Stuart's right, AMEX screws the merchant every way they can. You pay almost triple the processing rate, a monthly fee, and have so few protections as a vendor you might as well surrender even if you're in the right. I dropped them a decade ago and wondered why I put up with them for the decade before.

With Paypal you're only charged the same flat fee no matter what card it is, you have no idea what kind of card was even used, so if you want to use AMEX do your vendors a favor and use Paypal

 

When we set up our merchant services I looked at it and basically just refused to set up AMEX on principle. There was no justification for the crazy fees compared to Visa/MC. So far, it has yet to cost us a sale. I think most people have multiple cards, and in the cases where they don't, Paypal seems to work fine.

 

20 years ago AMEX was still a "thing". If you had a Gold card you were rockin it, and I did. At the time they were still charging 4%, and I wanted to make sure I didn't lose any sales because in those days if you had money you probably had AMEX. I had no idea black cards even existed.

Flash forward and today every bank offers a metal card or status card. AMEX doesn't have the clout it used to but I'm sure the Billies still rock their black Centurions.

 

You can't get a Centurion card without being asked if you want one. It's not exactly easy...

AMEX just cares about their customer base first vs their merchant base like Visa/MC/etc. They offer excellent perks if you're a platinum holder and even the standard gold card still gets you pretty reasonable benefits. In general, very few things still carry the clout that they used to 50 years ago.

 

Most of the rock stars and actors I've dealt with used black cards, which is why I kept AMEX as an option as long as I did. In the early days online payment platforms like Paypal were pretty sketchy but they caught up and when they became great solutions for both customer and business there was no need to continue. In fact I have no merchant account at all anymore, the convenience of Paypal is just worth the extra point in fees.

 

Stuart!, i just placed the order. new card arrived today and placed the order. let me know when it ships please!. Customer ID 2860

i shopped around on credit cards, since it's been many years since i applied for a credit card. i've always stuck with Amex because as you guys said, back in the days, (and i am talking 18 years), they always had the unbeatable benefits as a card member. but now i've been seeing other banks matching all their benefits and more. i have no problem applying for other cards, just never had to do it. but this card i just got offered some incredible benefits for travel and entertainment and has cash back that exceeds the Amex that i have. really happy to start using this card, and help out a small business owner on the side.

look forward to receiving the unit Stuart. keep up the good work!

 

AND..... the car stalled for the first time today when I was at the light...

I knew this was coming. when I got the car, the clutch already had a readout of 1700 bits. now after 4000 miles more, it stalled for the first time

Stuart's clutch really can't get here fast enough
why do I always live life on the edge lol

 

What makes you think the stall is any way related to the clutch life?

 

because all the ASM early signs are there. shifting delays gets worse at high RPM shifts, stalling at the light, gear not available when shift, refusing to start.

I had the "shifting delays at high RPM", and now I am getting the "stalling at the light".

the ASM's don't properly warn you, the high gear low RPM flooring trick doesn't work on ASM. it simply will just delays shift more, and progressively refuse to shift into gear later on, and eventually refuses to turn. but I could still milk a lot out of the clutch if I drive it right and do the clutch learn regularly.

EDIT: I should also mention that when I got the car, and inspected at the dealer, they specifically told me that 1700 bit is close to the end of life 1800 bit count. at 1800 bit it'll simply refuse to start.

but hey, if it's not the clutch.... oh well, sell the car then lol

 

I never knew it would stall because of a low clutch. I don't read that much ASM material though but, why would the clutch cause the engine to stall?

Mine stalled sitting in traffic leaving the stadium last week. That's the third time since the new engine [about 5000 miles]. It's slated to get a data logger as soon as the next one is returned from the field.

 

see my edited post above. with ASM, it's quite different. the ECU/TCU reads out the clutch bits, and base on that wear read-out, it'll adjust its operation. towards end of life, it'll delay shifts at high RPM to preserve the clutch life. it'll simply avoid slipping as much as possible on its own to preserve as much life as possible. this is why the high gear low RPM gas pedal trick doesn't work on ASM. it simply will avoid slipping, and at the very end, it'll simply refuse to shift into higher gear due to wear. and when it's dead, it'll simply refuse to turn over the engine.

so it'll give you those subtle hints here and there, but I wish there's a better way it'll warn you. I've done a lot of research into this topic and almost every, although not all, but almost every cases when folks experiencing shifting delays at high RPM, and later on end up with stalling, and later with "gear not available", eventually all end up with clutch replacement.

but like I said, if it by any chance turns out not to be the clutch, I am screwed. either I'll pay Aston to diagnose it or trade it in for a V6 Jag F-type with a warranty. lol..
first world problem right? lol

 

I get all the other problems, I just don't ever recall anything about it causing a stall, and I've always paid alot of attention to anything "stall" because of the issues I've had with mine. From every 150 miles down to every 1500, pretty good improvement except instead of being hyper aware and always driving with the tach in peripheral view I've gotten absolutely ambivalent, and I fear it's going to bite harder if it happens at a bad time that I would have been much more prepared for before.

