A friend of mine had one of these around 2007 and I remember finding it gorgeous, with a great interior, and an amazing engine sound. Early 4.3L versions came with manual transmissions, but the 4.7L seems to be overwhelmingly automatic.
There's a local Aston Martin dealer and I've seen a bunch on eBay and BaT lately. Prices for the 4.3L seem to be right around $40k ... which seems too good to be true.
Am I completely insane for considering one as a fair weather daily driver in northern NJ? I have access to other vehicles, including a 2020 Ram for winter beater duty. If I sell off a couple of project cars, I can come up with enough to buy one outright and put another few thousand on top to take care of deferred maintenance. Am I nuts?
I've spent some time servicing one over the years now. 4.7L with the "automatic" (really just an SMG transaxle). The owner doesn't really baby the car, it sits outside in summer under a tree. It's an absolutely gorgeous car and feels truly special. It hasn't needed much, from what I can remember it's had an evap leak (gas cap), a couple of O2 sensors, a sticky fuel door release actuator, and moisture inside the LED taillight assemblies. That's over probably 6-8 years now. Not sure what kind of mileage he's put on, but it isn't a ton.
I'd totally do it. Near the top of my attainable dream car list for sure.
I bet a lot of the wear-and-tear parts (starter, coils, injectors, etc) are standard Ford/Jaguar items.
ShawnG
MegaDork
4/28/23 10:46 p.m.
Year?
I'm a fan of the 78 Vantage.
I'm looking at the early 2000s V8 Vantage with 4.3L engine and manual transmission.
Supposedly the 4.7 was a meaningful upgrade in the chassis department as well as the engine. But I'm highly interested as well
Sonic
UberDork
4/29/23 4:42 a.m.
I looked seriously at them before I bought my NSX years ago. The clutches are a weak point and not an easy service, so watch for that. The DB9 is also not much more expensive and has a V12, plus the clutch on those is more robust, but the manual is more rare. I drove a DB9 then, and found that it wasn't much more interesting than the CLS63 I had at the time and certainly put together less well than the Mercedes.
They certainly are beautiful. Give it a drive for yourself and see what you think.
I've looked at the DB9 as well, but it's impossible to find a manual. And overall it's more of a cruiser and less of a sports car. I just think the V8 Vantage with manual will be more fun to drive
These are the ones that share platform or something with the jag xk8? They look very similar at least.
My dad sold cars for the last few years before he retired and they had one of these for a few months at the dealership. He brought it home a few and I got to drive it, definitely felt like a pretty special car to drive.
Go test drive one and see how it holds up to your memories of your friends car.
Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:
These are the ones that share platform or something with the jag xk8? They look very similar at least.
That's kind of the DB7. The DB9 was totally new, and the V8 vantage got a close derivative of that. Good chassis, too, given the racing success.
johndej
SuperDork
4/29/23 10:14 a.m.
Mmmmm.... Truffle Cream. That's all I got. Back to my $200 Corolla.
The V8 manuals can be upgraded to the V12 clutch and then they're good to go.
Also the V12 was known to pop for no substantial reason. The V8 is fairly solid.
This is a regurgitation of podcast info. I trust the source.
also with an exhaust...... hnng
Link to the podcast? I'm trying to learn more before jumping in.
My parents neighbor had one hiding in his garage for a few months, which was odd because mostly he just has junk. I don't mean junk cars, I mean just junk stuff. Anyway, a friend of a relative or something was overseas for several months on deployment and somehow he ended up storing it for him. He showed it to me and let me sit in it and start it. Seemed very special. Manual. Sounded great. Couldn't drive it - it was boxed in by aforementioned junk.
Those have been on my radar ever since. But they used to be ~$30k. Now they're ... not.
Opti
SuperDork
4/29/23 10:08 p.m.
There used to be quite a few owners on 6speedonline or fchat. I think it was Doug Demuro that documented his ownership. I always like them and thought they were so pretty but couldnt justify it. Slightly more reliable and another 100 hp and Id be all over it. Dont think the V12 vanatge looked as good. There are a couple blower options that were pretty common when I was following them.
In reply to LanEvo :
It's one of the carmudgeon episodes. I'll have to find it. It wasn't dedicated to the car but they spent some time on it.
edit: might be episode 29, Aston CEO drama or something like that.
I used to see one fairly regularly until about 5 years ago. Metallic black with a terra cotta interior. It always made me go a bit misty and make strange noises. Gorgeous, gorgeous car.
NorseDave said:
But they used to be ~$30k. Now they're ... not.
They bottomed out around 4-5 years ago. These days $38-45k seems to be typical. That's one reason why I figure it's a good time to get one. To me, $40k is a fair price for a V8 Vantage 5-speed with low miles. They're likely to soon appreciate beyond what I could justify paying for one.
I cross shopped one when I picked up my 911 instead. My main issue was that I am 6'1" mostly torso, and I ended up looking through the top of the windshield (Had the same issue with my 97 miata, but that was my partners car). If you are a taller/bigger person I'd go take a sit in one if you can.
A friend is selling his 2002 Vanquish. This has got the v12 engine, Magneti Marelli gearbox (borrowed from 550 Maranello), and Lotus-derived carbon/aluminum chassis. Full service history. Updated shifter mechanism, which takes care of one of the biggest complaints about the Vanquish. Just 22k miles and dead sexy.
Would be probably $15k more than a V8 Vantage ... but it's mighty tempting!
Always thought the V8 Vantage would have been a fun cruiser to have. I also can't recall the last time I saw one on the road.
If you haven't seen it yet, we posted a buyer's guide over on Classic not too long ago:
Aston Martin V8 Vantage: a more exclusive alternative to the 911?
kb58
UltraDork
6/19/23 9:17 p.m.
Somewhat related, we recently sold a Jag F-Type R that we owned for only a year. Reasons included:
Extremely limited cargo space. This turned out to be a big deal because wherever we went, it always seemed like what we were buying wouldn't fit. Even Costco runs were out.
Cost of ownership - real or imagined: I learned that even though you may have bought it relatively cheap, you are nevertheless seen as having deep pockets by repair shops and parts departments. Being a high(er)-end sports car, everything has the Exotic Tax on it.
Related to the above, after learned that a headlamp assembly is $4K, and used engines around $20K, I became much more apprehensive about owning one. Even concerns about door dings became a bigger deal, worried what it would do to its value.
Traffic: Traffic has become bad enough that I've lost all interest in driving anything sporty. This weekend, on a trip to a big box store, there are eight traffic lights. "Just for fun", I counted how many were red on the way there - all of them - and on the way home, 6/8. Some time back, we took the Jag on a "relaxing" drive down the coast highway, and idled along at 20 mph along with everyone else in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I felt kind of stupid sitting on 550 supercharged horsepower.
The point is, ask yourself what you'll do with it - will it fulfill that need? More importantly, consider whether you have the financial backing such that potential repairs are a non-issue. For me, the anxiety of what could fail overruled its beauty :(
So when I see a really nice sports car parked far from everyone else, I get it, but do wonder how much anxiety it's causing the owner. Who owns who?
