Sold AM Vantage after 3 months
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Sold AM Vantage after 3 months
Just to let everyone who might want one of these know my only problem with the car was Dealer support and fear of having a problem with the closest dealer support 236 miles away. I knew the dealer was this far when I bought the AM but after I bought it I took it in for its annual service. It had around 5K miles on it 2008 coupe. The dealer did an oil change using 5w30 Castrol synthetic and over filled by 1 quart. The tech. when I question the use of 5w30 versus the owners manual recommended 10w60 he lied to me and told me AM had changed the requirements and that they used 5w30 syntec in all Vantages. When I got home and called back to the management team at the dealership they said that was true. I said fine send me the info from AM that recommend using 5w30. A week later after another call to the dealership my service advisor said that the tech used 5w30 because that was all they had. They would order ahd send me a case of oil with a new filter and pay for the cost in KC for it to be changed. I went that day to the local BMW dealership that uses 10w60 Castrol synthetic in their M cars and they changed the oil for me. At this point I have no faith in the dealership so I can't have a car that I can't have faith in the dealership to maintain it and fix it. I bought a new CLS63 with the performance package.
Last edited by PitbullSL500; Jul 26, 2009 at 09:08 PM.
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Actually, AM did release a service bulletin 2 weeks ago that Mobil 1 5W30 or 5W40 can now be used in the Vantage instead of the Castrol Racing 10W60. The dealer in St Louis was correct as my local dealer in Texas said the same thing. I am also aware that the BMW M cars use the 10W60. You should have called other dealers in other states to verify the 5W30 oil before selling the Aston. Best wishes with your Mercedes.
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Just to let everyone who might want one of these know my only problem with the car was Dealer support and fear of having a problem with the closest dealer support 236 miles away. I knew the dealer was this far when I bought the AM but after I bought it I took it in for its annual service. It had around 5K miles on it 2008 coupe. The St. Louis dealer did an oil change using 5w30 Castrol synthetic and over filled by 1 quart. The tech. when I question the use of 5w30 versus the owners manual recommended 10w60 he lied to me and told me AM had changed the requirements and that they used 5w30 syntec in all Vantages. When I got home and called back to the management team at the dealership they said that was true. I said fine send me the info from AM that recommend using 5w30. A week later after another call to the dealership my service advisor said that the tech used 5w30 because that was all they had. They would order ahd send me a case of oil with a new filter and pay for the cost in KC for it to be changed. I went that day to the local BMW dealership that uses 10w60 Castrol synthetic in their M cars and they changed the oil for me. At this point I have no faith in the St. Louis dealership so I can't have a car that I can't have faith in the dealership to maintain it and fix it. I bought a new CLS63 with the performance package. Good luck guys and good luck to anyone on here that has to use the St. Louis AM dealership 
Sorry to hear the new, you must take a big dump for the trade in?
So, back to benz....
how do you like the new CLS tho?
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Actually, AM did release a service bulletin 2 weeks ago that Mobil 1 5W30 or 5W40 can now be used in the Vantage instead of the Castrol Racing 10W60. The dealer in St Louis was correct as my local dealer in Texas said the same thing. I am also aware that the BMW M cars use the 10W60. You should have called other dealers in other states to verify the 5W30 oil before selling the Aston. Best wishes with your Mercedes.
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No I bought the AM right so I actually made money on the trade-in. Love the AMG.
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So F@#cking sad. I had the same experience at a Porsche Dealership outside of Philadelphia. Salesmen calling you friend, service people full of ****, promises never kept. I bought 300K in cars in 2 years from the same place and swore off Porsche because of the dealership, not the cars. I have since bought Porsche again but not until I spent a lot of time getting to know a new dealer. I had an AMG CLS for 2 years. Great car, except for the top that didn't come down. Other than that, awesome car. Congrats. Just do me a favor, if you ever get the Aston Bug again, call around. Before I bought mine, I found a dealer 3 states away that committed to flat bedding my car for any service. In the mean time, we should all avoid the dealer that you used.
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I too am sorry to hear this ... I have had wonderful luck w/ my local dealer and have found an independant shop too ... housing is still going down in price ... Sebringis close ... good reasons to come to Tampa Bay ...
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Go look at and talk to the dealer in St. Louis before you buy. That way you won't go into it blind. It is basically a small Jag dealership that also sells AM's. KC does not have any exotic dealers, all are in St. Louis. I will never consider buying another exotic unless the dealership is located in KC.
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Go look at and talk to the dealer in St. Louis before you buy. That way you won't go into it blind. It is basically a small Jag dealership that also sells AM's. KC does not have any exotic dealers, all are in St. Louis. I will never consider buying another exotic unless the dealership is located in KC.
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You mention the word "small" regarding Moore Jaguar in St. Louis. Just to be clear, Moore is one of the premiere Jag dealers in the entire country. I would never hesistate to buy a Jag (particularly used) from those guys. And they have one of the best service departments. I don't know how they are with respect to AM, but you'd think that they'd be equally as capable.
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Actually, AM did release a service bulletin 2 weeks ago that Mobil 1 5W30 or 5W40 can now be used in the Vantage instead of the Castrol Racing 10W60. The dealer in St Louis was correct as my local dealer in Texas said the same thing. I am also aware that the BMW M cars use the 10W60. You should have called other dealers in other states to verify the 5W30 oil before selling the Aston. Best wishes with your Mercedes.
Not opposed to 10w60 - but rather use 5w30 mobil because its local availability
cheers,
Mike
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According to my AM manual:
ENGINE OIL: The engine in your vehicle was been engineered and fully tested to run with:
No other viscosity grades or specifications are acceptable.
ENGINE OIL: The engine in your vehicle was been engineered and fully tested to run with:
• Castrol Edge Sport 10w-60
or
• Castrol Formula 10w-60
However, if these oils are not available, a fully synthetic 5W-50 or 10W-60 oil meeting the specification ACEA A3/B3 can be used. or
• Castrol Formula 10w-60
No other viscosity grades or specifications are acceptable.