I still wouldn't trade it for an F Type though

 

Would this twin-plate clutch get rid of the annoying gear skipping issue on my ASM2? Once in a while, when I upshift, it goes from 1->3->5...

If so... I'm very very tempted.

 

Not sure. I've never used D mode .always manual shift .but I would think if you're using D mode .you're at the mercy of the ECU.

In all modern day automatic cars TCU skip gears to save fuel consumption.

 

hi all, thought I'd give everyone an update. I am not going to do a whole full-on write-up since there're already a couple of those dedicated threads already. but I'll just make it short and sweet, and also give some advice to Velocity for future product improvement.

I got the car back two days ago. first things first. WOW, much faster shifting for ASM1, and smoother too, just like everyone said. but the biggest improvement for me in my case is that the shift delay is gone. previously i experienced shift delays at very high rpm (6500 rpm+), and the delay was inconsistent. sometimes the delay would be a quarter of a second, other times it would be half a second, to a point that I just got real frustrated. I can't recall who it was on the other thread told me that it's because the clutch is worn. for the longest time I had though that's just the way this car drove. but I am happy to say that those delays at high rpm are gone. not only that, previously Hypershift didn't work at anything higher than 6500rpm, it just refused to get into gear at those rpm when you hyper shift. I am happy to say that now hyper shift works at redline and it's instantaneous. although I likely won't be using that too much, in order to preserve clutch life. low speed maneuver is also much smoother. with the old single plate OEM clutch, if you're hovering in the 0~6mph and if you give it a gentle gas just right when the clutch is about to lock, you get that dreaded dog kick like someone kicks you in the rear. that's gone too. at low speed shifts are also much less notchy. all in all, my biggest complain, which was the shift delay, was finally fixed.

now onto the installation:
after two weeks of install. it took two weeks because one week in, the shop called and said they needed to replace the pilot bearing in order to finish the job. I give the guys at Pasadena Motor Cars props for being throughal and cautious. they wanted to replace the pilot bearing, and frankly I would agree with them. I went online and did my own research, and sure enough, Aston Martin highly recommends users replace the pilot bearing when putting in a new clutch system. the cost of pilot bearing only amount to a couple dollars. this is where I would suggest to Stuart at VelocityAP to perhaps think about including the pilot bearing into the kit in the future. since it's highly recommended by Aston Martin to swap out the bearing. and the bearing costs range from $15~$24 depends on where you are, it really is an insignificant cost but would make a huge difference to the end user and the whole package/experience.

I must say I was a bit nervous when dropping off the car. but after talking to Owen the co-owner of the shop, who was the guy that installed my clutch. I threw him a couple trick questions and it made me feel comfortable that he knew all about what I was talking about. he knew about the mis-firing sequence needed to be re-programmed in, and that the clutch needs to be reset after installation, which also requires programming. and instead of hacking it himself, these guys at Pasadena Motor Cars actually scheduled an appointment with Aston Martin to do the proper programming after the installation was done. they also passed my honesty test they put the left over oil back in my trunk and laid it out nicely on top of the towel I had in my trunk. in the past I had other shops that just kept the left over oil that I Brough.

now only the fun part. I took a few pictures of the old OE clutch that was taken out. mind you that the mech had previously done the velocityAP clutch install on other Vantage, as well as OEM to OEM clutch replacement. he told me that the average clutch life he's seen for ASM is about 15K miles, and average for manual that he's seen is around 30K miles. so he was actually quite impressed that I got 18K miles out of it. he did have a case where someone came in with a dead clutch completely destroyed at 9K miles. but he said 15k for ASM and 30K for manual is what he's been seeing. mind you I live in Los Angeles. so most cars that come in live in the greater LA metro area, so heavy traffic. as you can see in the pictures below. the friction disc actually isn't 100% bad yet, but the pressure plate and flywheel are both terribly scorched. this explains the problems I had. in his opinion, it was definitely VERY worn, but not completely dead yet. but if were to go another few thousand miles it would be completely dead, and I would most likely have to tow her in for a clutch install.

the car had close to 14K miles when I got it earlier this year. dealership AMDS already told me that I was at 1700 bit clutch read-out, which was near end of life (1800). I managed to squeeze out another 4K+ miles and put on the twin plate at 18K+ miles.

I hope this will help others. I highly recommend people factoring in the cost of the twin plate clutch kit when they purchase or looking to purchase a vantage. this car isn't a complete car IMO without having this twin plate clutch in. the OE clutch just makes me feel like I am driving on three wheels. This should've been the kit that comes with our car out of the factory. I still think Aston dropped the ball on this.

now the real testament begins. be interesting to see how long the twin plate clutch will last.

Edit: it was J_DoubleU who told me that my shift delays were due to a worn clutch. Thanks J.


Flywheel

Friction disc

Pressure plate