I am thinking about selling my 2015 Vantage V12S with 1900 miles on it. Does anyone know the best place to list it? I have had it on Auto-trader for a few weeks without even a call. Is there no market for these things ?

 

What are you asking for it? Specs on it?

 

I don't know what you are asking for your car but dealers are selling their new left over cars for $150 or less now. Not much market for the V12VS cars unfortunately. The V12VS manual can't be helping the values for the older cars.

 

Ya new they are going for around $150-160k depending, used I a, seeing a lot of them in the $140-145k asking price range.

Hell of a lot of car for the money considering a new V8 is not much less

 

I have it listed on Auto-trader. The tungsten silver one with 1800 miles from Michigan.

 

Even in SF Bay Area, dealers have new 2015s on the lot at $40K off.

 

And they are not selling. Those cars have celebrated their first birthday there. That's what happens when AM tries to force a transmission that nobody wants on us. I hope they learn from their mistake.

 

Don't sell it. In my world you have the most desirable car in the whole universe.

 

I'll be in market for v12s soon and prices are getting pretty attractive. Recently I've seen as low as $130k for a coupe ~2k miles (it sold in 2 weeks). George I saw your car on AT and I like it but in all honesty your ~$20k over priced for the current market if you want to move it. GLWS...

 

LOL - are you a member of the automotive press? I'm definitely a 'save the manuals' guy, but I took a leap of faith (after a test drive) going from a V12V to a V12Vs with SSIII, so I guess it's nobody plus one. The transmission is no 'mistake' in my book; it requires almost as much careful thought and a good amount of the work as a manual to drive properly, but it does many things substantially better than a mere mortal like me could with a stick and clutch pedal.

What this transmission does is allow 90% of the interactivity of a manual with 90% of the ruthless competence of a dual clutch. A perfect compromise for someone who wants the best of both worlds.

What this transmission has really shown is that most people, including Aston buyers, don't have any interest in interacting with their car; they just want it to do all the work for them. So in that sense, yes, it is a mistake - it should have been a true automatic or a dual clutch for the masses. As for the minority, like myself, who like interaction and like a manual, but also appreciate quicker shifting and having more brain bandwidth available to use on track, I really can't understand why they don't see any merit in SSIII.

 

I really wanted to like the SS3 but unfortunately it was severely lacking when I drove it. If they wanted to do it right and do what you are describing, they should have driven the F430 Scuderia with the F1 Superfast and copied that. It's IMO the best automated manual out there and I still prefer it over the various double clutches I've owned because it still has feel and your input directly affects it unlike the cars today that do it all for you.

 

How did you find it severely lacking? Can't say I've driven a Scud but I've driven an F430 and SSIII compares favourably.

 

Most of S3s flaws can be sorted with proper software tuning...it's not a hardware issue. No tuner has just taken the time to really do so

 

I'm obviously biased but there's no comparison between for F430 and the Scud. The Scud's shifts are instant and make you feel like you are in a race car. It captures the essence of the car itself almost perfectly. Shifts are instant and visceral, like you expect out of the Scud. You can smooth them out through modulating the gas, which made it fun. The SS3 is somewhat similar to this except it was never instant with a "bang" feeling. The higher RPM shifts were improved over SS2 but still 2008-9 technology was far superior. The V12V was an amazing car. The V12VS with a manual would have been perfect but instead they went with forcing a hand that most enthusiasts (me being one of them) decided to pass on.

 

Doing some quick internet research (so of course, you know it's 100% accurate), and in an attempt to be objective, I see that the F430 shift time is 150 ms, the Scud is 60 ms, and SSIII is 80 ms.

As close as the times are, perhaps the difference between 80 and 60 ms is indeed detectable, but your description suggests there is more to it (I suppose if you break each shift down to its components, then there may be differences in tuning as 007 Vantage suggests, that are noticeable). Or maybe it's the fact that SSIII only goes to the shortest shift times at higher revs, in sport mode and under higher throttle applications - does the Scud have the same fast shift times under all conditions?

As for your description of smoothing the shifts by 'modulating the gas', this is not unique to the Scud and is also part of what makes driving SSIII more like a manual.

To summarize all of the above, I guess I am still having trouble understanding how to reconcile your statements that SSIII is "somewhat similar" to the wonderful Scud, but at the same time "severely lacking", without thinking there is a significant subjective bias . But, hey, I haven't driven a Scud, so I wouldn't know.