Picked up my car today! First impressions...

this is a HARD car to drive. wow. dont get me wrong, its incredible to sit in the driver seat of such an amazing car, but its extremely powerful and you really need to be paying attention at all times to the vehicle.

its super loud, but i already knew this going in. one of the reasons i actually bought the car. the sound of this engine is unlike anything i have ever heard before. the combo of the engine with loud music (and i only say loud cause its need to be that way to be heard over the engine) can only be taken for just so long. i had the car out for about 3 hours today and by the time i got out of it, my head was definitely thumping. i actually turned the music off for quite some time to give my brain a break.

i cant see the front of the damn car! i had to parallel park it and even with my seat up pretty high, its impossible to see the front corners of the vehicle. i probably had plenty of room, but its so hard to tell with the slope of the hood. the same goes for the rear, but not as bad. i am looking into the AM factory option of installing front and rear cameras that will show through the nav display. will make life much easier, especially since i live in major cities (LA and Chi).

The ipod integration is a little weak. I know this is truly a sports car, but i think they should have spent a little more time on this option.

I started with the negatives first cause compared to the positives, they are minimal! the car is truly a monster and knowing that i was going into a V12 sports car, i knew what to expect. the handling, acceleration and stability are all scary amazing. on a few occasions, i felt the rear of the car slipping so laid off the gas, but the amount of torque, even up in 4th and 5th gear is mind blowing. i wanted to use the car for a few days before putting it in Sport Mode, but to be honest, I cant even imagine how much more power it can add and not sure i would drive it too often in that mode as i am doing city driving.

overall, thrilled with my purchase and with the few exceptions up top, which as i say are minimal, this is probably the best sports car i will ever own. except if my stock skyrockets and i purchase a bugatti veyron.

 

Gorgeous car, the V12 packed into it is amazing. I love what Aston Martin is doing, can't wait to hear the V12, the V8s sound awesome, can't imagine how the V12 will sound.

 

Fantastic color. I must say that a lot of your negatives are things that I love about this car. I know that there is a bit of tail wiggle during hard acceleration but I think that once you get used to it and the tires are really warm you'll see that this is kind of cool. My V8 roadster had a sport exhaust and was louder than the V12 so I don't have any problem with then engine note. In many ways the sound is everything that I never had with the porsches that I have owned. I haven't hooked up an IPod so I'm not sure about that. Frankly, I listen to the engine more than the music. The visibility, I get. I don't really parallel park. In fact I almost never get out of this car. I have stopped for lunch and parked away. There are definitely blind areas. Try to mess with your seat position. I sit a bit low and I know that I have trouble with angles. I had a Vantage prior to this so I did get used to it and it's less of an issue now. Finally, press the dam button! Drive the car for a couple of minutes, make sure that you brake hard a couple of times to get the heat up and then push the button as you are accelerating. Just hold on. There really is a big difference and you're missing out.

 

haha! I definitely will, just need to do it on the weekend and someplace outside of downtown chicago. Does the sport button change the sound of the exhaust at all?

 

Yes, it gets even nastier. I hunt for tunnels and overpasses and time the button for acceleration above 4000 RPM's for maximal effects.

 

Absolutely gorgeous!

 

First of all, congratulations! Great that we have another V12V owner on the forum.

I'm surprised you found the car to be loud. I actually found the car to be a bit too quiet except when you bury your foot and the exhaust flaps open. I wonder if someone pulled fuse 15 on the car. As was said before, that keeps the flaps open and makes a big difference (increase) in the sound. If the fuse has been pulled, putting it back will reduce the volume significantly.

Visibility is not great, both on the V8 and the V12. Of course, this is common on exotics/supercars. The first week I had the car, I almost merged into someone in the lane next to me on the highway. I can assure you, that guy was not happy about it. He even rolled down the window and tried to spit on my car, while we were driving at about 70 mph! Regardless, like any car, you will get more comfortable with it and you will start to know the boundaries of the vehicle when parking. Also, the parking sensors are very helpful. Just make sure parking assistance is on when you park (look for the red light on the "P" button). Personally, I'd hold off on the cameras and see if you still think you need them in a few weeks.

I love the iPod integration. However, my expectations are pretty low because I've never had a car that had this feature. Also, I tend to stick with the shuffle (random) feature anyway, which the car does fine. I bought a new iPod Nano for the car so I can always have all my music with me when I drive the car. This is fantastic! No more CDs. Of course, the 1000W B&O stereo helps too.

Finally, I agree with Jay. The tail kicking out is part of the fun. This is how you learn the car's limits, and develop your driving skill with the car. Of course, take it a bit easy at first until you get to know the car better.

Enjoy!

 

I believe they offer full replacement

 

Second day with the car and of course I am settling into it a little more as expected. I took your advice Jay and pushed the Sport button...holy mother of god! I honestly didn't think the car could go any faster yesterday, but i was definitely wrong. I feel like the car is about to take off into space when in this mode.

Still getting used to the sound of the engine. I think its really loud to me cause i just came out of a range rover, which is the antithesis of the AM. Its quiet and smooth whereas the AM is loud and rigid. I'm also getting used to driving manual again and my shifting needs a little more work to get back to peak performance.

Loving every second I am in the car and the looks i get from people on the street or in cars next to me are priceless. I had a group of like 8 teenage boys on skateboards chase me down half a block to ohhh and ahhh over the car for several mins.

Thanks again to both of you for all your advice. Most appreciated!

 

Quick update: Earlier I said that it seemed that the car has less sound insulation because I could hear all the little pebbles hitting the underside of the car when I drive it at low speeds with the stereo low or off. I now think that the reason for this is the sticky P-Zero tires. Little pebbles and other road debris seem to stick to the tires really well, especially on warm days, and when you drive, the debris breaks free and hits the undercarriage. Not a great epiphany, but at least this explains the difference I noticed between the V8V and the V12V.

 

Stopped into a dealership today in chicago that reps bentley, lambo, ferrari, maserati and rolls royce. had a nice talk with the owner, but he told me that AM's have some of the worst resale values amongst supercars. he had a few pre-owned DBS/DB9's on the floor, so i know he isnt anti-AM. And i am not in the market to buy so he wasnt trying to sell me. i wanted to get opinions from previous owners like yourselves and see what you thought about that and if you have sold your AM's in the past, what type of depreciation you had on them.

Thx!

 

I have noticed this as well. I thought that it was the angle and width of the side skirts. I have sent my car for Venture shielding so I've already addressed it. I did notice that it was worse around my neighborhood as opposed to the open road.

 

I did fairly well on the sale of my 4.3L. I will say that it was especially clean and a great color combo. Having said that, I would think that the V12V will hold up better because of it's shear rarity. There just aren't as many out there. I love how dealers talk of depreciation. I don't know who you spoke with but if you ask him about his cars he'll tell you how strong they are at resale. If you ask him about yours he'll tell you not to expect much. In other words buy mine at sticker and I'll give you nothing for yours. Traditionally speaking, Ferrari seems to be the only exotic with strong resale. They often have up charge on the sticker and some dealers have "rules" about purchasing. This seems to have eased in the bad economy. Frankly I can't be bothered with the "privilege". In the mean time don't worry about it. You have one of the truly unique and special cars on the planet. Enjoy it for all that it has to offer.

 

I am about to do the 3M Venture Shield next week on my car also. The dealer quoted me $2500 to do the entire front of the car and the side windows. If you dont mind me asking, how much did you pay?

 

I did well too. Dealer gave me $70k on trade in and I had purchased for $72k two years ago. Mine was silver and black so that probably helped.