One-year ownership impression of DB9
 

Second owner, DB9 MY07 with sport pack:

Acquired with 30K mi from AM dealer. Clean car, no issues when acquired other than minor nuisances (wind noise, some interior trim rattling).

3K miles later, almost all highway, no inclement weather driving: Front shocks leaking, rear shocks little leak (service bulletin alert: SB-04-0314V2). PCV valve failing (oil in throttle), coil for cyl 8 failing (w/ OBD code), timing chain cover w/ slight leak. Together, these are all very costly repairs, even for a DIYer. Neil Grant's book (Definitive Guide to AM) echoes all these issues in his review.

Driven high-end cars for 30 years. Maybe newer models are more reliable. No matter how visually pleasing, car needs minimum level of reliability to be functional. Hard to see how AM can compete for customers (let alone repeat customers), given the alternatives out there.

Reflections from a one-time owner.:mad:

Frankly, doesn't sound unusual to me. The only real costly item is the front cover leak, the rest are not a big deal.

PCV valve replacement requires replacement of gasket of intake manifold, wiper cover, shocks run $700 each, not to mention labor if not DIY.

For a 9 year old semi-exotic I am not sure your experience is bad. If it was a Ferrari you would consider your self very fortunate, same for a Maserati or Lambo. An equivalent year Porsche 997 would most likely have less issues, or your could be one of the unlucky ones that have an IMS failure and have the engine grenade.

Do the leaking shocks need to be completely replaced? Or can they be rebuilt? That'd be much cheaper if possible.

I had my dampers rebuilt, not for any leaks but to soften them slightly for a more comfortable ride. By making sure of the actual brand of the dampers beforehand (Dynamics, in my case) I was able to ring around the regional suspension specialists for accurate quotes to alter the internals - and they were tested and calibrated using a suspension dynamometer. All in, including shipping both ways, this cost me £600 and then I had to spend another £60 on getting the 4-wheel tracking redone. Plus I had to put in half a day to get them off the car and the same again when they came back, not an easy job (I'm in a wheelchair!).

I was very pleased with the results and the service I'd received apart from the fact that I learned that they also did their own replacement alternative which also included adjustable damping for only an additional £400! Sadly I only discovered this once they already done the work... So it can be done without resorting to enormously expensive AM or specialist aftermarket solutions. And I would expect leaks to be quite a lot cheaper, especially in the US, where independent specialist garage services are much easier to find.

Good luck with your search!

Regards, Mark

I would be intrested to know who you used and what is their range of own shocks,by PM if you want.

Regards

Thanks, Mark, for your input!

May pursue a rebuilt of the Sport Pack dampers, like you, to get them a bit softer, if possible,

I think that the OP's key point is that many - or most - limited production vehicles lack consistent quality while still commanding high prices.
My initial inclination was to respond "Well, MY '06 DB9 has been amazingly reliable!" That may be so, but it doesn't invalidate the OP's experience.
I think that when one charges six figures for a car, it may be a good practice to invest x% in quality focus...and if x% doesn't cut it, then it's worthwhile to go to x+y%!

Point well taken, Zuman! Hand-made introduces greater variation in quality/reliability than strictly computer-based assembly. Hence, some owners may experience a load of issues, while others rarely do under similar circumstances.

I don't think "hand built" is a reasonable explanation for any of the issues you've discussed. Someone please tell me how the "hand made" part has anything to do with any of this.

The shocks are not hand made.
The PCV valve isn't getting fouled because of any manual assembly foibles.
The coil isn't hand made.
The timing chain cover gasket isn't hand made.

These are time plus QC and engineering/spec failures. The shocks leak because that's what happens to seals after 10 years. The PCV issue is a design flaw (oil allowed to get where it shouldn't, see Telum's catch can). The coil failure is most likely a design or spec flaw. The timing chain cover gasket is pretty much a time (wear n tear) thing.

All of that said, I agree that none of these fall into the "this company makes poor quality stuff" category. The miles on the odometer don't have anything to do with the effects of time. Show me a 10 year old shock that's as good as new.

I'm always sorry when I hear an Aston Martin owner feeling like the car is unreliable or of poor quality. I have a strong suspicion that much of this point of view is driven by an emotional preconception. We associate certain brands with certain traits. Sadly, in spite of fairly solid quality in the post Ford era, Aston Martin is painted with the "British" brush and even a normal level of maintenance issues appears to be proof that they are sketchy cars.

Ok. Rant over.

It's a system integration issues, as well as tech maturation issue. The former associated with taking low-production run parts and combining them with run of the mill parts and exposing them to an environment that doesn't offer the wealth of data you get with mass production and computer-based integration and assembly. Owner and far-flung global dealership feedback w/ mass-produced vehicles far more quickly build a learning curve for improved production than with a boutique run of hand-build cars. Hence, annual AM changes are incremental at best as the know-how base grows far more slowly. The risk associated with gradual maturation is carried by the owner who's subjected to more frequent R&M issues. Fully computer/robot based assembly offers more accurate tracking of tolerance issues during the assembly process than with manual integration. Conversely, of course, discrepancies with computer automation affect every unit in the run, quickly causing mass recalls.

I've heard that newer AM cars are more reliable than old gen models.

I am working with Telum1 to provide a DB9 to him for designing a Catch Can for the DB9 models. Hopefully or might be ready around Christmas time, as long as I can get him my car for a couple weeks.


That will solve the oil PCV issue. I saw nothing that I wouldn't almost expect to come up in a PPI. Some are perfect, others are not. Sometimes its just the nature of high end older cars, some is previous maintenance.