Saturday 4th May 2019

The Brave Pill: Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Our most expensive Pill so far, yet one that still offers a stonking amount of car for the money

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While it's impossible to quote in French at the top of a story without looking like a ponce, a large part of Pill's raison d' etre is to highlight the bargain status of some of our riskier investment opportunities. Including some, like this week's, which allow you to ponce things up on the cheap.

Of course, these things are relative. This week's Pill is being offered for more than the combined values of any two of our previous stars. Yet this stealthy-looking Aston is also the cheapest Vantage V8 we could find on sale anywhere in the UK. Indeed, apart from some faded examples of the not-especially loved six-cylinder DB7, it seems to be the cheapest Aston full stop.

There is a reason for that - a six figure mileage which, if the naysayers are to be believed, will cause Helen Lovejoy to swoon and loudly wonder why anybody won't think of the children. 117,000 miles only equates to a modest 8,400 a year for this early 2005 car, and it seems to have been well looked after throughout that time. But in this rarefied part of the market that odometer tally is regarded as stratospheric; the Vantage pretty much has a nun walking behind it ringing a bell and calling out "shame".

The British market has always been strangely blinkered where it comes to leggier exotics, fetishizing ultra low mileage examples which have barely been used and which are likely to have suffered from the lack of exercise. It's different in other countries. I once seriously considered buying a 350,000-mile Mercedes 500E I found on mobile.de, the German vendor of which was offering it for almost exactly the same price as cars that had gone less than half as far, on the basis it had been driven flat-out every day and maintained regardless of cost. But in Blighty we often end up with the strange situation of owners afraid to use their hugely expensive cars for fear of dinging their values.

Our Pill frees its next owner from any such concerns, which could be a truly liberating experience. It also gives the chance to get into an Aston fitted with a proper do-it-yourself manual gearbox; this in the same week that the marque announced the radical innovation of putting a clutch pedal into the £149,995 AMR version of the current Vantage.

This Vantage itself is well on the way to classic status. Introduced in 2005 it had its design attributed to both Ian Callum (who started it) and Henrik Fisker (who finished). When new it won the Car of the Year award from Car Design News, the car stylist's favourite magazine, so it's not hard to see why both men would want to be associated with what remains a spectacularly good-looking car. Even after 14 years the muscular, tightly wrapped contours can turn heads, drop jaws and even get the doormen in swish hotels removing the velvet ropes they use to guard the spot next to the entrance.

Okay, so the interior feels old and short on toys by modern standards, with the fit-and-finish of cabin materials in early cars like this one being distinctly, um, hand-built. The reddish facings of the leather trim in this one won't be to all tastes either, but the view from behind the steering wheel of your own Aston Martin is always one that will take some beating. This one also features the early pop-up satellite navigation system, which has all the graphical dexterity of a bus stop departures board and is a great way of amusing passengers, if not actually receiving meaningful guidance.

The Vantage sits on the same bonded aluminium "VH" architecture which underpinned the DB9, and which - in modified guise - still lies at the heart of the brand's GT models. The engine was based on Jaguar's long-serving AJ-V8, both Jag and Aston were owned by Ford at the time, but this was substantially modified with new quad-cam cylinder heads along with a standard dry sump lubrication syste

When new, the Vantage was (mildy) criticised for lacking the effortless low-down muscle that previous Astons had led reviewers to expect. The V8 makes its full 385hp at a high 7,300rpm and the full 302lb ft of torque only arrives at a peaky 5,000rpm. But hindsight has probably done an interesting number on that one; the idea of a rev-happy naturally aspirated engine that isn't going to try and spit you off when the turbos spool up sounds refreshingly different to the modern sportscar norm, doesn't it?

The engine is generally regarded to be tough, but running costs will be high. Routine servicing can be eye-wateringly expensive on an Aston, even when using a specialist to try and reduce the pain. But Vantages don't rust, will do 20-something mpg when cruising and the manual gearbox shouldn't have the appetite for clutches of the boorish automated Speedshift.

This car seems to have been well looked after with recent clutch, tyre and brake replacements according to the vendor, while the MOT history doesn't highlight anything of significance beyond a partial strike by the lighting system last year. (It does however prove the car has been thoroughly enjoyed, covering an impressive 22,000 miles between March 2016 and April 2017.)

In a world where even the ugly ducking that was the iQ-based Cygnet has now got past £30,000, it's hard not to see this Vantage as something of a steal. As a curly haired TV presenter once asked, "is there a better expression in the English language than 'let's take the Aston'?"

See the original advert here. 

[Harry Flashman]

I'll kick this off. Owned one (2007 4.3 coupe), loved it, but big bills at 30k to 40k miles: I spent a lot getting my fully histories, two owner car sorted over the 10,000 miles I had it, and stuff went wrong every month. Mostly consumables though, so if this car has had clutch, brakes and suspension done recently, OK. But absolutely every part on these cars costs an enormous amount - more than Ferraris for some stuff (£600 for a single coil spring, anyone?), as you will find on the numerous threads on these here. And specialists charge almost as much labour as dealers: floating around somewhere on the AM forum is my hilarious (think thousands) quote to get the brakes replaced. When you start replacing things like engine mounts and suspension arms, as you will on a high mileage car like this, have lots of cash ready for parts, and have a local garage do the work.

