Aston Martin Vantage Prodrive (this one is Merlot)
Aston Martin Vantage Prodrive (this one is Merlot)
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Discussion

giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Sunday 20th July
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There's already a Prodrive Vantage in Readers' Cars - TheRainMaker has a thread on his absolutely gorgeous car here

Hopefully there's room for a second thread with a slightly different variation on the theme?

The short version of the story is I slightly reluctantly viewed the car on the 24th May, fell in love with it, took it home on the 26th May, and then barely a fortnight later took it on a 1000 miles road trip to Le Mans.



I'll add some detail over the next few days smile

InfamousK

820 posts

207 months

Monday 21st July
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Subscribed and ready!

cst

406 posts

201 months

Monday 21st July
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Stunning car and colour!

salmanorguk

258 posts

109 months

Monday 21st July
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Wow that looks even more gorgeous in that colour.

The Ian Callum design era was peak Aston for me and feel the design of almost everything afterwards has been badly influenced by/catered to the 'look at me' crowd.

Hope to learn more about the car!

Leins

9,976 posts

165 months

Monday 21st July
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That’s fantastic, what a great colour

giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Monday 21st July
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Thanks so much! Wasn't sure if there would be much interest, there's a few 4.3 Vantage threads around now. I have to say I found them really really useful and a bit of an inspiration while I was still dithering about getting one.

Stories like Nigel_O and his Inspired or idiotic? "Cheap" V8 Vantage helped demystify the car and put some of the risks & rewards into context.


giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Monday 21st July
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I guess I'd better start with how I got here. The fact is I'm still a bit surprised that I own an Aston Martin. I think my wife and friends are too!

I've always admired Aston Martin as a brand, and when the "VH" era started I really fell for the looks of the Vanquish, DB9 and then Vantage. My first visit to the Le Mans 24h in 2006 really cemented my love for the brand when I saw - and heard - the DBR9 vs Corvette battles and later the Vantage GT2 and GTE cars.

I bought a flag, wore the team hat and cheered on the Prodrive-built race cars every year but I never really saw myself as an Aston owner. They were too expensive to buy, too expensive to own and somehow the image just wasn't me.

I've had Impreza's (and was at Rally GB in 2003 to witness Solberg win his world championship), followed by things like a Smart Roadster, a Prodrive-tuned Mazda RX8 PZ, a V8 MG ZT260 (coincidentally also largely developed by Prodrive) and also a couple of Lotus Elise's and an Evora.

Without realising it, Prodrive seems to woven through my car history! As are somewhat shonkily-built cars than need TLC and patience...

I've had a Lotus in my life continuously since 2013 and I was thinking it was time for a change. I love the Elise, and I will have another in the future. They're utterly amazing to drive but I'd had my last one (a 1.6 S3 Club Racer) for 5 years and was getting itchy feet. I also felt like I wanted to have a more rounded "road trip" kind of car for a while, something a bit less hardcore.

So my plan for this year was to sell the Elise and buy a 996. I've never driven a 911 but everyone says they are amazing and a good 996 seemed like a decent compromise between price, reliability (engine issues to one side) and analogue feel. I looked and looked but finally I realised I just wasn't that excited. I was car shopping with my head instead of my heart.

Then somehow I just started thinking about Vantages. And reading about them. And realising that a 4.3 was about the same money as my little Elise. And finally getting my head around the running costs being no worse than my Evora.

Edited by giveitfish on Thursday 24th July 00:49

giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Tuesday 22nd July
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First job was to sell the Elise. The market seemed completely dead so I tried sale-or-return via a local specialist who'd serviced the car. There was no interest at all so I took the car back and was starting to resign myself to keeping it for another year.

I advertised it myself just in case and was amazed to get two serious enquiries within hours of each other. I sold the car for full asking price two days later. It went for £24k, which is exactly what I paid for it 5 years and 20,000 miles earlier (and that was from a main dealer with warranty!).

Now suddenly I had cash burning a hole in my pocket and no nice car to go to Le Mans in, so it was time to get serious.

From my research I'd already decided I wanted a 4.3. They're at a price which I was comfortable with and seem to have a reputation for solid mechanicals while the 4.7 has a question mark looming over its main bearings.

