To keep a very long story short, after waiting now 11 months for a car I've pre-ordered, I still have no ETA for delivery, and thus I'm going back to the drawing board of considering other options.

While I've been holding out for the new model Vantage that is supposed to debut at some point next year, I'm looking at the possibility of doing a 2 year lease on one of the last 2016 Vantages, or possibly picking up a 2 year old model to keep for the next 2-3 years.

Question I have on these years in particular:

1. Annual Maintenance costs. In both cases the car is either under warranty, or i'll purchase one to extend the used car so I'm not really concerned with BIG break/fix stuff. So what does a standard dealer provided annual maintenance cost look like on these? This will be my daily driver, so I'm projecting 8-10K miles per year.

2. Manual transmission - I've read some horror stories on here about manual clutch wear (also some bad stuff on the Auto in general). Have the manual issues been sorted out in the 2014 and on cars?

Thanks in advance for those that can weigh in on this.

 

If you have the dealership do the maintenance, budget $1500 per year as a general rule of thumb. That doesn't include major items like tires.
If you do the maintenance yourself, you're at 1/3 that or less.

Most of the clutch stories I've heard were from the 4.3L cars. The 4.7L cars have a different clutch and flywheel, so the years you're looking at might be a bit more robust.

 

Thanks Telum, is the $1500 basically oil changes per mileage and maybe a minor service? I haven't looked into it but there is probably some specialty shops that could also do that work for slightly less, but figure the dealer cost is the worst case scenario.

Good to hear the 4.7L cars have a different clutch and flywheel. I was tempted to try going to a paddle shift on my next car (I've never had one and do have to go thru traffic during regular commuting) but the one knock on Aston that seems to persist in reviews are the Auto boxes not matching the otherwise great package.

 

Oil change, intake filters, cabin filters, brake fluid, and some other stuff, plus topping things off, inspecting things, etc. I had a dealership do the maintenance on my car during the first two years of ownership. The first year was $8xx, the second year was $14xx.

You should be able to find an indie shop pretty easily, but you've also got a dealership in Walnut Creek. One of the techs there is a close friend of mine so of course I have to recommend you take your car to him

The key to enjoying the Sport Shift transmission is to drive it in manual mode. Most complaints people have with it are when they leave it in automatic mode.

 

Walnut Creek?! Bit of a haul from where i am, but if that's where the rock star service is... :-)

 

Next closest is in Van Nuys lol

 

Ha! not quite, Los Gatos in my case. Still a 50 min drive.

 

Peninsula European, located in San Mateo, is an independent shop run by a former AM tech Robbie (Marin, O'Gara and Los Gatos)...you may want to drop by and talk with him, as he's certainly the closest to you.

But Tim in Walnut Creek is only 6 miles from me and that's convenient!

 

telum who in van nuys?

 

That's where Galpin is

 

Galpins service is just so expensive!

 

The 4.7 clutch is no mark of bullet proof engineering

 

I'm considering this Vantage as a potential 2 year car, so really my concern is things like the clutch going out under 30K miles.

 

You still can add the AM factory warranty to your purchase.

I was in the same boat. I was scared of clutch going out etc. even with a ~9k mile car and added the warranty.

So far I put over 2k miles on her in three month and no problems.

My NEW 4.7l clutch is still, lets call it strange, coming from BMW's and Porsche.
Mine was replaced do to fluid spilling on the clutch during a service at the AM dealer with previous owner.

 

I purchase all of my cars from Galpin, and have them serviced there as well. I have found their service department to be comparable to other service departments for the same manufacture of car at other dealers. I also find dealing with John the service writer to be a wonderful experience.
Ron