And the electronics are made of chocolate. Woe betide you if you need to replace a module somewhere. I did, and I wept.

I'd have a convertible 4.7 version again, though. I'm stupid like that. Gorgeous looks, noise and drive. Hateful reliability.

Edited by Harry Flashman on Saturday 4th May 07:50

[Harry Flashman]

The chap who looked after mine (local garage, after I had had enough of pi55taking from dealers and London specialists) chopped the costs of my brake replacement (all discs, pads, handbrake bits etc) by two thirds on the specialist quote. I supplied the parts. I like my cars perfect, so I spent a lot of time sorting my car, and then using it. My final drive back in it before it went, from the Goodwood Festval of Speed, remains one of my favourite experiences in a car. In terms of how to run these more cheaply, but with proper attention to quality:

I had a spring company make up a set for me for less than the cost of a single new one from AM.

I bought Bilstein dampers of the correct spec, rather than the AM ones.

I bought a pair of LED rear lamps from eBay for far less than the cost of a single replacement one from AM or AstonMartinBits.

I bought the correct Volvo door window ECU/Modules rather than getting AM to supply them at three times the price. Sadly I had to have a specialist do the work as my man did not want to touch anything electronic on these.

I bought an aircon condensor from AM bits.

I bought trim bits like number plate surround, splitter etc from ebay and had them fitted by my mechanic.

There are ways to run these at a reasonable price and still take care of them, but you need to do your homeworks. They are parts bin cars in some respects, so you can win. I swapped mine for a CLS63AMG as I needed something practical. The difference in build quality is not just obvious, it's hilarious: but this is the difference between Aston and a proper volume manufacturer, so a bit unfair to compare.

These cars are cheap for a reason - servicing costs are a joke for what they do (oil change and check quites were £600 from specialists, but most won't buy without the stamp in the book, so the Aston community can charge what they want).

Also, my man (Merc specialist, who also takes care of my old W124 convertible) stated that the build quality underneath, when he was rebuilding the brakes and suspension for me was "like a kit car". Now he deals in old Mercs, so he may be a bit biased as far as a car's quality is concerned, but still.

Do I miss the car? Yes. I'd have another. But as a keeper, worked on by a mechanic I trust, and I would go nowhere near a dealer/specialist for work. Which would of course make resale impossible.

Here's mine just before it went. Grainy pic, but the only one of it I have with the Merc in shot too, and I know how this forum likes a W124!

Untitled by baconrashers, on Flickr


Still the best looking Aston of recent times, especially in unadorned 4.3 spec. Black does it no favours - these look best in gunmetal grey or something a bit more fun, which will be the colour of my next one! Yes, there will be another, one day. 4.7 manual roadster. Had mine been a roadster, I would have kept it having done all that work. Unlike many on here, I am a convertible fan.

Untitled by baconrashers, on Flickr

But in topic, please, please don't by a cheap one, unless you have a large fund. A high mileage car like the one in thread can have a tonne of cash thrown at it and still be worth bugger all. Spend the extra money, find a lower mileage one and make sure it has had a load of work done to it. You have all been warned!!

Edited by Harry Flashman on Saturday 4th May 18:27

[Harry Flashman]

Mine is about to be for sale, as a friend and fellow PHer took it on. If anyone wants a properly sorted one, let me know and I will put you in touch - they all have common faults (like AC, window modules, broken springs, etc etc - and I rectified every one of these on mine). But it will not be at the price of the one on this thread!

[Harry Flashman]

Cold said:

"Kit car" suspension component and (Brembo) brake parts, yesterday






There's embellishing to tell a tale and then there's just making stuff up.

Heh. He was actually talking about the quality of the bonding on the aluminium tub, rather than the components themselves, that are beyond reproach...I should probably have specified.

I've owned Morgans and Astons, and crawled over and worked on both. Neither of their in-house stuff compares well to a mass-engineered car like a Porsche or Mercedes (I have owned and worked on these too).

[Harry Flashman]

Cold said:

The adhesive bonding of the tub is the same (and borrowed) tech that Lotus have used since the mid-90s to great acclaim and success. It's based on aircraft construction tech, is extremely strong and means the aluminium retains its torsional rigidity that might otherwise be lost if welded.
I'm not sure what experience your mechanic might have of the industry of aluminium bonding but I'd be interested to see a kit car manufacturer that offers a bonded tub that he feels is a good comparison.

Whilst I am sure that your ownership experience has been fabulous, and your worship of these cars is justified, the point I am making is that my mech commented that he did not think that the V8V is very well built, nor that it had held up particularly well over time. I related a comment, rather than making a judgement.

My judgement is that my car (an example of one, so not terribly representative) had a lot of things go expensivy wrong with it, whereupon I found that parts prices are pretty steep.

But please, feel free to counter this with a story of utmost reliability.