Been thinking of picking one up. Any comparisons with v8 vantage? Found a manual r8 which looks perfect.

 

I own a 2015 R8 V8 MT and a 2014 V8V with MT.
Both are incredible cars and remarkably different.
Purchased them both new.

 

How would you say they are different? I'll be picking up a 09-10 r8 if I get one. Debating if selling the Aston or just keep it long term.

 

The Vantage is an elegant tourer
The R8 is a kick *** sports car
Both are beautifully made

 

I owned a V8 Vantage, sold it and bought a R8 V10 Spyder. I now traded the R8 in for a Vantage V12s.
Though I haven't driven the R8 V8.
The R8 V10 compared to the AM V8 is more a sports car and probably the better car. Thanks to the Quattro you can easily drive it in any weather conditions and you can take every corner with amazing speed. The engine is superb. But it is boring car. There is no drama. Unless you are going quite fast (talking about 160 km/h and above) the R8 ist fun, but below that it drives like an Audi A4 (or any other Audi). Don't get me wrong, this is in fact a good thing, but it makes the car feel normal and nothing special. Same with the interior. Compared to the Aston the Audi feels cheap and not bespoke like the Vantage.
I simply missed the drama, the exhaust sound and the quality (mostly of the interior) of the Aston, and that's why I traded in my R8.
Here both of them next to each other:

 

German and English cars have historically been very different in character.
I really love the look and feel of my Vantage but I could never describe my R8 as boring or "A4 like."
I own both of them because they are both exceptional vehicles and yet provide such different visual and driving experiences. In my year of ownership I have seen only one example of each car on the road...can't argue with exclusivity.

 

Also looking to purchase a 2009 R8 in one year, seems i'm not the only one.

 

R8 interior is not cheap, maybe your R8 is not full leather package, to my taste R8 interior design & quality is way better than Vantage.

 

I have had 2 AMV8s and 2 R8 V10s. Now on my second R8 V10.

Check your PM.

 

I agree in the design. The R8 interior is more modern the the 'outdated' Vantage interior. I certainly do not agree on the quality though. My R8 did had the full leather option but this does not mean everything is covered in leather.

Just to name some examples of interior bits which are not cover in leather (even with the full leather option) in the R8 but are covered in leather in the standard Vantage.

- The steering wheel column in the R8 is plastic, the one in the Vantage is leather
- The a-pillar and the windscreen surrounds including the sun-visors are plastic in the R8 but are in alcantara in the Vantage
- The airbag cover of the steering wheel is plastic in the R8 but leather in the Vantage
- Even with the full leather option of the R8, there are still those ugly plastic bits on the doors (don't know how they are called), in the pic below you see what i mean, I had them painted in exterior color which looked great IMHO, though as standard they are awful black plastic





In the vantage even the seat-belt buckles are covered in leather....

Those are just a view examples. I'm not saying the R8 interior is cheap, but it feels cheap compared to the Vantage interior.

Moreover the R8 still has a lot of other plastic parts, like the buttons for the sat-nav, air-con, etc. Also the shift paddles on the steering wheel are plastic. In the Vantage most buttons are either glass or aluminium, the shift paddles are magnesium with leather inserts.

The R8 does a lot of things better than the Vantage, but the interior quality is not one of them.

Anyhow, I think we can agree that they are both wonderful cars and owning either one of them is a great pleasure.