Hi everyone, I'm a general car nerd and have lusted after a V8V for years now (absolutely love the styling and exhaust note, enough that I can forgive its many shortcomings). I've gone through all of rmrmd1956's DIY tuning adventures, all the threads about maintenance, upgrade parts, etc. Sports cars from the past in California: MR2, FR-S, 981 Cayman. I'm in the NYC area and am looking to get a car since I miss driving, I figure a few hundred on parking+insurance+maintenance a month is chump change compared to rent and eating out, and I cheap out on both so...

Last year, I was planning on picking up an AP1 S2000 (less things to mod), but I never pulled the trigger, and now the prices are pretty silly ($12k for 200k miles...:/), though I'm still going to find one on Turo to try first. Speaking of Turo, I've rented an ND Miata (I loved it, but I'm too tall for it even with fixed seats) and Jaguar F-type, and the Jag made me think about the Aston again. Compared to the 981, the Jag had a little more of a luxurious feel to it, and the stupidly loud exhaust was a lot more fun than I anticipated. With gasoline cars on the path to extinction in a decade, I might as well have some fun with a gas guzzler now right?

So the thing I'm worried about is that the economy is bad and social/political strife is picking up, I don't want to get attacked by the mob for having some "1 percenter" car. The Cayman mostly flies under the radar but it does get some attention even in luxury car infested California. Doug Demuro's video seemed to suggest that the Aston got no looks whatsoever, which to me is a huge plus. How much is this really the case? Are Astons less frequent victims of vandalism than Porsches?

 

my advice is move from the NYC area...

 

Hah. That's the plan (well, I might consider a Nassau or Westchester suburb), when I have a family. Until then, I'll be stuck in the crowded cesspool because that's where the yuppies are.

 

If a red Ferrari is a 10 on the attention scale, my black Rapide is a 6-7. I use to own a white Evora and that was a 9.5. Aston is the least "you look like ****** bag" out of the exotic car marques. Blends in even better since most are in subtle colors.

 

FWIW, my Aston does get attention, when I gas up, at parking lots, e.t.c. and I frequent affluent areas... folks ask if it's the James Bond car and after a few lame attempts to describe that the Vantage is not the DBS or Vanquish, I just say yes...

it's not the best at anything except how it looks and how it sounds...

It's a cool car, strokes my ego a bit (yep...I admit it) and a great drive... it's best on open roads. I like to work on all my cars so it may not be cut out for a city car if you have no space to work on it and can get expensive (based on service costs/value) if solely dealer serviced

 

My white Vantage gets some comments. I live in middle Georgia, where most folks drive either a truck or some sort of SUV. When I get asked "What kind of car is that?", I just tell them "It's a 2 door Ford Focus - the dealer has to special order them."

I pulled that line on a guy when filling up at the local Shell station. He said "that's no Ford - that's a James Bond car!" I told him that this was just a "starter Aston", and that James Bond wouldn't be caught within 3 blocks of a Vantage.

 

I've had 6 Vantages - 3 V8's and 3 V12S - At car shows they get attention, most often on the street I don;t get even a glance, on occasion I get a thumbs up. Maybe 1 out of 10 times at the gas station someone asks about the car.

 

i live in cali with my 2007 vantage and i can state for a fact that if you don't want your aston to get any attention, get a silver or gray one. let it get a little dusty, keep the OEM brake pads (the wheels will be filthy within 20 miles of the last wash) that squeal on occasion, and few will give you a second glance. OTOH, if you give it a good clean and polishing, they'll hang out of the windows at stop lights trying to get a better look, like a guy did just the other day. no kidding. the paint job (meteorite silver) on this car is STILL immaculate after 13 years.

after i got home a guy walking his dog asked what kind of car it was and when i told him, his response was simply 'beautiful'. i was standing next to my old truck at the time, so me being the smartass that i am i gestured to it and volunteered, "THIS is dodge ram pickup". i'm not sure what he thought of that remark...

 

I am in the outer boroughs, so it’s a different demo. I am constantly getting thumbs up and comments on my 2019 Vantage, as I did with my Ftype previously. FYI, I never park my car in the street in Manhattan. Learned my lesson when I had my radio clipped in the 80s, lol

 

@Mike Gray Two door Ford Focus, ROFL

@brightoncorgi Yea Lotus is definitely flashier. Even the Elise looks like a rich dbag car even though it's pretty modestly priced. That said, I'm still hoping the new Lotus coming out next year is to my liking so I can waste money on one.

@61mga That sounds about right, I do keep all my cars filthy partially to avoid attention. I used to wash my first car (which had a lot of dings and scratches) about once a month and wax it every time, but I got tired of it and started just wiping the windows at gas station fillups. The next car I had plastidipped and I pretty much never seriously washed it beyond a quick spray lol. The Cayman has the nicest paint I've been around and I know I'm scratching it when I wash it with my poor technique, so I figure not washing is probably better for the paint.

@MARABONES The 2019s are a lot flashier, they definitely attract attention when they go by around Manhattan. I guess maybe not as much as the guy in the brand new Ferrari Superfast reminding me how poor I am as he loudly revs past my apartment all the time.

Any Porsche owners able to make a comparison? I feel like a 986/987/996 are all very inconspicuous at this point, but the 981/991s and onward are styled sharper and look more expensive.

 

Not sure about the rest of you but, quiet as it's kept, NYC is actually a car town.With that being sad, it's a media event when I take my car out into the city. It also doesn't help that I've had the exhaust train massaged. I also keep it clean. Suffice it to say, the cellphones come out and the thumbs up are all prevalent.

Now, with that being said, you will NOT be able to keep an Aston in immaculate condition in NYC without paying through the nose to do so. I've dealer serviced my car from original purchase and even then I still find I need to so some things myself. So you may want to consider another car in view of the up keep.

Oh yea, DO NOT park in Manhattan and you can't take it to the garages either.

You can inbox me if you need more on the logistics of having an Aston in NYC.

TAC

 

I actually had a 987 Boxster and was planning to trade it on a 981 Boxster. The Porsche dealer had a used Aston Martin on the lot and I started looking. For the same value as a 2 year old CPO Boxster I could get into a Vantage. I didn't buy that particular one...That was back in 2016 and I started my one year search for a nice Aston... Likely one of the best car decisions I've made in 30 years... Takes time to find the right car bacause, from what you described about how you treat cars... Your the type of PO that everyone wants to avoid

 

I lived in NYC for five years and everything costs more there, it's just a fact of life. I've lost my wallet twice in Manhattan and both times it was returned to me in the mail by total strangers. I once drove my uncle's vintage Rolls Royce through NYC once and we got nothing but positive attention. That being said, I live in Northern Virginia and occasionally drive my 2009 Vantage Roadster into DC and I've never had a problem, but maybe I'm just lucky. Don't let the fear of being targeted stop you from enjoying whatever car you desire or anything else in life, for that matter. Live it to the fullest, it goes by quickly!

 

Quickly.

 

I'm not sure what you're getting at, are you saying your car is unreliable? I enjoy doing some light work on cars, as long as it's not a constant troubleshooting nightmare.

I see Porsches parked in Manhattan all the time, surely there have to be at least some garages that are okay? Even crime-infested San Francisco has some garages where I feel comfortable parking a new car.

Now that I think of it, I did take that rental Jag through Manhattan and I recall it getting pretty much zero attention despite me excessively jabbing the loud pedal and giggling at the noise. I suppose with the constant loud noise people just don't really care that much, unless you have something like an Aventador (I saw one followed by a 2019 AM V8V and RR, people were pulling out their phones for the Lambo but ignored the other two).