Just got my new Aston Martin! I've really wanted this car for a long time, and finally pulled the trigger.

2012 V8 Vantage
Manual transmission
12,500 miles

Attached some pictures, although the car is currently garaged (arrived a few days early and insurance hasn't kicked in yet) until tomorrow.

Daily Use Car
I'm planning to use this car as my daily (only) car. My home to office is about 18 miles each way, so I'll be putting a pretty good number of miles on it versus the previous owners (12,500 over 6 years).
Is this advisable? Or would you recommend I get a second daily use car?
Note: I'm not planning to resell this car, so hopefully it keeps running for quite a few years to come. I'm not too worried about depreciation, so I guess the only concern for me is maintenance and reliability.

Sat Nav Upgrade
I'm looking to upgrade the Sat Nav system to make it more modern and usable.

1. I've ordered this:
   Bovee 1000 Wireless Bluetooth
   Bovee 1000 Wireless Bluetooth
   : to enable blue tooth audio (and not just the phone)
2. Rearview / backup camera: Nav TV Camera 6
3. Smartphone Monitoring/Projection: to allow me to connect my phone to the sat nav screen (mainly for things like Waze / Google maps). (something like this:
   Piston Heads: Sat Nav upgrade
   ). I've contacted a local custom auto shop to install this. In the video, he has a installed a cool fish eye camera, low profile on the front, any chance anyone knows that that is? (I've messaged the video owner also, waiting for reply)

Appreciate any advice on any of these things.

Thanks!

 

Very cool, Vantage. Great choice on the color and transmission.
Ron

 

for daily driver, wish i had the option to drive mine every day
its such a tease to only look at my car for 5 months of the year
(winter woes in Canada). so " drive it"

 

Ditto - Minnesota is not a daily driver State - otherwise I'd use mine daily.

 

In St. Louis, have daily driven mine as recently in 15 degree weather (last night) since I picked it up in August. 4k miles in about 6/7 months, you're going to love it!

Just make sure you plan the tires accordingly to the weather you're driving it and she should be good to you! 0 issues so far

 

I would put as many miles as you can on this car. The more the better.

Snow wheel sets are not much money on ebay for those in snowy locales. My local dealer has couple of sets of used snow tires and set of used snow wheels for cheap.

 

Congrats on your new car!!


I daily drive mine with 17 mile commute each way everyday without a problem. It's not my only car but I pretty much drive it everywhere Costco, HomeDepot, taking wife to nice restaurants and stuff, you get the picture.
BoVee 1000 is a must. The flip-up monitor I never use. I simply just use Waze or GoogleMap on my iphone as my primary GPS navigation. Car is fantastic and easy to drive and park everyday and everywhere here in SoCal. Been to dealer for annual maintenance twice and some minor warranty repair work.
It's been a good experience so far.
BTW, mine is '14 V8V 6-spd and 13,XXX miles.

 

We got quite a lot into our Vantage at Costco!

 

Mine is my daily, and only car. When it snows just don't drive it until the roads are clear. Wait, does it ever snow in San Jose?

 

I thought I was the only one to make home depot and costco runs in my vantage!

 

You're in California so yes you can drive daily but why put the extra wear and tear on the car for HD and Costco trips etc. We have a KIA Soul for that sort of thing. Its cheap and gets the job done. Just a thought.

 

I have been DD-ing my 2006 for almost 5yrs. Now with 73k miles. Very reliable.


Currently my only car... so plenty of Home Depot trips. Just be careful how you transport things!


Enjoy it as much as you can!

 

I also wish I could drive it every day but like other Canadian here mine is out about 6 months out of the year but I drive it every day that it is nice out. In the last 2 summer I put about 12,000 miles or 20,000kms and yes I did take mine to Home Depot to pick up some salt (2 x bags) for the pool with it :-)

 

Since my daily driver is a 2016 Volvo V60 wagon... it shares some DNA with my vantage... so there is some familiarity...I use my paddle shifters all the time in the Volvo

 

Congrats! She is beautiful and you picked the right Transmission!

I have the Bovee as well and it works great! What is the integration/ screen share piece called?

I drove my Vantage daily, exceptions rainy days, for 1.5 years without any mayor issues. One wheel bearing had a ticking but my Warranty took care of this after complaining a lot.
The only limit was when I lowered her, since then is is a bit of a challenge at my work place since I can't pass speed bumps anymore and have to park a mile away from my office.

I recently added another car as daily to share the duties since I want to keep my Aston forever and like to park close to my office building once in a while.