What's Acceptable?
Discussion
I've just started looking to purchase a DB9 Volante, There is a nice 2011 example for sale priced at £49,500. I have carried out some research and discovered on checking previous MOT's there are advisories for Nearside front, Rear and Offside front Shock absorbers light misting of oil or has limited damping effects. Is this something which one can live with or will they deteriorate and require replacing?
When I asked the seller about these problems they stated "We unfortunately only have the service book and no service receipts which would show additional work carried as well as the service, so these items you have pointed out may already have been rectified previously. Once a vehicle is sold we would give it a service along with 12 months MOT as well as six months return to base warranty"
Am I best steering clear?
When I asked the seller about these problems they stated "We unfortunately only have the service book and no service receipts which would show additional work carried as well as the service, so these items you have pointed out may already have been rectified previously. Once a vehicle is sold we would give it a service along with 12 months MOT as well as six months return to base warranty"
Am I best steering clear?
I guess the first question is whether they've been changed or not; it shouldn't be too difficult to tell. How long ago was the 'advisory', was it the last Mot or has it had it for a few successive years?
Is it std suspension; I think there was an adaptive option available when the car was new. Realistically you'd be looking at replacing all four dampers if three are defective; cost? - ballpark c£3,000 although I'm sure somebody will be along to give a more accurate figure.
Presumably it's not a Timeless car - ask the garage to replace them as part of the sale
Is it std suspension; I think there was an adaptive option available when the car was new. Realistically you'd be looking at replacing all four dampers if three are defective; cost? - ballpark c£3,000 although I'm sure somebody will be along to give a more accurate figure.
Presumably it's not a Timeless car - ask the garage to replace them as part of the sale
Edited by TarquinMX5 on Wednesday 24th February 13:00
Shockers are around £600-700 (normal ones) per corner so either look to see if they've been replaced or try to reduce the asking price.
I would hazard a guess they are not replaced, my experience with buying used Astons is the next owner normally inherits the previous owners issues as they prefer to trade them in rather than repair them.
I would take the car to Bamford Rose for a pre purchase inspection.
I would hazard a guess they are not replaced, my experience with buying used Astons is the next owner normally inherits the previous owners issues as they prefer to trade them in rather than repair them.
I would take the car to Bamford Rose for a pre purchase inspection.
Warrington Westy said:
Advisories from the last 3 MOT's. No paperwork to advise Shockers replaced.
That is pretty remarkable that failing shocks would last for 4 years!! Is that normal? I would always run to immediately change shocks at the first sign of misting but perhaps that indicates I don't always need to be so quick off the mark.Having bought a Volante last year I followed Bamford Rose advice from this video https://youtu.be/5KuiuVDmbAg.
In my opinion, you either buy a top car with a timeless warranty from a franchised dealer at top money or you buy at a bottom market price and either get it inspected by someone like BR or buy with repair costs factored into the price you pay.
I did the latter and had the car delivered straight to BR who caught up with all the deferred maintenance. I won’t bore you with everything they did but that cost around £4K including a new set of tyres and I now have a fully sorted, very dependable 2006 Volante with 28k miles. As I was looking to spend around £40k I have enough leftover from purchase and BR service costs to do most of the other things Mike talks about in the video. The car is waiting to go to BR for main decat, high flow secondaries, Billsteins, rear anti roll bar, stiffer under plates and new wishbones.
Having said that I did buy the car for the right money. As Hoovie would say, I bought the cheapest 2006 DB9 Volante in the whole of the UK - and I did take a big (calculated) risk but it’s been worth it. Of course, by the time I’ve had the next lot of work done by BR I’ll be into the car for over £40k but as they say in their strap line, it will be an Aston the way I always wanted it to be and as I don’t plan on selling it anytime soon, recovery of what extra it’s going to cost me in the forthcoming spend is irrelevant.
As the old saying goes, you pays your money and you takes your chance but go high or go low and forget in between would be my advice.
In my opinion, you either buy a top car with a timeless warranty from a franchised dealer at top money or you buy at a bottom market price and either get it inspected by someone like BR or buy with repair costs factored into the price you pay.
