AMV8 - initial ownership update

AMV8 - initial ownership update

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jus

Original Poster:

529 posts

208 months

Thursday 3rd May 2007
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Hey folks,

I've had my Vantage for about two months and almost 9000km now. So far I still love it to bits... Fuse 22 was binned on day 1 and I haven't thought twice about it since. Love the noise, love the driving experience. Great handling, great balance, phenomenal lateral grip... and shed loads of only positive attention and smiles wherever it goes. It's generally a very positive experience!

A lot of people talk about the Vantage's subjective lack of power... I think it is a little psychological as the car tends to pile on speed pretty quickly, but it just doesn't quite feel all that frantic, and the laggy digital speedo gives you a false impression... it feels like the car actually has very long gearing or something, particularly first gear, which could explain the less impressive paper performance specs such as 0-100km/h. Really though in this day and age a modern 4+ litre V8 should have over 400hp.

I actually find though that once under way and hitting some challenging roads the cars power is very well balanced and the gearing works very well, and you can make seriously rapid progress, especially if you keep it cooking with the gears, although you don't need to do this nearly as much as say a very tuned race car. I quite enjoy the level of drive involvement driving this car requires, not too much, and not too little. It's bloody good fun on a nice flowing, higher speed pass. Mid-range shove is pretty impressive. It's enough to make my E46 M3 feel a bit peaky and slow... although I definitely think the Vantage's engine wants to run to 8000rpm, it only really starts to make serious power near the top end of its rev limited range and then before you know it you are hitting that limiter, which seems to kick in a bit prematurely in the lower gears. I also find I can't see the shiftlights in daytime if I am wearing my sunglasses, which I always am. At night they're handy.

For a V8 it can feel a touch low on torque lower down after you've been driving it for a while, but this is put into perspective as soon as you drive the M3, and after that it feels monstrous. A quick anecdote - the Vantage will happily slow down to 900rpm in 6th gear (about 40km/h), put your foot down, and it will pull smoothly and cleanly without a shudder, cough or shake, and accelerate away. Nice.

The engine seems to have loosened up a lot though with mileage and is quite a bit more satisfyling powerful and torquey now. One thing that could be better is the very lazy throttle response... I think this engine deserves electronic ITBs a la M3, that should sort it out.

I've had no real gearbox problems other than a spot of stiffness in 1st and 2nd when cold, but this just requires a bit of gentle finessing of the syncros till the oil warms up, something I'm not unused to from other vehicles. Issues that have arisen so far include the following... Aston Martin sent a technician to my house to evaluate the severity of the problems in my garage before taking further action:

1. The OBC telling me to 'Check Tyres' (not low pressure warning light) on startup, and upon looking at the TPM unit seeing the control light flashing amber as well as two wheel lights. According to the manual this means the transmitters are not working properly from the tyres. The technician advised this will have to be looked at in the workshop.

2. A sort of spooling-up buzzing/whining sound when starting up from cold. Fire her up, the noise sort of spins up to speed and then goes quiet. Will only do it one or two more times and then not again unless it gets cold again. The Tech and I both suspect a sticky fan or something like that. Again, this will have to be looked at in the workshop.

3. A few rattles in the dash... first it was the windscreen heating vents, then the centre-speaker grille, and now it also seems to be the airbag cover. They seem to alternate and come and go. Again, a workshop fix.

4. Brake squealing... I think that the brakes are fantastic and are almost unbreakable. I quite like their weightiness as it reminds me of my completely unassisted Lotus 7 track car. But from time to time as has been documented by other owners, they squeal like mad. Sometimes it's just out of the blue, sometimes it's after lots of hard braking... there doesn't seem to be a particular set of circumstances nor an effective fix. In fairness it doesn't happen very often. The technician told me to do some hard braking if it happens, but sometimes that seems to be the cause in the first place! As we both discussed it's a known issue, but his response is that that's just the way they are. I suspect this might be the grooves in the discs... like the cross drills on my M3s brakes rumble and thrum. Or perhaps the type of pads fitted?

Anyhow, AM will collect the car at some stage to attend to the other items in the workshop. All round so far, good service and a very pleasant purchasing experience. Remains to be seen what the quality of their work is like from here!

Overall very happy with the car. It has such character, charm and appeal. It really talks to you as a petrolhead and car lover on so many different levels. The interior is just a great place to be, although ergonomically flawed here or there, and the Ford Ka rearview mirror and rather useless sunshades with no vanity mirror covers are less than impressive -- but honestly who cares?

Last few thoughts... I'm very impressed with the level of cabin refinement and NVH, it's much better than I was expecting, as is the sophistication and refinement of the suspension dampening and ride. The car makes a very pleasant highway cruiser, and the premium sound system is great.

maff

611 posts

266 months

Friday 4th May 2007
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Excellent write up - I second all your comments, exactly what I have found/like about this car.

Matt.

bogie

16,342 posts

271 months

Friday 4th May 2007
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that makes 2 of us

re the brakes - the std OEM pads are Pagids...known to squeal in the Lotus world if a) you dont bed them in properly/use them hard enough from time to time and b) fit some anti-squeal buffer pads behind the pads/put some copperslip on the back of the pads

..nothing wrong witht he brakes that cant be cured in 10 mins

jus

Original Poster:

529 posts

208 months

Saturday 5th May 2007
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Aah if they're Pagids that might explain a) why they're so good, and b) why they make noise!

GetCarter

29,358 posts

278 months

Saturday 5th May 2007
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That makes 3 of us. My thoughts almost exactly.