New vantage chat

[Greg_D]

The other vantage thread seems a bit fragmented now, so let's start a fresh sheet of paper to discuss the new gen vantage.

It'll be great to see pictures of cars, comments about the good, bad and indifferent aspects of the cars and hints and tips.

I'll start with mine, a 2020 volcano red with two tone red/black interior and all the tech boxes ticked.

I picked it up from works service on 3rd october. it was great to get the tour of the facility and see all the fantastic heritage cars and special editions/zagatos etc...





is it just me, or is the fuel consumption catastrophic for everyone else as well. 180 miles to a tank gets a bit boring... i'm filling it up every second or third journey... ;-)

let's see your cars......

[Greg_D]

i'm guilty of running around in track mode a lot of the time (because i'm a child and like the pops and bangs) so that won't help the fuel consumption that said, mid 20's on a run is totally achievable. i'm using it several times a week, but not as a daily.

It's my first aston, but so far, i'm really happy with it. The seats are lovely IMO, on first impression they are a bit flat, but are actually really comfy on a long run.
does everyone else get a weird 'hopping' from the front wheels on lock, it's like the ackerman is out of whack!!!

is there a 'fuse 22' type hack to get the noisy exhaust all the time.

Don't talk to me about the wipers.... a bit of a sore point at the moment... Would you believe it, but we have a rogue crow that is ripping the windscreen wipers off all the cars, 9 in the last week or so!!! what an ahole.. at £110 from aston, it's more expensive than crack

[Greg_D]

that does look very striking in the blue.

I feel i may have made an error not getting mine PPF'd - but i will have it corrected and coated soon. It's already starting to swirl up, so the paint is very soft.

I note that (like me) you didn't opt for the exterior carbon for the bumper/skirts/diffuser. I was concerned about repairing any speed bump damage to the carbon being essentially impossible, whereas the gloss black will be a lot more forgiving, if necessary.

[Greg_D]

shinjuku said:

Greg_D said:

is it just me, or is the fuel consumption catastrophic for everyone else as well. 180 miles to a tank gets a bit boring... i'm filling it up every second or third journey... ;-)

What's the capacity? 50L? 60L?

no idea, it's about £90 in SUL

just googled, 73 litres

Edited by Greg_D on Tuesday 19th November 15:46

[Greg_D]

GR_TVR said:

Assuming you're leaving about 10litres in the tank when you fill up, that's 13mpg - good work!!!

It ranges from 6mpg if I’m zipping around a bit, 11mpg extra urban (taking my daughter to school, so pretty calm... just following traffic)
To 25 mpg on a steady motorway run through the 50 zone/cc at 70

The overall average forever is 15.5 mpg... so not great...

[Greg_D]

Presumably that’s zaffre blue. That was the other option for me.

I may have colour envy.... gorgeous!!!

[Greg_D]

Vantage 'suffers' from the same issues plaguing the entire car industry. We customers are actually unsure of what we actually want, cars only sell when they are faster/more tech/stiffer/better brakes/quieter etc....

the issue comes about when all of those requirements are actually plugged into the design spec of the car, you end up with a slightly numb, safely setup missile of a thing (it doesn't do to kill your well heeled customers by releasing a 'spiky' car that is likely to put them through a hedge...)

i think that's why i'm looking longingly at a manual v12vs convertible - a proper analogue hotrod not really good enough for it's motor...

It's the same reason i got rid of my i8 - i was bored to tears with it, i was doing 100mph every day because it was just so quiet and easy - i was going to end up in jail...

There's a reason i often pick up the keys to the mx5 instead of whatever sports car i am running - it moves around at sensible speed, makes a nice noise (with the backbox i have on it), is convertible, is quick enough yet you still get to extend it in several gears before things get antisocial. The tech on it is exceptional as well, the adaptive lighting is mindblowingly powerful and clever.. it's just a riot to drive

[Greg_D]

I’d be interested to hear a more detailed comparison between your cars Chris as I would be interested in a v12v manual.

[Greg_D]

You certainly get quick at turning them off. My office is down a narrow corridor and they go nuts every time....

[Greg_D]

i find the pictures i've seen of the roadster rather uninspiring thus far.

hopefully it improves in the final edit...
https://www.motor1.com/news/374864/aston-martin-va...

[Greg_D]

the matt paint certainly doesn't help.

the way they've treated the roofline isn't particularly pleasant, IMO.
i suppose they didn't want to change too much as the new tooling for rear wings etc would have been a significant investment.

[Greg_D]

BlackTails said:

chrisV12VS said:

Here’s a photo of my new Vantage alongside its older brother V12S manual .
They are two different cars from two different eras. But both very capable of doing their job very well in my opinion. The new seats are good but not a good as the lightweights in the V12 S
I like the new tech but I can also appreciate the old analogue feel of the manual.
Can some one tell me how you change the tyre pressure reading from whatever it is at the moment 250 to old school PSI on the new Vantage please.

It's taken a while, but I think I have come to terms with the rear and profile of the new Vantage. But this photo underlines that my affection for the front end is still a way off.

