Questions about this vantage

[Rivarama]

Hello,

I am considering buying this car on Bonhams online auction site:

https://carsonline.bonhams.com/en/listings/aston-m...

- Does anyone knows it?
- Does anything jumps out?
- Would the fact it has a new engine put you off? Looks like it was done by BR - so should be Ok? Nothing about the mileage on that replacement engine though…
- I see an airbag error msg has come in the dash (was addressed a couple of years earlier… seat connection replaced). Could it be a major fix?
- The price range is set between 20-25k… what do you think of that?

Thank you

[XMark]

Probably best to contact Mike at Bamford Rose as their name is all over it, maybe their demo car at a time?
I can t see that going for £20-25k, it ll be sought after, right colour, right mods, I d expect slightly more.

Edited by XMark on Wednesday 15th October 00:20

[darreni]

The airbag light is a mot fail I think, so you’d wonder why it’s not been sorted before sale if it was straightforward.

[LTP]

Having had a quick look through the add these things caught my eye - not saying they're bad; just caught my eye. In no particular order:

• Mirror arms are in body colour not the OEM crackle black. Having to recondition mirror arms is quite a common problem; never seen them in body colour before
• The three knobs on the lower part of the centre stack are not OEM
• The aluminium ends of the column stalks are not OEM
• The tailgate and sills are from later than 2007
• If Bamford Rose fitted a replacement engine I'm surprised it's only 380 bhp, which is the OEM output.

[johnymac]

Having just had a quick look, the advert says the car has had an engine swap, it doesn't say a new engine. The owner spent £12k this year on a subframe refurb, a new air conditioning radiator, new brake lines and an engines swap. I imagine a new engine would be getting on for twice that on it's own.
Having said that, what a beautiful looking car, and all the work has been carried out by the right people. I am sure that whoever buys it will be really pleased with it and get years of enjoyment out of it.

[BiggaJ]

LTP said:

Having had a quick look through the add these things caught my eye - not saying they're bad; just caught my eye. In no particular order:

• Mirror arms are in body colour not the OEM crackle black. Having to recondition mirror arms is quite a common problem; never seen them in body colour before
• The three knobs on the lower part of the centre stack are not OEM
• The aluminium ends of the column stalks are not OEM
• The tailgate and sills are from later than 2007
• If Bamford Rose fitted a replacement engine I'm surprised it's only 380 bhp, which is the OEM output.

This ^^^

However, I would add, I cant see that the mirror arms are body coloured, they look normal to me but the car has a lot of paint issues from bubbling on the bonnet to poor paint finish on the painted after market rear lip spoiler and boot deck lid. You cant get away from a few scratches and chips in areas of a car this age so that is quite normal. But if a seller is willing to spend money on very oddly chosen interior trinkets and a dash that is supposed to look carbon (I would question this element as it looks more like a wrap to me) ... And have done the costly items like refurbished rear subframe, I would be asking what clutch wear is like and is there evidence of the timing chest seal having been done?

I agree with LTP about the engine swap, BR are known for their engine upgrades so would expect a littel more than stock HP. The car has only covered 58K in 18 years (just over 3,000/year), the 4.3 is a robust lump so what necessitated the need for a swap?

[Go60 Jay]

Wowsers, its certainly had some money spent on it. But it’s also been the right people doing it.

Only thing i noticed, which means absolutely nothing, is that the air intake is black, which you normally see on the Vantage S models.

You really do need to contact Mike at Bamford Rose. Looking at the invoices, it appears to be mechanically original, but with an updated/upgraded rear end andma fee cosmetics inside.

John

[LTP]

BiggaJ said:

However, I would add, I cant see that the mirror arms are body coloured, they look normal to me ....
<snip>

Yes, on second look, you might be right. As I say, it was just a quick scan through and it was this image that caught my eye



Probably just a trick of the light

[Import]

Interesting…agree with all of that..not totally convinced by the mirror stalks..wonder if the glass is making them look green..certainly look refinished…and 380 hp…the engine bay clearly shows the black intake manifold..which is the factory upgrade..presumably the air boxes and upgraded controllers are there too….added a modest 20hp

[XMark]

Go60 Jay said:

Wowsers, its certainly had some money spent on it. But it s also been the right people doing it.

Only thing i noticed, which means absolutely nothing, is that the air intake is black, which you normally see on the Vantage S models.

