Does anyone know where I can find a 3rd party cup holder for a vantage? If you have a 6-speed manual transmission, you can't shift gears very well (elbow gets in the way for anyone) with drinks in the current cupholder in center console. This must be the most stupid design I have seen. If you have an automatic tranny, then there's no problem.

 

I agree. Not only that, but if you have no drink, there's no place to rest your elbow because of the open hole and metal bar. Hopefully they'll fix it soon. Luckily mine is an 07 which is better than the "revised" 08+ version.

 

Yes, I've found what's even more annoying is having something plugged into the outlet directly in front of the armrest...constantly something hitting your wrist.

 

I feel better now that I know I am not the only one having issues. You just gotta love that British design..what were they thinking. Car rides great though...so I guess that's all that matters..like they say don't drink and drive.

 

Cupholder sits in the passenger seat. Two hands, she can hold two cups for you!!





Sorry, I couldn't resist. It's a running gag with my friends and I when we drive our GT's.

 

I use my cupholder to hold my keys, not much more.

 

Only we Americans think of cup holders ... cracks me up ... also hard wired the radar detector ... even in my 07 manual it all was getting in the way ...

I miss the days of drinking, steering, shifting, coping a feel of your GFs ***** ... all at the same time ... that's the definition of a F1 driver

 

back, someone can provide further details on pre 08 vantage, it is interesting upgrade to the new cupholder,.
The manual shifter is not uncomfortable with the new cupholder??
thanks in advance

 

Hopefully this will help clear up the difference between the two styles of armrests.


Original armrest - Spot for two cups, but positioned much further back than the current one.









__________________________________________________ ____________________________


Armrest used from 2008 onwards
(Storage, auxiliary audio connections & new location for the twin cup holder)

 

I find the passenger cup holder doesn't get in my way when shifting. And it makes a dandy 'dock' for my smartphone. Props it up nicely so I can see activity at a glance. Were those old cup holders any use for _retrieving_ a drink? Look too far back to me, you'd have to be a contortionist to reach back for your coffee and keep it level.

My pet peeve in the ergonomic dept is the shape of the seat. I can't get comfortable no matter how I arrange the angles. The lateral (left side on a L hand drive) inward flare pushes against my thigh and becomes uncomfortable after about 15-30 min in the car. That's the support you can see just above the cup holder in the last pic Gekko posted above. Anyone else?

 

Aston put a small block in the drivers side to make it more comfortable on later cars, you lose a cup holder though
I never use the cup holder as it does not work with my driving style

 

I have the 08 SS and the position of the left cup holder was awful for my long ransom, my elbow was on it constantly. The block mentioned above fixes it perfectly. I never drink stuff in the car so I don't care about losing the holder, they are too shallow to hold anything anyway. You can get them for free if you go by your local Aston dealer, they will even match your interior leather color.

 

I think that's true, I can imagine the discussion that took place between the US sales team and the UK designers:

Sales: We need cupholders for the US

Design: What's a cupholder?

Sales: Its something they can put drinks cups into

Design: They can put them in the boot

Sales: No, its so that they can drink whilst driving

Design: That doesn't sound very safe, why would they want to do that?

Sales: Don't know, but they must be very thirsty people, some cars have several of them

Design: OK, we'll squeeze something in, but I'm not going to mess up the looks with a daft cupholder, I'll put it out of the way

Sales: Err ...


Its true, European cars only started to put cupholders into cars so that they can sell them in the US. Its a real afterthought.

My Audi A8 squeezed a couple into the centre console right behind a very expensive set of electronics. Brake hard and you get coffee into the electronics, and its a $1000 to fix it. Audi must think its a really great design feature