A good friend of mine loves my car (2010 DBS Volante, manual transmission) and wants to move from Porcshe to Aston. He wants to buy used but newer than my car and his must haves are convertible top and manual transmission. I told him him a '14 DB9 (last year before DB11?) or Vantage V12S would probably work but frankly have no idea whether either was available with a manual transmission. I told him also that if there were no significant visual changes (including seats, waterfall, electronics, etc.) in later years, there's no reason not to consider well cared for older cars.

He wants to buy used, but money is not really an issue.

What's the best car to buy?

 

As you know yourself, the DBS Volante with Manual gearbox is the best option to have. because of the longer wheelbase than the V12 Vantage, much more suitable for daily use, but also a real performance car with lots of emotion. As posted before, the manual DBS Volantes are very rare, and the later the production year, the more rare. And not much upgrades between 2009 and 2012 (and some of which are upgradeable)

For the latest DB9, I don't know if/how many manuals were produced, but I would go for the DBS Volante Manual (as I did :-)).

 

there are manual V12S convertibles, I believe 2017 and newer with the 7 speed dogleg

I don't think they made regular (2010-2012) V12 convertible manuals for the US

the Newer facelifted DB9's (2014 and newer) are not manual you could probably find a 2005 or newer manual convertible but even those are very rare as well