Has anyone worked out whether there is a way to break up that slab of black at the front but introducing a line of bodywork colour across it? Something that would make the front look a bit less like a feeding basking shark and a bit more like the old (and every other AM) model?

if you've only just got over the rear and profile views, you must be beside yourself with sadness regarding every other car in the world, those views are first rate, IMO.

i have some sympathy with your opinion of the front, the front clam is a big large, if they had 'normal' front wings with bonnet edges in the usual place, it would have the same design, but break things up a bit more successfully.

if they placed the headlights a bit more inboard, that would help as well. As they are, they make it look a bit like sid from ice age

[Greg_D]

Spotted:

another Vantage travelling in traffic towards stourbridge yesterday. It was black/dark grey
i was in mine and we even had a little nonchalant wave at each other - is this a first? has there ever been a new vantage on new vantage finger lift???

[Greg_D]

i was following a tesla model 3 into work today and it struck me that the rear hatch is extremely similar to the vantage, even down to the shape of the wider bit at the bottom and the recessed glass etc..... is it just me???

[Greg_D]

to be fair, those pictures don't show it very well, take a look in real life, there is a lot of similarity.
shape of rear glass, recessed into bodywork, shape of lower section, ducktail.... if you were to open a tesla boot to a similar glass angle as a vantage, it would be quite similar, IMO.

Does anyone have both??? photos

[Greg_D]

BlackTails said:

I would say the back ends of those two cars are about as similar as their colours.

rear hatch

[Greg_D]

Jon39 said:

DB9VolanteDriver said:

cayman-black said:

25k for two years? If you paid outright i think you will lose far more, so seems a good deal..

If this is indeed a "25K and walk away after two years" deal, then anyone buying one would be an idiot. Of course these cars will lose more than 25K in 2 years. What Aston doesn't lose at least 1/3 after two years?

This puzzles me, because someone, or someone's business must own these cars.
Unlikely that it is a philanthropic charity, so presumably it is a financing company.

Are they knowingly going to lose money, by charging the users £25k, then face depreciation of a higher amount ?

There must be more to this. Can anyone explain?

Sure. It’s pretty straightforward, the dealer pays nowhere near list for the car so can finance it accordingly.

List prices are a fallacy nowadays. The manufacturers business model isn’t predicated on list at all.

If the dealer actually pays, say, 100k for a stock car then they can do that sort of finance deal.

For most cars nowadays, paying list or anywhere close in cash is absolute madness...

I never used to finance cars, but nowadays I tend to as cash is not king any more

[Greg_D]

ds666 said:

Greg_D said:

Jon39 said:

DB9VolanteDriver said:

cayman-black said:

25k for two years? If you paid outright i think you will lose far more, so seems a good deal..

If this is indeed a "25K and walk away after two years" deal, then anyone buying one would be an idiot. Of course these cars will lose more than 25K in 2 years. What Aston doesn't lose at least 1/3 after two years?

This puzzles me, because someone, or someone's business must own these cars.
Unlikely that it is a philanthropic charity, so presumably it is a financing company.

Are they knowingly going to lose money, by charging the users £25k, then face depreciation of a higher amount ?

There must be more to this. Can anyone explain?

Sure. It’s pretty straightforward, the dealer pays nowhere near list for the car so can finance it accordingly.

List prices are a fallacy nowadays. The manufacturers business model isn’t predicated on list at all.

If the dealer actually pays, say, £100k for a stock car then they can do that sort of finance deal.

For most cars nowadays, paying list or anywhere close in cash is absolute madness...

I never used to finance cars, but nowadays I tend to as cash is not king any more

That's quite a risk for the dealer - adverts on here show lowest price Vantage at about £92k, nearly new . In 2 years time that might be worth , say £70k . Dealer then has £25k income on £100k cost with a car now worth , say , £60k ?? (I'm assuming that this is a lease deal ??) .
Has anyone seen this deal in writing ?

i think there's a bit of 1+1=11 going on here. let me do a run through using numbers

completely made up example:

list price £130k
dealer actually buys it for £100k
finances/leases it to customer @ £25k cost over 2 years with a guaranteed future value of £80k - once the forms are signed, the finance company owns the asset, AM dealer have sold a car and made money...
if the car ends up worth 90k then the customer sells it (usually PXs it with AM) and has £10k 'deposit' for the next car
if the car ends up worth 75k then the customer walks away and the finance company takes a £5k bath.

thats it!

the problem comes when the dealer holds onto depreciating 'nearly new' stock such that it's retail price is lower than what they actually paid for it - then it is the dealer that is taking a bath.

and once in a while an old boy turns up and pays near to list for the car outright and the dealer absolutely kills it....

[Greg_D]

while we're all being so open....

i'm 5'8" and slim and i could sit sideways in the seat
i have mine set at max seat height... there is plenty of room

[Greg_D]

Lots of manufacturers are like that nowadays. I had it with BMW and an i3 that I had. they wanted 43,000 cash (wouldn’t accept a penny less) but when you Add up the costs of leasing/govt grants and auction proceeds. it was 31,000. And that was through alphabet (Bmw in house finance)

List price is an illusion for most manufacturers now...