The next decision was which model year - the early cars were more common, but 2007 cars had nicer Recaro seats with the option of memory settings while 2008 cars had the newer centre console and came with iPod connectivity, promising easy phone integration.

There was a fairly local 2008 car for sale for just over £30k which looked like a good place to start. I arranged to view it and immediately took a shine to it's Tempest Blue colour. I had my first test drive and at that point knew I needed to own one. The sound! The car was a much sharper steer than I was expecting too. I knew they were meant to be the sports car of the range, but that means something different to a Lotus owner and I was expecting it to be a sporty GT/tourer first and foremost.

However the more time I spent looking at the car the more problems I found with it's bodywork. Nothing was hidden, it was a very honest car, but it just wasn't in the condition I was hoping for.

I came home certain that a Vantage was what I wanted, but also a bit disheartened to find that a car at the top of my budget was so rough.




giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Tuesday 22nd July
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Right this is all getting a bit wordy!

To break things up, here's a pic of it looking shiny next to what I think is the nearest colour in the current Aston range. I think the DBX is Liquid Crimson. It's a bit more red and its a metallic. It's not as classy as Merlot wink



This was outside JCT600 Aston in Leeds while waiting to have a new battery fitted. Just a couple of days before heading to Le Mans I got a "low battery" warning on the dash even while connected to my C-Tek.

JCT fit me in at a moments notice and the cost was very reasonable - Halfords wasn't much less. The battery is a huge 22kg lump fitted inside the cabin amongst all that lovely leather so I was much happier having the dealer do the fitting!

giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Wednesday 23rd July
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I spent weeks obsessing over the classifieds. There were two cars I wanted to see - a 2008 private-sale car in Meteorite which was a good price for the apparent condition, and a 2007 car at Chiltern Aston Centre which looked absolutely superb in Mercury Silver and had all the options and a warranty but was again at the top of price range.

There was also one ad on Autotrader I kept coming back to but discounting...the Merlot Prodrive car. The advert was perfect - obviously an enthusiast owner, no hint of deferred maintenance, the car looked in superb condition, and those Prodrive mods! But, but but...at 55k the miles were higher than the others and higher than I really wanted, it was a 2006 car with the old style seats and no factory phone integration, and finally the pictures were taken on a bright sunny day and the colour just looked a bit, I don't know, somehow not how I visualised an Aston?

Luckily my wife and my best mate both told me in no uncertain terms to go see it! My wife especially thought I was being stupid - why was I even considering those dull grey cars when there was this one? I still wasn't sure but relented, and when the stars lined up my mate and I set off early on a Saturday from Leeds for a 400 mile round trip to see all three cars.

First up we arrived at Chiltern. They gave us the works, a full tour of their amazing workshops full of classic and modern Astons, including David Browns personal Lagonda saloon! I then had the chance to look around and test drive the V8 they had, which in my head was the one I probably going to buy. What a disappointment! They'd done a lot of prep on the car, especially the paint which looked great. However some of the interior was looking pretty sad, especially the drivers seat which they had carefully omitted from their photos. On the test drive I was able to explore some local B-roads and found the car felt loose and the steering was distracted by every bump. It just wasn't the car I imagined it to be.

Next stop was the 2008 Meteorite car. The owner had bought it from McGurks three years ago and it seemed like it was a nice car back then. Now it was the poster child for deferred maintenance. It lived outside, it was a year overdue a service, when it needed rear tyres he'd put second hand part-worns on (!) and then when it needed front springs he'd found second hand springs to fit (!!). At the right price it was saveable, but certainly wasn't giving me a warm feeling.

It was getting late in the afternoon by the time we got to see the Prodrive car. Right from the start the impressions were good when we arrived at their rather nice house to see an immaculate Lotus Excel parked on the gravel drive.

Once introduced, I then got to see the Merlot Vantage and immediately I realised this could be the one.

I won't go into details out of respect for their privacy, but the Vantage was one of three Aston Martins they owned. They'd had it 8 years and had made a lot of memories and (more importantly for me!) spent a huge amount on keeping it in tip-top condition.

