Here is an unbiased opinion from someone who doesn't own either. Before I purchased my 997. I was looking at a V8 Vantage. After reading tons of information on both and saw a 997 that fits my needs I went with the Porsche. There are a lot more Porsches on the road so more Porsche dealerships near me if I need maintenance. There is only an AM dealer that is 45 minutes away (without traffic). There are way more negative post about reliability with the AM than the Porsche. It's cheaper to maintain (not by much) and cheaper to insure. People are just afraid of the unknown and that is what Aston Martin is. If I was in the market today for an Vantage or R8. I would pay more and go with the Audi R8, similar to why I picked the Porsche. There are a lot more positive youtube videos about the R8 than the AM. Doug DeMuro has a video out there about how much it cost to own an AM vantage and it was some outrageous number of $26K or something like that, now we all know that number is ridiculous but that is what most people will see.

 

You're not wrong. I deal with this on a daily basis

 

I almost want to make a video and entitle it, "Why doug demuro is a dumbass"

 

right. i actually like the new owner of his car, Tavarish. He's a DIY guy...and doesnt need a warranty.

 

I can't stand him either, not a fan of vlogs myself, something about them just rub me the wrong way, maybe its the selfie cam view or I dunno

yeah I'm gonna make a video this summer, **** it! Maybe that will push me past the 10k sub mark and I'll get quite a bit of enjoyment out of it

 

^^

Wonder why that was purged? Seemed benign enough.

Anyway, most vlogers aren't exactly experts at everything they shoot themselves doing. Unlike Schmee [sic?] who really seems to know his cars and I enjoy his vids, normal vlogers like Demuro just have enough personality and humor to get people to follow them. Once you have a following, you have to keep posting or, you'll lose what you built. So if they're not specialist in the particular subject they make a vlog about, some dumb stuff is bound to be put on film. They're there to entertain, not to be accepted as expert advice. Unfortunately, the later is usually what happens.

 

Ok, also my 2 cents... When I first got my Vantage at Lake Forest, the car was pretty bullet proof and the first annual service was about $300 or so - but I did have to go 400 miles for it. The next year the annual service was similar but I had two rear tires to add to it, again 400 miles to service the car. This pain of service did no favors. When I got my 2009 in 2013 (with extended warranty) and went to Lake Forest the next year for the annual service it was about $2,000 of which most of that was 'annual service' items! I expected it to me much less cost. Fast forward to last year... now I have an Aston dealer literally within walking distance of my office - my first annual on my 2015 GT? Try $1,500!! My Cadillac CTS-V services when I had it? free. Not to say the CTS-V held it's value either, but when the services gouge the clients it does resale no favors. Of the $1,500 they replaced the wipers - on a 2015 that never was driven in the rain. Now I don't have a new Porsche which that dealer (and the Jag dealer) also within walking distance... I'd bet a 1 year old Porsche in for service would not have it's wipers replaced. That kind of stuff does new car values and resale no good nor the reputation of Aston martin - and don;t get me started on the tail light problem which Aston has well known about over a decade and does not get fixed! I just figure, owning an Aston is like owning a plane - you buy a new plane and taxi it to the runway figure a 30% loss in resale - and expected to be financially raped at annuals.

 

For me one of the reasons im starting to love this car more is that its super cheap to maintain! We have redpants AP Velocity and everything seems pretty easy to work on. My mobile mechanic does my year 1 and year 2 services. I think any time you go to a dealer, get ready to pay. How do you think they can afford to be in that nice building and pay their mechaics and service reps $100k?

A guy I know works as a service rep for a local BMW dealer. He told me he makes 100k after bonus. Their bonus is based on the up selling and matching quotas.

 

My 2014 V8V with very low mileage was transported to Miller Motorcars last fall for warranty work and service.
With only 600 miles Miller wanted $1500 for service.
We negotiated the price down to $875 for oil/filter, brake and clutch fluid change and general inspection. A bit pricey but reasonable.
They provided the enclosed transport without charge.
Must admit that the work was done very well and they were very careful with my car.

 

yeah I'm going to disagree with pretty much all of that, I know its your opinion, but there isn't a lot of sense being made there

if your wiper blades were fine wtf did you get them changed? And complaining about having to drive 400 miles to a dealer is your own fault

Owning an aston is very cheap compared to pretty much every other 'exotic' out there

 

Larry- You need to drive your car bud.

 

Not sure you can complain about prices if you take the car to a dealer for service. These were $120K+ cars new so expect to pay service prices commensurate with that sale price. And you know where the dealers are located so you can't really complain about being 400 miles away from one. If you knew you wanted to take the car to a dealer for service then maybe getting an Aston wasn't the right choice. Now, $800 for an oil change and brake/clutch fluid flush is still freaking nuts. That's about $100 in consumables and I would hope no more than a couple hours of work.

I think Aston Martin gets the British car stigma - unreliable, whacked electronics, etc. So when people are shopping for an "exotic" many rule out Astons because of that. And Astons have had their issues so a lot of the stigma is justified. The newer cars seem to be much better and at least on par with if not better than other exotics, but there's several decades of perception to overcome. I do find it ironic that this thread is comparing an Aston to an Audi, because Audis aren't exactly known for being super reliable either.

It's supply and demand really. Right now there are a bunch of Vantages for sale and they seem to take a while to get sold. So either more people have to want them or there needs to be less of them for sale.

David

 

Remember the La Ferrari at Quail Lodge that wouldn't start so they had to sell it off the pictures? LOL

 

While I temporarily lost my mind earlier this year and offered my 2014 Vantage for sale, a salesman from the Chicago Aston dealership contacted me and offered me $77,500 for my 600 mile, manual Volcano red coupe.
I asked him why the depreciation on these cars has been so severe. He felt that at least part of this was due to Aston's Vantage GT pricing. In 2015 one could buy a new Vantage coupe for around 100K.
Perhaps as the last of the 2016's are sold, prices will stabilize.

 

^ 600 miles only?!

Can I borrow it?