Let me play the devil's advocate here for a bit...

Which will make the F type an incredibly attractive buy in 3 years! 2014 tech vs 2005 tech... Once a car plateaus it keeps it value a lot better.

As far as new cars go, any 6 figure car will depreciate like crazy. I think if you're so adverse to steep depreciation you should be only looking at pre-owned.
IIRC, the Audi R8 and maybe the Lambo Gallardo keep their values fairly well.

I used to own a Benz and to this date nothing's topped it, not even the Vantage. Again, buy a preowned car, have the other guy take the hit, then use the car for a few more years with little impact. SLS will be a great buy in a couple of years. If you like truly exotics and have a fatter wallet, I've seen SLRs for $170s!

Hand built is not a pro in my book...
I do value uniqueness as my M3 felt very pedestrian. But you don't need to spend 6 figures for a rare car.
Materials is where the car shines... except for leather shrinkage. And the radio's plastics chipping. And the cheap plastic RND/etc buttons. And the Ford carryover bits. And the wonky bendy "mirrors" in the sunvisors. And...

 

Lack of a sportshift or manual on the F-type is probably one of many reasons why sales of the f-type have been pretty dismal.

 

On the plus side I haven't heard a single Vantage catching fire like a certain German sportscar that is now quarantined until it gets a new engine.

 

ALL modern JLR product depreciates like hell and often suffers similar electronic gremlins like Astons
I know from contacts in the industry JLR allocate more $$$/car for warranty issues than Aston.
Ironically neither seem to be enough!

I do think the Astons are worth the 6 figure asking price IF they delivery on their claims of reliability and quality control

On every factory tour you are told ANY person can stop production at ANY time for quality issues. I doubt it actually happen

 

Hmmm...is there that much difference between the depreciation rates for Aston and Jag?

My 2009 DBS: Original Sticker, $264K (US Dollars)

Purchased in 2014:$112K -> 58% depreciation in 5 years

My 2010 XKR: Original Sticker $104K (US Dollars)

Retail value 2014: ~$44k -> 58% in 4 years, probably worth $36K next year so about 65% depreciation in 5 years.

Jags will most like depreciate more quickly, but as a percentage not *significantly* more.

My Jags after the 1998 XJL we had were/are bulletproof. Everycar has it's minor issues.

Exclusivity is the biggest thing going for these cars (IMO). I have to say that I am surprised by my car. Maybe I built "Aston Martin" up in my mind more than I should have.

Maybe the new Vanquish will be what I *expect* for something purported to cost $330K+ new.

 

My DD is an Audi A8, that spends far more time in the shop that my Aston, but I hadn't quite realised it until I was on the phone talking to a colleague and said I was working from the Audi garage this morning. 'Again?' she said, made me realise I was spending a day a month there drinking their coffee and using their bandwidth.

The Audi was £75k new, 18 months later I bought it for £30k, it will have halved again since.

All big engined petrol cars depreciate rapidly. Small engines depreciate slower, diesels even slower, but most of us on this forum would be miserable with a small, diesel engined car

When the latest A8 came out, I went for a test drive, the car was £90k, and was stuffed with toys and technology everywhere you looked, then I thought, for that money I could buy an Aston Martin. So I did, and kept my old A8. In terms of toys, the A8 beats the AM massively, but in terms of overall pleasure, the AM is the clear winner. Does that make it better value? It does to me.

 

I don't think so. Their automatic is better than the Vantage's SportShift. The biggest problem with it was that it had absolutely no luggage space. The total space you had was room for 1 briefcase. The coupe is better in that regards, but that just went on sale this month.

The other issue is that the V8 version is a little expensive. Once you break $100K people start looking at other things.

 

I was surprised how bad the packaging on the F type is, it's honestly a letdown. Reminds me of the Saturn Sky, no trunk at all.

 

^^^^ The coupe is better. If the Vantage didn't exist, I would consider the F-type coupe. Luckily, the Vantage does exist.

 

I understand there were issues with the 1st gen. sport shift, what about the 2nd gen.? I'm looking at an 09 Vantage with sport shift.

 

09 is still ASM1
ASM2 came in on MY12.25 face lift

 

[QUOTE=mikey k;4125955]09 is still ASM1
ASM2 came in on MY12.25 face lift[/
Is there any difference to the sport shift for 2009 than previous years?
Would you recommend it over the manual transmission?

 

Read .

 

Karl is spot on! This book is a huge help if you're in the market for a gaydon-era aston.

 

All new six figure cars depreciate rapidly. The higher the original number the faster the depreciation. Aston is right there with Mercedes, Audi etc. if you are not getting a close out deal you are always better off financially buying used.
I have not had any serious quality issues except for the clutch problem on the 08 I had which was covered under warranty.
I agree that you should read the book. I would always take the manual over the sportshift whatever the year.