Aston Martin V12 Vantage 2011 Extended warranty - worth it?
 

Hey guys,

I just bought a 2011 V12 Vantage with 8,500 miles on it.

I was wondering if the 2 year warranty was worthwhile or not? With such low miles I cannot really imagine there being any issues over the next few years but I have never owned an Aston or any other high performance car so anyone with a bit of experience of Aston ownership would be great.

I don't know enough about cars to speak of the mechanical condition but the interior is flawless and the car sounds beautiful. I bought it from a certified Aston Dealer and they claim everything is in perfect order but obviously they could be a bit biased. From what I can tell though it is basically a brand new car.

Any ways, let me know what you guys think. I did not get a quote yet but I think they said it was around $3k a year for the warranty.

Here she is :-)

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.6sp...c0c0126d32.jpg

How likely are you to work on your own car and are you the type that takes your car to the dealer for almost anything?

You can rack up $3k a year if you are very picky and take it to the dealer for the smallest things. Squeaky brakes, clutch sounds weird, interior fitment is off, headliner is a bit lose from the sun etc etc.

Very rarely will the car have major issues that will go up to 3k, or 6k over 2 years. If you can do some basic work yourself then the likelihood of that is even less, pretty much only down to having an engine / drive train failure

At the moment I would say I am the type to take the car into the dealership. That being said I have had a car under warranty the last 4 years so it did not make much sense for me to do anything myself. I was actually just complaining on another thread about the brakes squeaking and I was thinking about taking it in to have them looked at so I guess that tells you all you need to know :-)

I have never really worked on cars before and I would love to start but at the same time Aston Martins sound like they are not the easiest to work on. Also, I am kind of worried the lack of materials and videos will it make it even more challenging.

I guess maybe I need to find out what is covered under the warranty. If paint chips, squeaky brakes, and some more nit picky stuff are covered than it might be worthwhile. I have a feeling I am going to be a bit anal trying to keep this gem in perfect condition.

I have never worked on my own car very much until I got the Aston, mainly the cost for most fixes are ridiculous. So by that metric, and if you're anal, it is easy to make the math work in your favor since there will always be issues.

For example when my headliner started to come lose from the sun / heat, the dealer repair cost is 6K for a new part from the UK (sourcing it myself would be cheaper, but once I factor in the FX and shipping, it was like 5.8K) and another 2K to remove the old and install the new. I ended up taking it out myself (about 2hr labor total), and paid someone 300 bucks to spray new adhesive onto the backing board. It was nerve wracking to take apart the interior, but my out of pocket cost in total was 300 bucks.

This is where fine print is important, I've read someone on here say their warranty doesnt cover trim pieces peeling from heat as an example.

Matt congrats on that car. I think I saw it on Autotrader or something a few months back. I LOVE that color combo, I had a "black and tan" stick M6.

I'll just through out my experience to help you. I have a 2012 "final 40" matte black car. Car had 9k on it when I bought it, has 17k now. I had 18 months of waranty left when I bought it. Under warranty, I had two taillights replaced and the dash leather on the gauge pod. Probably $1500 of work and parts tops.

I was offered a one year extension on the warranty by Foreign Cars Italia in Greensboro -- $3700. I declined.

Since then, I've got another tailight assembly watering up that I'll replace myself. I replaced the outside air temp sensor myself ($30 and 15 minutes of time, dealer want $180 to do it). I'll probably change my oil and do most of the yearly service this year around too.

THese cars are relatively easy to work on. Oh, forgot, I diagnosed and fixed a vacuum leak with a cheap code reader.

Thanks Jeff, I found it on autotrader as well so it is most likely the same one. I had been looking for 4-5 months and hoping one would show up around Ohio but finally gave up and flew down to Dallas to check it out.

I love the Matte black car that you have too. I was looking at one of those but it only had about 600 miles on it and the seller wanted about $80k more than I got my 2011 for so I did not have to give much thought to that.

Thanks for the info, I would love to learn how to work on this car as I know they can get expensive and it would just be a great skill to have. Do you have problems finding information and guides on how to fix stuff on your V12 vantage? With such a limited quantity produced I have a hard time finding videos on most of the stuff I was looking to do. I don't have much experience working on cars so I am just overly nervous about the prospect of working on it.

From the sounds of it though it does not sound like anyone has really used the warranty for anything too expensive to warranty the ~$4k a year warranty costs.

One guy just had his v12v eat its cats. Good thing he had a warranty....$25k for a new motor.

EEEK, that would be a painful repair. Sounds like I am best off taking my chances for a few years until I get some more miles on it and can re-think the extended warranty then.

Not necessarily mileage related...his car was new (1000 miles).

cat failure is not common and is something that can happen to a lot of cars believe it or not. Engine sucking pieces of broken cat material back happens with ferrari f430 too

there's only scant info on working on your Vantage. I've only found a few youtube vids, all V8 related (brakes and oil change). the manual you can get "hourly" access to on the AM website or download for some obscene amount.


So far everything I've looked at has been relatively easy ot figure out how to fix. The car is pretty simple.

Holy moly just saw the other matte black (the paint sucks by the way, it is impossible to take care of, scratches easily, and you can't buff the scratches out) on Autotrader you mentioned. $199k???


I got mine for $130k with 9k on the clock.


Was interesting looking at values on Autotrader. Had not in a while. NEW 15 V12 Vantage Ss are going for $150-160k. Used ones are in the 130 to 140s (for coupes). There are several V12 Vantage (non-S) with higher asking prices than the lowest used V12 S.

Yeah, I bought mine with 8.5k on the clock for $119k. There were 2015 with similar miles for only about $10k more but obviously the S does not come with a manual which seems to allow the 2011 and 2012 to hold their value quite a bit better. It seems like any 2011-2012 in the $120-125k range gets snapped up almost instantly and then the few in the 135-150k range sit for a long time on autotrader.

The matte black one was not on autotrader it was from an Aston dealer (forget which one). It might of actually been called Satin black maybe if that makes a difference.

I have owned my V12V for 3.5yrs. It has been out of warranty for a while now. I'm not worried and have not even looked at getting a warranty. This is my second Aston. I have had very little trouble with either of them and visit the dealer once a year for the annual service/book stamp.

The Houston dealer is offering the matte V12V with less than 1000miles for $199k. It is plated 007/40. I snapped a couple of pictures when they took delivery:

https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8483/8...882eff9e_c.jpg

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