Just finished chatting with a friend who's neighbour has a Vanquish S and have been told an almost unbelievable story... had it not been about an Aston, I probably wouldn't have believed it.

Apparently the Vanquish is c. 24 months old and it has allegedly been at the factory for a total of almost 9 months of its very short life for 'issues' to be sorted.

Is any car worth that amount of grief?

 

Its also about £4,500 for a clutch. Cheaper at an indy of course but it then has to go back to Aston to be recalibrated and setup as very very few people have the computer kit to do it.

Not a cheap car to own.

 

Bugger! I was going to trade the S in for one! You spoilt my fun now!

 

AM seem to develop as they go
I did some work with their glass supplier a while back.
They told me there are 9 different "patterns" for the DB7 rear screen
Only two are still available.
What ever you do don't break the rear screen on a DB7

 

Astons, lovely to look at, lovely to drive, lovely to listen to.

Absolutely horrible to own

 

Is the same for the DB7 do you think?

 

I had some corroboration from a mechanic I know who works for the local dealer (in that end of the car trade for decades).

This is same guys that kindly gave AE, MQ and Sazzy an unforgettable Evora day a while back.

For me, I find the driving position is too sunken/low down ...

And it would be a tight squeeze in the garage

 

My father in law's neighbour had a DB7 a few years back.

He only owned it for a year (as he does with all his cars) and of that 12 months, it spent 8 in the garage. It literally got to the point where he was scared to drive it. He only put about 2k miles on it in the whole year he owned it! He got very friendly with the Recovery chap in the village!

 

My neighbour has the Vantage V8 when it was first released.

After about nine months I saw that it appeared to have been replaced by a Maser.

I eventually caught up with the neighbour and had a chat. It turned out the Maser was a credit hire vehicle and that an old dear had reversed her car into the front of the Aston, causing a crease in the bonnet.

It had taken something silly like 4 months to replace the bonnet because apparently it had to be panel beaten to fit. The credit hire costs for the Maserati ran easily into tens of thousands of pounds.

The Vantage had been plagued with electronic niggles too and my neighbour traded in the Vantage as soon as he got it back and bought an M5 instead.

 

Oh dear.