I did the latter and had the car delivered straight to BR who caught up with all the deferred maintenance. I won’t bore you with everything they did but that cost around £4K including a new set of tyres and I now have a fully sorted, very dependable 2006 Volante with 28k miles. As I was looking to spend around £40k I have enough leftover from purchase and BR service costs to do most of the other things Mike talks about in the video. The car is waiting to go to BR for main decat, high flow secondaries, Billsteins, rear anti roll bar, stiffer under plates and new wishbones.
Having said that I did buy the car for the right money. As Hoovie would say, I bought the cheapest 2006 DB9 Volante in the whole of the UK - and I did take a big (calculated) risk but it’s been worth it. Of course, by the time I’ve had the next lot of work done by BR I’ll be into the car for over £40k but as they say in their strap line, it will be an Aston the way I always wanted it to be and as I don’t plan on selling it anytime soon, recovery of what extra it’s going to cost me in the forthcoming spend is irrelevant.
As the old saying goes, you pays your money and you takes your chance but go high or go low and forget in between would be my advice.
To play a hypothetical scenario, lets say you buy the car now and something goes wrong in 6 months, can you afford to put it right? Agree with some others around buying a Timeless version with a warranty if cash if a worry. I've been super lucky and nothing has gone wrong with mine outside of standard maintenance and an air con issue. That said, please go in with your eyes open that you're going to have to spend some money somewhere down the line - especially at this price point and age.
Chris.
Chris.
Edited by woodsypedia on Thursday 25th February 20:05
Purchase of my Vanquish from a AM dealer with Timeless warranty also included two free misting dampers.
BR completed an independent inspection this picked up the two misting dampers and a leaking front timing cover seal all sorted under the Timeless warranty. All four dampers and springs were replaced by AM dealer as AM only supply complete units.
I could not check for any MOT advisories pre purchase as no licence plates were on the car (lesson learned) but the misting dampers were picked up a month earlier by the MOT but not picked up on the 100+ check by the service department at the AM dealer pre sale.
Misting of dampers is not an MOT failure but if they have been misting for a while you will have lost a lot of oil and the dampers will not be doing the job.
I would expect on a prestige car that any car dealer would replace all four units and provide an alignment report (Hunter jig ideally) pre sale.
I would always recommend an independent inspection even with a AM warranty, you have the benefit of a full refund under the consumer credit act within 30 days of purchase.
BR completed an independent inspection this picked up the two misting dampers and a leaking front timing cover seal all sorted under the Timeless warranty. All four dampers and springs were replaced by AM dealer as AM only supply complete units.
I could not check for any MOT advisories pre purchase as no licence plates were on the car (lesson learned) but the misting dampers were picked up a month earlier by the MOT but not picked up on the 100+ check by the service department at the AM dealer pre sale.
Misting of dampers is not an MOT failure but if they have been misting for a while you will have lost a lot of oil and the dampers will not be doing the job.
I would expect on a prestige car that any car dealer would replace all four units and provide an alignment report (Hunter jig ideally) pre sale.
I would always recommend an independent inspection even with a AM warranty, you have the benefit of a full refund under the consumer credit act within 30 days of purchase.
[quote=Warrington Westy]I've just started looking to purchase a DB9 Volante, There is a nice 2011 example for sale priced at £49,500. I have carried out some research and discovered on checking previous MOT's there are advisories for Nearside front, Rear and Offside front Shock absorbers light misting of oil or has limited damping effects. Is this something which one can live with or will they deteriorate and require replacing?
When I asked the seller about these problems they stated "We unfortunately only have the service book and no service receipts which would show additional work carried as well as the service, so these items you have pointed out may already have been rectified previously. Once a vehicle is sold we would give it a service along with 12 months MOT as well as six months return to base warranty"
Am I best steering clear?
[/quote
If you do not have any service receipts walk away.
Do not buy any high value car without a folder of paperwork.