The history file was huge and went all the way back to the original order. Maintenance was main dealer throughout and included cleaning up and repainting the rear subframe (a known weak spot) and within the last few months it had new rear lights and new struts for the doors and tailgate.

After checking the paperwork it was time for a test drive on local A- and B-roads. It was a revelation! Compared to the previous two I'd driven this car ripped! The noise from the switchable exhaust was epic, the engine was more responsive across the rev range and the suspension was on a different level. It was more comfortable AND better handling. The steering felt superb, and the car wasn't distracted or unsettled by bumps in any way. The suspension was tight, with no slack and it felt like it was a new car, not a 19 year old one. It felt like a proper drivers car and not just a pretty GT.

After all my indecision this car was exactly what I hoped a Vantage would be like.




Edited by giveitfish on Thursday 24th July 00:00

giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Thursday 24th July
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A couple of days later I brought it home.

The first time filling it up was a shock after running a 1.6 Elise. This full tank cost me more than it did to add the car to my insurance.


giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Thursday 24th July
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I found out two things on the way home -

1) The built-in sat nav is utter pants. I didn't have a phone mount so I thought I'd use the nav, and instead of taking me to the M1 it took me on a parallel route on slow roads to Leicester. Persevered for the first 30 minutes before pulling over to see where the hell it was taking me.

2) The cruise control was really jerky on downhill sections. It felt like it was a very crude setup that braked sharply, freewheeled and then braked again.

Turns out this is a calibration issue and bizarrely you fix it by coasting from 70mph down to 30mph without touching the throttle and then it remembers.

This is harder to do than you'd think, there is always someone behind you! I managed to complete the cycle while coming off the M1 to a services on the way to Le Mans and cruise has been perfect ever since.smile

Jhonno

6,149 posts

158 months

Thursday 24th July
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Very pretty! I like these!

jammytask

37 posts

175 months

Thursday 24th July
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That is lovely.

trails

5,531 posts

166 months

Thursday 24th July
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Elegant looking car and colour. Needs silver wheels though...looking forward to updates smile

giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Thursday 24th July
quotequote all
trails said:
Elegant looking car and colour. Needs silver wheels though...looking forward to updates smile
Respectfully, I'm going to have to disagree with you lol

I think it looks much better on anthracite wheels!

giveitfish

Original Poster:

4,213 posts

231 months

Thursday 24th July
quotequote all
I'll post an update on the Le Mans trip, then I'm away for a week so I'll post about the history when I get back.

I've never had a car with this much detail in the history before - stories from previous owners, a magazine feature, all the Prodrive brochures etc and even a dyno run proving the engine is very healthy compared to the alleged 360bhp a factory 4.3 puts out in reality.

My car is quite easy to find on the internet due to the colour. Here's a very nice old video from Nicolas Mee before they sold it to the previous owner...

https://youtu.be/trF9h6tC5Hk?si=6IVvzUioDqpQ_yqs

scottos

1,273 posts

141 months

Thursday 24th July
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Thats cool as tits! It changes the whole car with it being in that colour and i always love the Prodrive bits on them, which bits has it got exactly? I understand there were different specs?

trails

5,531 posts

166 months

Thursday 24th July
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giveitfish said:
trails said:
Elegant looking car and colour. Needs silver wheels though...looking forward to updates smile
Respectfully, I'm going to have to disagree with you lol

I think it looks much better on anthracite wheels!
It's not my car, so my opinion is on very little value here biggrin

Great to see one thast not grey\black, best of luck with it.

Nigel_O

3,375 posts

236 months

Thursday 24th July
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Yay! Another V8V owner entering from the lower end of the market

Amazing colour - exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, but couldn’t find when I was searching for one. Sadly, at the price I was willing to pay, everything was monochrome. Anything “interesting” commanded a premium. At least I got a non-black interior…

I’m guessing it’s had some work done? Sounds like it’s had suspension work at least.

You’ve clearly read my Reader’s Car thread - it sounds like your won’t need the sort of work that mine did, but you can never be 100% sure - it will undoubtedly throw a surprise or two at you.

Good luck and keep the updates coming

PS - don’t put it off for almost four years like I did - just book it in at Aston Installations and get CarPlay/Android Auto installed