Porsche driver here in central Florida (orlando). Currently in a 987 boxster and was looking to upgrade to a newer one and found a 2009 vantage roadster at local dealer. What a nice car! Primarily looking for a nice weekend car. I went and test drove it. Porsche sales guy didn't know much about them. Drove the speedshift but probably didn't drive it correctly...my boxster and former BMW track cars have been manuals, but my wife wants something easier to drive. She can drive a manual but doesn't really want to bother with 3 pedals anymore, though i think she'd be ok with the speedshift.

The test drive really sucked because i never really drove one of these before...the engine and everything else was great. I've been doing allot of research on these and want to understand the dynamics of driving this before another test drive.

I'm told that the idea is to lift off the throttle a bit like you would when shifting a manual...is this reasonable ?

Also the car seems to be pretty loaded, about 24k miles and asking about $54k.the issue is that the car fax indicates a prior accident. While I'm not too concerned about that aspect, (seems it was a minor bumper cover issue) and i will get it checked, seems like many cars out there are truly clean (with no car fax flags) wondering What you all thought about how i could leverage that into a negotiating point.

If this deal falls through, happy to have found vantages out there at this price level...never looked before. I'll keep looking!

Also, anyone have any local indy PPI experience or is local dealer pretty good? Anyone at local dealer i should seek out?

Thanks

 

I personally love the manual. It's got a funky clutch pedal (the release point is high up on the pedal travel) but I prefer it over other manuals because you can 'blip' the clutch pedal to shift super quickly.

The general consensus that I've seen for the Sportshift (ASM) is to drive it in manual mode, and lift off the throttle a little when shifting. I've only driven one ASM car, a V8VS, and thought it was just fine when driving it like that. If you drive it in auto mode, it can be clunky. ASM owners can give better details about it. Other things to keep it working well are using the right gear oil and the doing the clutch learn procedure.

If you want to use the accident history in your favor, get some comparable cars with clean records and use the prices for those to bring down the one you're looking at.

 

If the clutch learn procedure has not been performed on this car in a while, it can perform very sluggishly. Do a search and you'll be ready.

 

The only thing I would add, is f you purchase from an Aston Martin dealer. You can get the PPI does there, plus a Aston Preowned warranty. I would not purchase a used or preowned Aston Martin with out one. I would also look at the newest Vantage that you can afford. 2009 was the first year for the 4.7 engine upgrade. These are great cars, you will love owning one.
Ron

 

At some point, I think for the 2009 model year, they made the "clutch learn" procedure automatic at start-up, eliminating the need to perform it yourself. Mine is an '11 V8VS which has the SportShift II transmission (by Graziano), and I can actually hear it doing the procedure automatically when I start the car. I love the SportShift II, just lift off the throttle ever so slightly when shifting and you'll get a nice smooth shift. When driving in full auto mode, you'll quickly learn when the car is going to shift, and doing the same light lift off the throttle will eliminate the clunky shift. Also, there are transmission control unit flashes available for about $1k that greatly improve shifting, eliminating the need to lift.
CATTMAN

 

I had an 09 sportshift - I waited for my I-Pod to start the music (about 15-20 seconds before I put the car in gear for clutch 'kiss' to happen. My 15 has a light that blinks until it does the kiss (about 2-5 seconds).

 

So in '09 the process was automatic upon start up, correct?
CATTMAN

 

After I bought my 09 Vanatge I found an Aston Martin document (I think I posted a link on an earlier post a few years ago) on how to properly drive a sportshift. It refereed to a clutch 'kiss' procedure that happened at each startup, but did not say how long it took. There were other earlier posts that led to believe there was a far more complex procedure, which I never used. All I can say is that if you start the car and immediately start moving it can be obvious that the clutch is acting wrong and not good for the car. That is why I waited to my I-Pod music to start. With my '15 Vantage I have a light, so that's much better, but I'd say 10 seconds tops is all you need.

It;s also important to know the proper way to drive a sportshift is to manually shift with the paddles but lift on the gas if you still have a clutch. My wife loves it - easy, yet very involving still.

 

Thanks for comments...i found the AM document of the sportshift and that generally answers my question on why i couldn't drive the car properly.
Hoping to test drive it again if it is still available.

Anything i should do to test the clutch? Launch control? The car has 24k miles and i spoke with service manager where car was serviced...mostly normal service but no clutch replacement. Heard the clutch is the weak point in drivetrain.

 

I'll bet you'll quickly get use to the Sportshift. As for your wife, she'll have a choice to use the Sportshift or just push D and still enjoy the car. Good luck in your search for the right one!

 

The key slot on the 2009 will go from bright to dim and you will hear a click under the car when the clutch is Learned. I never lift on mine when shifting. I do a clutch leave everytime I drive the car and my sport shift performs perfectly. The clutch being worn or bad will make these cars do some very odd things. Remeber the will clutch stick before they slip. You can not test the clutches like you can a true 3 pedal car.

 

more than likely at 24k that clutch will need replacing very soon... Depends on how bad the last owners drove it. I have found most people don't know how to actually drive these cars and they get a bad rap. The sport shift is amazing when it's driven correct and the clutch is good.

 

my wife has driven mind a few times and just hits the D button. The car is totally fine and it is enjoyable at that point. Once in a while I will also drive the car on the highway in D mode to let the ECM learn that mode. The guys at Bamford Rose recommended doing that. The sport shift gets a bad rap sometimes but I think most of the times it's from driver error, clutch issues or clutch Learns not being done correctly. When it is correct it is truly wonderful. The updated oil in the gearbox makes a big difference in smooth shifts.

 

came over from a 987 CS myself, don't think you'll regret making the switch

 

I had a Porsche 911 6 speed and then bought an E60 M5 with the SMG transmission. It is similar to the SSI. I could never get used to it and sold the car after 6 months of misery. That's just me and my .02.