Hey Guys, I am planning to get myself a DB9 for this coming December. I am from Malaysia (KL), so the weather here would be humid & hot most the time. This will be my first car ever so I did some research before dip myself into this responsibility!

Here are the story before I made my move to the DB9 (2007). The DB9 & DBS are always my all time favourite car because of its shapes & unique styling look. In Malaysia (MY) we have super expensive roadtax fee for cars with 4000cc & above, therefore high cc cars are less desirable (example, BMW 630i value greater than BMW 645i). This DB9 had caught my eyes for very long & it has listed for sale nearly 2 years and still have not been sold. About a month ago, I decided to went down to try my luck if the car can be match according to my wanted price. The initial price was around RM280k (52k pound+-) & manage to nego down to roughly RM240k (45k pound).

The car basically has no service record history. According to the dealer, the owner of the car had a partner who owned a car service centre so things were done at there. But they are not able to provide me the history of the car. I was thinking, fine, I will bring it to Aston Martin Malaysia to do the PPI before proceed the purchase in the coming weeks. I did factor into some of the repair items such as (Engine oil, Brake Pads, ZF gearbox oil change, spark plug, coil pack & tyres)

My friend & I test drove the car. I am not a sensitive person, when I test drove the car, it seems everything are fine. However, my friend had feedback as such, 1) the car feels like floating, he recon the absorber may need service or repair 2) the car don’t feel like stopping (could be brakepads times up?) 3) With the bonnet open we can see the it shake when changing gear (“P” > “D” > “R” > “P” > “D” – we randomly switch gear), suspect gearbox mounting issue?
Servicing:
AM is not commonly seen in Malaysia, people sticks to mostly Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini or JDMs. Finding AM specialist is very difficult, will need to go survey shop by shop if they had any experience on it. I got a few quotation form different service centre, they quoted me with different Engine oil such as (Ravenol SSL 0W40 / Mobil1 5W50 / Liqui Molly 5W40). I read through many forums & AM mentioned for 0W40, but would that be different weather condition with different oil requirement?

Coming week I may go to test drive again & will test out if there is any misfire (I hope not) happened to the car. Any other things I should be look into it during the test drive & inspection?

 

Hi,

I've lived for ten years in Singapore and have driven my DB9 up and down the North South Higway plenty of times (Cameron Highlands, Penang, Ipoh, Georgetown and Terranganu as well included). I bought my RHD DB9 at the time in the UK and had it for 4+ years in Singapore and have since 2017 shipped it back to my homecountry The Netherlands.

In general the DB9 does well in the heat and humidity of Peninsular Malayu, however a car with 'no record' should cause alarmbells to go off, including the fact its been up for sale for such a long time.

I suggest to either have it flat-bed transported to AM Singapore on Alexandra Rd. for a PPI (ideal situation) or at least give them a call and have them check their service record system. I have no experience with AM in KL but AM Singapore is a great dealer which is more then willing to assist. They can also tell if it was maintained by AM in Malaysia, if at all.

Good luck on this journey!

 

Hello- I have a 07 DB9 and have been happy with it as the second owner for several years. There is a reason the car your looking at been for sale for 2 years? Also, if it's been sitting to the 2 years fluids and other components need revived and checked thoroughly by someone who is qualified. If the coils and plugs have not been replaced they will need attention. I would just say, without service records lets say - they do! Misfires and rough running will be felt with or without a OBD. I didn't see the mileage on the clock mentioned, what is it ? The car is sensitive to tires. Check the age of the tire the brand and proper tire pressure for the next drive ( your friends comments) . Brake pads can be easily changed. Based on the information you provided and the lack of Aston support where you would own and use the car I would be skeptical. Keep doing your research ! Contact the shop which supposedly did work on the car prior.....they would remember the DB 9!
Good luck

 

Hi sdekoning, thanks for your reply!

Good to know you came to Malaysia soil before! Im sure you had better drive in Msia than Sginapore!

back to the topic, Malaysian tends to prefer lower CC cars to avoid paying high roardtax & insurance. To be fair to the current DB9 i am seeing, there are 2 more DB9s that are still listing for around 2 years or more & another 1 roughly (3-4) months. Those 2 that i did not see were 2005 made version & the current one im seeing is made 2007.

Before AMKL workshop exist, i was told most of the Aston owner here will send their car to SG to fix it. Also during period of time, MY & SG boarders are closed so will not be able to send to check anytime soon.

In fact i found 2 shops that had experience in servicing Aston (they have AMDT), though they also service other supercars as well. So i will bring it there to do a PPI.

Would you rate DB9 as one of the least troublesome car? i actually had a few more option like R8, F360 & 911 turbo (997/996), but Aston will still be Aston.

 

Hi 07sportpack! thanks for your reply

based on my friend expericned (he used to sell 2nd cars so he know how does the local dealer will play their nasty stuff), he said in general seems alright except the few things as mentioned above. the millage as shown is about 35k miles (not sure if they had tempered before)

I am prepared to fix few things like coil packs, spark plugs, engine oil & transmission oil and brakepads. which i also manage to get at least 5 workshops that able to assist on servicing, but only 2 fall within my budget.

as an experience owner of DB9, any other major things which i should be caution of?

 

The dreaded DB9 engine tick which will require a complete engine rebuild.