When I asked the seller about these problems they stated "We unfortunately only have the service book and no service receipts which would show additional work carried as well as the service, so these items you have pointed out may already have been rectified previously. Once a vehicle is sold we would give it a service along with 12 months MOT as well as six months return to base warranty"
Am I best steering clear?
[/quote
If you do not have any service receipts walk away.
Do not buy any high value car without a folder of paperwork.
My service book was fully stamped by franchised dealers but no receipts to show what had been done. As stated, £4K worth of deferred maintenance. Walk away or offer an appropriately low figure to account for what you may need to spend unless, of course, you think the seller will cover whatever repair costs come up after you’ve bought.
Edited by Jonathank56 on Wednesday 24th February 19:49
Jonathank56 said:
My service book was fully stamped by franchised dealers but no receipts to show what had been done. As stated, £4K worth of deferred maintenance. Walk away or offer an appropriately low figure to account for what you may need to spend a blessed, of course, you think the seller will cover whatever repair costs come up after you’ve bought.
Is this nonsense I have heard correct re GDPR insofar as the dealer being forced to not pass on service invoices and records containing previous owners address etc?Shnozz said:
Is this nonsense I have heard correct re GDPR insofar as the dealer being forced to not pass on service invoices and records containing previous owners address etc?
I had the GDPR nonsense when I contacted an AM dealer who serviced my car for about 10 years for a previous owner to get the service invoices, they said I could not have them because of GDPR, so I was screwed.Cornwall1]arrington Westy said:
I've just started looking to purchase a DB9 Volante, There is a nice 2011 example for sale priced at £49,500. I have carried out some research and discovered on checking previous MOT's there are advisories for Nearside front, Rear and Offside front Shock absorbers light misting of oil or has limited damping effects. Is this something which one can live with or will they deteriorate and require replacing?
When I asked the seller about these problems they stated "We unfortunately only have the service book and no service receipts which would show additional work carried as well as the service, so these items you have pointed out may already have been rectified previously. Once a vehicle is sold we would give it a service along with 12 months MOT as well as six months return to base warranty"
Am I best steering clear?
[/quote
If you do not have any service receipts walk away.
Do not buy any high value car without a folder of paperwork.
Many dealers franchised or otherwise will not let you have the file of paperwork for GDPR laws. The dealer I bought my car from would not allow this however, the fully stamped service book and an inspection by a specialist confirmed the car was good aside from a few small items and it having had a fresh MOT 2 weeks before I bought it.When I asked the seller about these problems they stated "We unfortunately only have the service book and no service receipts which would show additional work carried as well as the service, so these items you have pointed out may already have been rectified previously. Once a vehicle is sold we would give it a service along with 12 months MOT as well as six months return to base warranty"
Am I best steering clear?
[/quote
If you do not have any service receipts walk away.
Do not buy any high value car without a folder of paperwork.
Having the stamped service book allowed me to contact the dealers and talk to them about the car, while they would not provide actual copy receipts (again GDPR) they did provide email evidence of work done which now is all kept in my file so if I do ever sell the car it will come with documented history as much as possible.
My specialist did state MOT on these cars isn't worth a great deal as many MOT stations are not happy about having many specialist cars (include Aston and other premium brands) as they are not up to speed with how it should be jacked, how it all looks underneath as they dont see these cars everyday etc. Mine should have had advisories for two misting shocks but no mention of it , also should have picked up some rusting of brake lines into the callipers. All sorted now and for a small outlay.
To alleviate GDPR - ask for them to redact the name and address at the top. GDPR can be overridden through a clause called Legitimate Interest. You are able to argue you have a legitimate interest in the information. I've done large GDPR projects for global companies and the way I hear some junior knobs throwing the term around for their own advantage is horse s
t.
Chris.
t. Chris.
I took Jonathank56 advice and watched BR videos on the DB9, It is a real eye opener, I know about the Mis-fire and Cat problems but they way they spell it out, it makes me wonder who would buy a second hand DB9. What's the real world story, are the problems as bleak as the videos make it out to be? I'm sure it can't be (hopefully)
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