With respect to the manual transmission....


We sell a lot of our uprated clutch and light weight wheel kits to vantage owners who have blown clutches in seemingly short mileage.

I admit some of it has to do with driving style and where you live as well (ref. Traffic).

Bottom Line: Enough people have had a problem to say this is a weak link.

 

Mine is a 2009 V8V Coupe, manual 'box, Sports Pack that I've had from new. It's a weekend fun car, not a daily driver, and it's done 7000 miles. It's been fantastic. The only failure was the AM band radio when the car was still under warranty. There's an occasional minor rattle from the center stack, which is more noticeable when the weather is cold. I hate rattles, so my calling it minor is because it really is minor. The routine annual services have cost between about $900 and $2,000, with most in the middle. It hasn't cost me a cent for repairs.

 

AM band radio? Aston Martin has it's own radio band? Kewl!

 

Is is also an issue in the SS.

 

No, no. Not AM radio band. AM band radio. C'mon, Karl, pay attention!

 

The 1940s called. They said they want their AM radio ba.......
Nope, standby...
Yes sir. I understand.
Yeah, OK. Copy that.
So, they said you can go ahead and keep the AM radio because nobody has listened to that crap in decades.

 

^^^
I realized the AM radio wasn't working when I tried to listen to a traffic report -- and the 1940s were gone

 

I have a theory that there was a bat lot of friction plates from a supplier. Have seen a few of these where the fasteners failed rather than premature wear. I doubt there would ever be official confirmation of that though.

As far as the longevity goes, I think there's enough of a body of evidence out there to show that the cars will run decent mileages, upwards of 50,000 miles, on a clutch. However, it also appears that it is quite sensitive to driving style and conditions, because there's also a body of evidence on the low end of the scale.

 

Mine did the same. Dealer can reflash door modules and it should fix the problem. Mine did it twice and works fine now.

 

From another recent thread

Laundry List!

1st car MY09 4.7 sport pack roadster
Both wing mirror mounts corroding
Chrome plating peeling from two caliper pistons (both calipers replaced)
Roadster roof mid section wearing from rubbing on frame
Driver headlight plastic delaminating
Driver seat wiring loom shorting preventing adjustment and flattening battery
Tracker played up but suddenly fixed itself when the above was sorted
Squealing rear brakes
Corroding alloys
Boot lock failed
Condensation in both rear lights

2nd car MY12 Vantage S roadster
Wet sanding/polishing debris all over the car after on delivery
Grill fell apart in first week
3 month old battery dropped two cells and resulted in all sorts of electrical gremlins until it was traced, Aston Recovery refused to recover it to the dealer.
Rattle from cubby hole that has not been sorted after 5 dealer visits
Passenger side door speakers distorting because wiring loom was touch the cone
Centre speaker rattling when using the phone as it was not properly fixed in
VERY LOUD squeak from behind passenger air bag, eventually traced after 4 visits by a guy from the factory, resulted in dash and windscreen coming out to fix it
Passenger seat leather very wrinkled, new cover was no better so whole CF seat was replaced
Squealing rear brakes
Corroding alloys
Condensation in one rear light
Paint defects to rear of bonnet and drivers front fender/wing
Manufacturing defect to crown wheel of ASM2 gearbox, AM refused a warranty claim then blocked supply of parts to repair it

That's what I can recall of the top of my head

 

Honest question (answer honestly if you are so inclined):

How many of you think that the Aston you are driving was actually *worth* the 6 figures it was priced at when new? Would it have been to the standards you would have expected when paying $150K, $250K+?

 

Forgot one:
Driver's side speakers sometimes cut out. Not very often, but it happens on occasion. Goes away after several seconds of spirited driving (don't ask me how this is a fix, but it works lol).

To me, honestly no. Partly because the depreciation right off the lot is so substantial that it's hard to stomach buying new. I bought mine used from someone that went through great lengths to get most of the gremlins sorted out. I probably wouldn't have had the patience to go through all of it myself. Pretty hard to justify the price tag when the car has so many problems.

As far as ownership goes, yes, the problems I've had to deal with are totally worth it to me. But the major caveat there is that I bought used.

 

I have to agree with telum01 on this one...
No, definitely not worth 6 figures. I can see how the car costs that much, just manufacturing process and materials alone make it expensive but...
That's no excuse for inferior electronics, bad mechanical design and poor reliability.
It's more acceptable if you pay ~1/2 or less of the original price but it's still too much imho. You can get something that performs just as well if not better, and is more reliable, for less money. Of course it's not an Aston but... been there done that.

In the end it all depends on your disposable income. $150k for me is not the same in relationship to my net worth/income to, say, someone that makes 10x more than me. For that person, the car might be relatively cheap.

 

It's unfortunate that some of you have had some issues with your cars, but I don't think you are representative of the norm. Based on numerous discussions with my Aston tech, not only are the newer Astons quite reliable, but they are pretty competitive reliability-wise to other brands.

Also, as far as depreciation: my dealership also sells Jaguar. I was having a discussion with the sales manager this weekend about the new F-type coupe. They had a v8 model for sale for about $108K. He confided that he doesn't understand why someone would choose to buy that car when for the same money you could get a new Vantage GT. His reasoning is that in 3 years the Jaguar will be worth less than the Aston will be worth in 6 years. In other words, the F-type depreciates twice as quickly.

Also, if you want to talk depreciation, look at Benz prices after a couple of years from new.

Overall, I think the Vantage is a good value compared to the competition, especially when you consider the hand-built nature, uniqueness/rarity, and the quality of the materials used.

 

Tho not totally surprised, it's nice to see that overall, most of the issues in this thread have not been world ending failures and for the most part minor issues. (tho a pain in the *** to the ones experiencing them I'm sure!).
Karl intereting that you mentioned the Jag F type. Someone in the biz told me these things will depreciate like falling off a cliff. I was actually seriuosly considered buying a new F type over the used vantage.

Chris