You really do need to contact Mike at Bamford Rose. Looking at the invoices, it appears to be mechanically original, but with an updated/upgraded rear end andma fee cosmetics inside.

John

Black one means it has the factory power upgrade to 400hp, or maybe it was just painted lol

[zafod]

I personally wouldn't want an interior that had embroidered advertising for Bamford Rose on the seats and above the glovebox

[Minglar]

zafod said:

I personally wouldn't want an interior that had embroidered advertising for Bamford Rose on the seats and above the glovebox

Pretty much how I feel about this one too. It looks like a BR vanity project to showcase every modification they can do! Not a great fan of the wheels either, although that style of wheel is fairly rare with cars of this age. But it has clearly had a lot of work done on it and it is a nice shade of green too. It will be interesting to see what it sells for. BRM.

[Rivarama]

Thanks for all the input. Lots of things I hadn’t considered indeed.
Seems like a call to Bamford is the place to start.

What could the airbag error message be, worst case? The bits I could find on it were primarily pointing to different sensors potentially being at fault as opposed to the airbag itself. I am hoping that this isn’t anything a grand can’t solve.

I also get the BR brand isn’t necessarily very attractive but I am hoping the price will reflect that and it still seems to be a good package overall. Regarding the engine, the lump came out of a car that had 47k miles and I don’t believe BR would have fitted an engine that didn’t pass the lemon test. That being said it will be a non matching number car.

Again price should reflect this.

[ds666]

Rivarama said:

Thanks for all the input. Lots of things I hadn t considered indeed.
Seems like a call to Bamford is the place to start.

Let us know if they pick the phone up lol

[V8VS]

It’s a well documented car on PH. Search for ‘Jessica’, but as said speak to Mike at BR, he’s honest in explaining what they have done to the car. He’s helped me when searching for cars in the past. Re picking up the phone. Never had a problem. Sometimes they might have their heads under a bonnet and can’t answer at all particularly time, but I’ve just called back later and always got an answer. I’ve usually called 9 - 9:30am or around midday. I’m not associated, have just been a customer of theirs.

Here’s a YT clip from back in the day. It looks like the car has changed a bit since then.

https://youtube.com/shorts/za4GWVZ-AzM?si=MhgdswGC...

You’ll also be able to go through the threads on PH to see the evolution of the car, and how that may differ from its current spec.

[Jon39]

BiggaJ said:

This ^^^

However, I would add, I cant see that the mirror arms are body coloured, they look normal to me but the car has a lot of paint issues from bubbling on the bonnet to poor paint finish on the painted after market rear lip spoiler and boot deck lid. You cant get away from a few scratches and chips in areas of a car this age so that is quite normal. But if a seller is willing to spend money on very oddly chosen interior trinkets and a dash that is supposed to look carbon (I would question this element as it looks more like a wrap to me) ... And have done the costly items like refurbished rear subframe, I would be asking what clutch wear is like and is there evidence of the timing chest seal having been done?

Ref. the engine swap, BR are known for their engine upgrades so would expect a littel more than stock HP. The car has only covered 58K in 18 years (just over 3,000/year), the 4.3 is a robust lump so what necessitated the need for a swap?

At AM gwtherings, we see many really pristine, original cars.
Although this colour Is very attractive, there have been some comments about defects.
No point in asking about clutch wear. Only the Sportshift versions can reveal estimated wear.

'£12k spent this year on a subframe refurb, a new air conditioning radiator, new brake lines and an engines swap.'
BR would not have done all that for £12k. Something odd there.

Think I would wait for a pristine example.

[Dewi 2]

Minglar said:

zafod said:

I personally wouldn't want an interior that had embroidered advertising for Bamford Rose on the seats and above the glovebox

Pretty much how I feel about this one too. It looks like a BR vanity project to showcase every modification they can do! Not a great fan of the wheels either, although that style of wheel is fairly rare with cars of this age. But it has clearly had a lot of work done on it and it is a nice shade of green too. It will be interesting to see what it sells for. BRM.

The original road wheels Richard, would have been 7 spoke.
Those fitted are the standard (not SportsPack) wheels from the 4.7 V8V, MY 2009 to 2012.

Interesting, considering the Ford ownership period, you can occasionally see the same spoke design on a Ford Focus of the same era, obviously not as wide.