Early Vantages V8V - Time to hold or sell?

[macdeb]

^^^^
and the interiors are

[JetskiJezz]

This is an interesting debate. I'm coming to this from sort of the opposite direction:

I'm coming out the end of a two-year lease on the new Audi S5 early next year and looking for something to replace it. BUT buying something older that already had another depreciation - I've been using some man maths and trying to work out if I would lose less money with an early (06 or 07) manual vantage coupe.

[philip600]

It's difficult to know where prices will go but I looked at early V8V's around 3 years ago after I'd sold my Esprit S4s, there wasn't many advertised ( with reasonable mileage) below £30k & I couldn't afford one so bought a TVR Cerbera for £23k instead, roll on 2 years & I started to look at Vantage's again but found they hadn't really come down in price. I ended up selling my Cerb for £27k & bought my '06 Vantage with 41k miles for £32k in Sept last year.
As others have said the V8V isn't a car you buy as an investment, there are much safer places to put your money but I don't think prices for good, well kept examples are going to drop much lower. They are one of the last n/a V8 engined cars & IMHO are one of the best looking cars ever produced & it's got an Aston Martin badge 😀
The R8 on the other hand I suspect will continue to fall.

[bogie]

JetskiJezz said:

This is an interesting debate. I'm coming to this from sort of the opposite direction:

I'm coming out the end of a two-year lease on the new Audi S5 early next year and looking for something to replace it. BUT buying something older that already had another depreciation - I've been using some man maths and trying to work out if I would lose less money with an early (06 or 07) manual vantage coupe.

Yep - depreciation is always the biggest cost of car ownership ....I still have relatives who buy new mainstream cars and trade them in with barely any miles on them for 40% of list a few years later "in case anything goes wrong" . I try to explain to them its actually costing me less overall to drive an Aston Martin than their new mainstream mundano mobile is costing them, but they dont seem to get it....

[johnnyBv8]

Compared to most cars, £30k on a Vantage is fairly safe in terms of the amount you'll lose in depreciation.

[Agent57]

bogie said:

Yep - depreciation is always the biggest cost of car ownership ....I still have relatives who buy new mainstream cars and trade them in with barely any miles on them for 40% of list a few years later "in case anything goes wrong" . I try to explain to them its actually costing me less overall to drive an Aston Martin than their new mainstream mundano mobile is costing them, but they dont seem to get it....

/\/\/\

Exactly right. I work with a bloke who bought a top of the range new Focus and traded it in after two years for another one. He's always having subtle digs at me because I can afford an Aston. I don't have the heart to tell him that's he's paying more for his 1.0 Focus.

BTW I have nothing against the Focus, but we bought ours used for 1/3 of the price.

[martyspain]

philip600 said:

The R8 on the other hand I suspect will continue to fall.

As someone who's trying to sell his R8 V10 to get into an Aston, I can confirm you're quite right. R8s are gently falling month by month with no sign of let-up. When I originally advertised my car in January of this year prices were around £6k more than they are now, for V10s at least. I have no idea why.

[philip600]

I think the problem is with the R8, as good as they are they are still an Audi ( no disrespect to Audi or R8 owner ) Aston Martin don't make 'cheap' cars, whereas Audi do which to me makes a big difference ?

[rossyl]

I'd rather not turn this into a Vantage Vs R8 debate.

Instead....if you own an early Vantage is now the time to sell?

[bogie]

rossyl said:

I'd rather not turn this into a Vantage Vs R8 debate.

Instead....if you own an early Vantage is now the time to sell?

I dont think so, because I cant think of anything else I would buy for £25 to 30k thats as much fun whilst losing such a (relatively) small amount of money.

If you buy and sell to/from the trade expect to lose £5-7k margin (or more) each time, so just changing cars is going to cost you more than you may lose if you double the mileage on a 10-12 year old car....and doing the driving is a lot more fun than just losing money so you can do it all again on the next car you might kid yourself is a good "investment"

[Logannz]

My vantage is an 06 with some minor updates (skirts, grill, carbon diffuser and parts etc), I get compliments and pictures taken all the time. I can't seen another 12 year old car getting that.

I'm keeping mine until a DBS Superleggera comes along, and even then I think I might keep it.

I really think it's value will hold, its just such a popular car in all respects.

[NewbishDelight]

rossyl said:

I'd rather not turn this into a Vantage Vs R8 debate.

Instead....if you own an early Vantage is now the time to sell?

Nope.

But the dog I want won't fit on the parcel shelf! I'll be buying something much less exciting around the £12k mark, paying off some debt and saving on the monthly tax bill.

Mind you, I only bought the car as a two year project since I've wanted one since I was about six, and it was now or when I'm sixty..!

[philip600]

rossyl said:

I'd rather not turn this into a Vantage Vs R8 debate.

