First post, first time Aston owner here. Just picked up this Vantage from Atlanta Motorcars for a good (I think great) price, but still have 2 excruciating weeks until I can get down there to pick it up and take a nice drive back up to Chapel Hill. In the meantime, does anyone have a reccomendation for good private mechanics in the RDU area? I'll definitely be going to Aston Greensboro, but it'd be nice to have a more local mechanic. In any case, I'm pretty damned excited to become part of what seems to be an awesome community!

 

Pictures or it didnt happen; Congrats, look for high end shops and see what is around.

 

Roads are amazing in around RDU. People drive fast on both country roads and highway

 

Congrats! Would like to see the car when it arrives. Flying Circus in Durham will do mechanical work but lacks the computers to dump codes or reset mirrors. I have used them in the past and also FCI in Greensboro. Both have given me what I believe was a fair price for the type of work completed.

 

Trust me- I'm losing sleep over this car! can't wait to take ownership!

 

I'd beglad to show her to you- I'm sure there's a ton you can teach me about these machines!

 

From one new roadster owner to another - congrats!

I really love the Sandstorm interior. When I first started my search that color was really high on my list of wants but Obsidian ultimately won out due my wanting a unique exterior color. The wait to get behind the wheel is hard but you'll forget all about that soon enough.

I would suggest you have your local AM dealer do a post-purchase inspection on your car to see where the clutch wear is at on your SportShift and to make sure all recalls have been done. It's just good for peace of mind as well, at least it was for me.

 

Thanks for the advice! Motorcars of Atlanta, from whom I purchased the car, is an authorized AM dealer, they should be able to do the clutch inspection, correct?

 

Sorry. I wasn't paying attention and didn't catch the fact that your dealer is an AM dealer. Smart to buy from an AM dealer.

I would think they would have checked everything over already but I would definitely ask them to run the diagnostic to find out how much clutch life is left. Since your car is a SportShift the dealer can determine that. My car isn't a SportShift, but I did a ton of research on them and the longevity of the clutch seems to vary wildly depending on how the car was previously driven. The listing for your car says the clutch was replaced around 6k miles ago which seems like a lot, but I've read about SS clutches going in as little as 14k miles and as long as 30k.

I am not trying to scare you -- I just don't want you to run in to any unexpected surprises with your new ride. The clutch wear on a SportShift can be determined through an AM diagnostic and I would definitely ask your dealer to do that for you just so you know where you stand. Clutch replacement is not an inexpensive job and it would suck to need that work done in the near term.

 

Congrats, but to followup I wouldn't trust any AM dealer to have done any thorough PPI or inspection of any kind past visual. If you haven't ask you won't get. And dealers tend to charge as high as they can, getting a great deal from a dealer would be a red flag to me, unless they just had to move it. Maybe the new stuff is bringing in more older trades than the market will accept so they're low balling trade values.

And you already know NC traffic laws are fairly punitive, nothing like VA but, don't just think you can go speeding around everywhere in a car that sticks out like a sore thumb [you might find it gets you out of more tickets than it gets you into though ]

 

I would still write you thought. Kidding but NC now has over 80 mph reckless or 20+ reckless the same as Va.

I laughed at the dealer PPI sheet. While yes it has mechanical things like checked brake lines, pads, fluid levels, and other mechanicals, it DID NOT have anything cosmetic such as dents, dings, scrapes, paint condition, leather pulls tears wear, interior scrapes and scratches, glass condition, etc..... These were highly important to me when I was looking and only specialty PPI people will give those types of total information.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll make sure to get that clutch life checked! Also, good to know that NC now has the reckless driving law at 80+ and 20 over, didn't know that!

 

Ahhh, they did adopt that VA law, never speed in VA either!!

I got hammered with 9 points and a suspension in my 370 for doing 1mph less than I got a delaying traffic ticket in my V8V. I'm sure the run will end sometime but that's 5 stops in a row with no points

 

So uhhhh....any good lawyers in RDU?

 

I had a lawyer, got the points reduced to 4 but still got the 30 days

Find an ex DA and put him on retainer