

[BrewsterBear]

Took it to the detailers for a bit of spruce up for winter.

[Sirius]

Those are interesting floor mats - where did you get them?

[nickv8]

Greg66 said:

Greg66 said:

Sent it off to AM Cambridge to have AMI III - better satnav and Apple CarPlay - installed. I get it back on Saturday.

I had a little play with AMI III a couple of weeks ago and was mightily impressed (obviously as I then agreed to pony up the not inconsiderable chunk of change required to have it done). Really integrates the AMI system into a coherent whole and CarPlay is excellent for giving a much greater degree of control over many more apps than the iteration I have.

... and the verdict is: It's bloody good if eye wateringly expensive. The satnav is a huge step up (IMO) over the Garmin effort, and CarPlay is excellent for allowing navigation of spotify, audiobooks and podcasts from the car. You have to connect by cable - official apple cable (I had a knock off which refused even to charge the phone, let alone connect to the car) but the upside is that the audio quality is noticeably superior to audio over BT. Definitely no regrets about doing it.

Sorry Greg, but obvious question next. How many ponies did it cost you?

Never really thought about it seriously (mine must be less than 6 months before the change to CarPlay). I'm not that bothered by the iPhone in a phone clip on the air vent, but an all-in solution has its appeal!

Thanks!

[BrewsterBear]

Sirius said:

Those are interesting floor mats - where did you get them?

Diamond floormats. They're not a perfect fit, but I've only just thrown them in. I will probably get a better fit with a few tweaks.

[Felonious]

nickv8 said:

Sorry Greg, but obvious question next. How many ponies did it cost you?

Never really thought about it seriously (mine must be less than 6 months before the change to CarPlay). I'm not that bothered by the iPhone in a phone clip on the air vent, but an all-in solution has its appeal!

Thanks!

+1. I really haven't budgeted for this, but am interested in having a good satnav without my TomTom being suckered to the windscreen.

[cayman-black]

BrewsterBear said:

Took it to the detailers for a bit of spruce up for winter.









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That's what i like to see a well looked after Vantage.

[LiamV12V]

Winter patina building nicely.

[anonymous-user]

nickv8 said:

Sorry Greg, but obvious question next. How many ponies did it cost you?

With VAT, it began with a 4.

So lots.

[Felonious]

Greg66 said:

With VAT, it began with a 4.

So lots.

Just for the AMi ii to iii upgrade, is that?

[nickv8]

Greg66 said:

With VAT, it began with a 4.

So lots.

Cheers, Greg. Not too surprised. Think I’ll stick with the £1.50 iPhone clip for now

[Felonious]

nickv8 said:

Greg66 said:

With VAT, it began with a 4.

So lots.

Cheers, Greg. Not too surprised. Think I’ll stick with the £1.50 iPhone clip for now

I'd heard £1.5k, hence wondering what else might have been done for something beginning with a 4. Fair enough if the work was performed by Natalie Portman, who remained in the car afterward. Otherwise that is a bit eye-watering.

[anonymous-user]

Felonious said:

nickv8 said:

Greg66 said:

With VAT, it began with a 4.

So lots.

Cheers, Greg. Not too surprised. Think I’ll stick with the £1.50 iPhone clip for now

I'd heard £1.5k, hence wondering what else might have been done for something beginning with a 4. Fair enough if the work was performed by Natalie Portman, who remained in the car afterward. Otherwise that is a bit eye-watering.

I’d heard (consistently) on here over 3, which is right ex VAT. And with VAT where it is now it doesn’t take much over 3 to get to 4 with VAT.

Anyway, having paid I now do what I always do which is to forget about the price PDQ, and this is not helping, chaps!

[Felonious]

Greg66 said:

Felonious said:

nickv8 said:

Greg66 said:

With VAT, it began with a 4.

So lots.

Cheers, Greg. Not too surprised. Think I’ll stick with the £1.50 iPhone clip for now

I'd heard £1.5k, hence wondering what else might have been done for something beginning with a 4. Fair enough if the work was performed by Natalie Portman, who remained in the car afterward. Otherwise that is a bit eye-watering.

I’d heard (consistently) on here over 3, which is right ex VAT. And with VAT where it is now it doesn’t take much over 3 to get to 4 with VAT.

Anyway, having paid I now do what I always do which is to forget about the price PDQ, and this is not helping, chaps!

Fair point! Price aside, it sounds like you're pleased with it. Whilst I never use my phone in the car and am happy enough to plug a usb stick loaded with music into the plug in the cubby-box, the satnav is pretty primitive. I very much like the idea of a decent built-in nav, or even better being able to use Google Maps or Waze. Do you find those things to be a big improvement over the old AMi II system?

[anonymous-user]

Is the upgraded ami3 system touch screen or do you still need to have your iphone to hand to use carplay?

[AMVSVNick]

soofsayer said:

Is the upgraded ami3 system touch screen or do you still need to have your iphone to hand to use carplay?

Not touch screen. And if it was I reckon the screen is too far away??

Navigate around carplay using central command knob on the ski slope.

[Felonious]

AMVSVNick said:

Not touch screen. And if it was I reckon the screen is too far away??

Navigate around carplay using central command knob on the ski slope.

I'm starting to get a sense of why it's so expensive. Sounds like some hardware stuff will need adding as well as software/firmware.

[petop]

Took my V8V to AM Chichester for service, no issues as i expected and all done quickly by them.
Had a look a quick look at a DBS......as others have said, very very nice.
Had a longer and first in-the-flesh look at the new Vantage.
Ok so whilst its is a nice car it wasn't getting me excited for some reason. I for one didn't like the front end at first but seeing it in person its doesn't actually detract from the general looks of the car. But I don't think it would make me do that 2nd turn around as i walked away in a car park or on my driveway that my present car still does. And then the price is still a lot to take. £120k start off then with options which i would like to think some of them should be standard, brought the price up to £140k.
To be honest, i would rather be sitting in a Vanquish as a next car for that money. But then it comes back to neither of them being manual.......drove back to Dorset, with that placebo effect of it "feeling" better and using the gearstick to full effect with 200 cel cats making good noises i don't think ill be moving away from my car just yet.