Instead....if you own an early Vantage is now the time to sell?

Hi, sorry if you feel this is turning into a Vantage vs R8 debate but you did say you were worried the value of your Vantage may go down to below £20k so you were considering replacing it with an R8 ?
As has been pointed out above if you are selling the Vantage to buy something as a replacement it will cost you money to change anyway, on top of that in my opinion the R8 will loose more value than a Vantage ( the price of which seem to have been fairly static for the last few years now ) I would say if you're worried that your Vantage may drop from an estimated value of maybe £32k now to £28k in a few years you don't want to replace it with an R8 as I suspect you would loose more on the Audi.
So in answer to your question, I'm no expert but I don't see a Vantage in good condition with reasonable miles dropping much more than their current values. Then again I sold a 1988 3.2 Carrera about 9 years ago for £14k, that same car is now worth £40 - £45k :-(
Personally I'd keep the Vantage & enjoy it :-)

[cayman-black]

This ^^^ I would keep the Vantage for sure, great value.

[Gene G]

Don’t make the mistake of selling your V8Vantage and find that you miss it and have to find and buy another. Ask me how I know. I don’t think I’ll ever sell my Vantage it is fun to drive and even fun to look at sitting in the garage. They have to be one of or the best looking cars ever designed and built. Keep it in good shape and stay on top of the service and it should last you a life time.

[alabbasi]

This car is not going to be an investment for some time. You probably ether need to sell now or hold on for another 15-20 years before it will be worth more than what it's worth now.

[rog007]

rossyl said:

Hi All

Remembering DB7 prices they fell to £15k before recovering. Are we in for the same now?

Cheers
R

Nobody knows.

Only you know your own attitude to risk. If a drop in value bothers you, then get out at a value you’d be comfortable with. But with your eyes wide open to the cost of change if you intend to get in to something of similar value.

If you’re comfortable with the potential risk of a price drop because either you can afford it or you intend to keep the car for the foreseeable future, then get out there and drive it!

[UncleStig]

In my view, here's the future, your Vantage will hold its value if you look after it in the short term. Unfortunately, depending upon which way you look at it, the electric revolution is just starting. Within the next 10 years there'll be such change within the motor industry, and more importantly, our expectations, wants, and irrational needs. The vehicles we own now will plummet in value, simply because no one will want one, and those that do, will be able to pick and choose from far too many sellers wanting to move on. All of us here believe the Vantage of old is a thing of beauty, and it is, but unlike the current Vantage, beauty will take a new form when the industry fully understands the design possibilities available to them when its power source no longer needs to be the clunky, smelly, noisy, expensive and inefficient combustion engine. No matter how emotionally tied we are with our cars now, that lust will dwindle and we'll move on.
Just like the steam age, in 7 to 10 years at the most, we'll look back with rose tinted glasses at the petrol age. Apart from the truly rare, petrol cars will have no value in the near future so enjoy it now for what it is and not for its monetary value.
Just my point of view of course

[Manx V8V]

This reminds me of a documentary I saw recently about the scrap dealer who bought up all the dirty, smelly, inefficient steam engines from British Rail in the late 1960's, paying next to nothing for them, but luckily for him he never got round to scrapping many of them due to time and workload.

20 years later he was making millions selling them off to the many preservation societies which had sprung up!!

[Rapid rental]

UncleStig said:

In my view, here's the future, your Vantage will hold its value if you look after it in the short term. Unfortunately, depending upon which way you look at it, the electric revolution is just starting. Within the next 10 years there'll be such change within the motor industry, and more importantly, our expectations, wants, and irrational needs. The vehicles we own now will plummet in value, simply because no one will want one, and those that do, will be able to pick and choose from far too many sellers wanting to move on. All of us here believe the Vantage of old is a thing of beauty, and it is, but unlike the current Vantage, beauty will take a new form when the industry fully understands the design possibilities available to them when its power source no longer needs to be the clunky, smelly, noisy, expensive and inefficient combustion engine. No matter how emotionally tied we are with our cars now, that lust will dwindle and we'll move on.
Just like the steam age, in 7 to 10 years at the most, we'll look back with rose tinted glasses at the petrol age. Apart from the truly rare, petrol cars will have no value in the near future so enjoy it now for what it is and not for its monetary value.
Just my point of view of course

Well, I think that this is the most accurate summary on the position that we will all find ourselves in that I have ever read. I am sad to say but the party is as I see it almost over. Things will change a lot in the very near future, the new breed of cars may well all do 0-60 in 3 ish seconds, be electric and will probably be jammed full of decent tech and at some point the balance will tip and all will want one. More worryingly, long before this point, even the interesting petrol stuff will start to be difficult to sell and then the knock on will be the residuals and then, well we can all see where its going as the other chap has said.