If they wore out the paint I'd be extremely concerned about how much they wore out the inside of the mechanicals. It was a test car, was probably tracked a whole lot, was probably driven as hard as the paint was worn. It is ultimately your decision but you were deceived, it's had a repaint, car was owned by Aston as a test car, I'd wash my hands of it. Then again, that's why you actually got that deal on it.

 

The car's paint and interior was not protected from not only 20,000 miles driving but also the California sun which can do damage - I've seen DB9's with lower miles that were left in the sun with a ton of damage normal wear, especially the leather and woods.

Was the car tracked a whole lot? Not sure.

When I took the Aston Martin Performance course (when they offered it in the USA), I drove a V8 Vantage all day to it's limits. They said about every 2,000 miles they put new brakes and tires on the cars, and go through them for wear before replacing them. After 8 or 10K miles they put the track cars for sale without disclosing past history.

I asked them if that was deceptive? They said with the Vantage and the conditioning and inspection before resale the car should be every bit as good as any other used Vantage. So if you own a silver 2007 6 speed with a black interior used, there's a chance it was a educational car. I beat up on the car for the 8 hour class more than I ever beat up on a car - ever.

 

Nobody said it wasn't kept in a garage

What cars do you think they take to all those press days, track events, "educational" days, etc? I doubt they're new cars off dealer lots, it's a fleet of cars specifically used to abuse to entice sales of new cars. And I would presume that V12 is in that class. I'd never knowingly own a test car, press car, anything that wasn't carefully driven by the previous owner, because the wear you caused on the inside of that V8 is multiplied by as many drivers drove it like they stole it. And I would presume the worst and never be able to get it out of my head.

Yes, it's absolutely deceitful they don't disclose track day cars when they sell them with 10,000 miles of hard abuse.

 

At the price I bought it, and that I'll extend the warranty until it can't be anymore (you can currently get 12 years out of the warranty in the USA) it won't matter much as long as the wear items are re-examined and all software updates taken care of when it get re-certified. If my plan was not to extend the warranty until I could no longer that would be a different matter altogether.

 

I can't wrap my head around paying $5000/year for warranty insurance. If something breaks I"ll pay to fix it. They sell warranties for a reason, they make money on them. That's why they sell buyer "protection" on almost everything you can buy today. So we come at this from two different directions.

Bottom line is as long as you're happy and satisfied knowing what you do, then please enjoy that car to the fullest, and I highly recommend driving it like you stole it. It should be used to it

 

I must admit that I just don't like the sound of this saga.
It upsets me that such a situation can even exist without disclosure.
I hope that this works out for you.

 

My guess is there is an accident history. I got burned on my previous Vantage - owner and dealer denied it and I found out the hard way when I decided to sell

 

Just when you think it can't possibly get more interesting: I had assumed that Napleton did the inspection for the Certification... but nay... I got the service records (somewhat), and discovered that the 140 point inspection was done by Aston Martin in Gaydon!!!

After the inspection by AM, it was shipped to the USA and somehow made it past the port with zero labels or stickers! After seeing the check list there were at least 5 items that should not have come close to passing that I know of. What was also interesting on the checklist was very few testing of 'wear' items. For example nothing about testing clutch wear, so you could get a Certified AM, and the next day have a non-warranty wear item like the clutch give out and in theory you'd be paying for the clutch! Most wear items were listed more as 'does it work'? Check. Not: will it wear out soon?

Anyway - Aston is doing a complete re-certification here and I'll have Morries check anything for excessive wear and make sure software is up to date. The tires and wheels are new I found out and the car was freshly painted at Gaydon, so that's good.

 

This was a Euro test car, then imported into the US? If so it probably saw ice testing in Norway and the Alps and maybe did the Monte Carlo rally and you'd never know. And no way that should have cleared customs like that. I'm not sure if that's more interesting or more frightening!

 

It's a left hand drive car in right hand drive environments, I suspect used initially for USA testing and calibration - I have no reason to think AM would lie about being accident free which is my main issue, besides a terrible inspection. My first fear thinking it was in California - who painted this car? An 'Aston' paint job is worth a ton more than the local 'Joe blow" painting, so being it was at Gaydon is good. Another note - these carbon brakes - with almost 1,000 miles, no dirt or dust.

 

Europe is a left hand drive world, jolly old England is right. They were testing left hand drive cars at the Ring.

Do you have documentation it was repainted at the factory?

My biggest worry would still be the unseen mechanical wear from a hard life of tracks and testing.

 

Hi Prefurbia,
I don't know what your options are but I would back out of this purchase if at all possible.
Although I haven't studied this thread carefully, the story has become a nightmare.
These are relatively easy cars to find....move on!

 

Not to get off topic, but I have to comment on the above!

First, if you and the other course attendees drove the car all day "to its limits",
I can assure you that neither the tires nor the brakes would last close to 2K miles!

Second, it is outrageous that they would put track cars on sale (presumably through the dealer network since they were officially "inspected") without disclosing their history. To me this brings Aston's business practices into serious disrepute and I am sorry, but it clearly underscores the significant concerns and doubts about your current car that other people have been voicing in this thread. Just wow.

 

OK, I'm not going to get into details, but the more I discovered, the worse my story got, to the point I could not sleep nights dwelling on it. In the end, this afternoon, Aston Martin replaced my 22,000 mile car that I had also paid for a ceramic coating, 3M protection and an extra year warranty - working through Morries Aston Martin in Minneapolis, with another, almost the same colors and options as previous V12S with 8,000 miles- at no cost to me. Including redoing the ceramic and 3M and adding that extra year to the existing 1.5 year left on the original warranty. Morries Aston Martin did an amazing job servicing me - even though I originally bought the V12S at Napleton. They even got me a lower interest rate so essentially reducing my overall initial cost. The Aston Martin company, and their local dealer, did the right thing and restored my faith in Aston Martin and the people behind it . So this is my 8th Aston and my 5th Vantage in 3 decades of owning them!

 

Good job, congrats! So was it an accident car?