Clutch advice on Vantage V8 Manual - considering purchase

[ipd57]

Hi,

I am feeling like there is an Aston Martin shaped hole in my life and am looking to fill it with a 4.3 08 car sourced from an AM dealer. The car presently under consideration is a fraction under 20k miles - getting it home would likley take it over - and the dealer says it would not need a clutch. Usually clutches are not covered under warranties, but I have not seen the AM cover. Now, I am concerned, given the cost, as to how long before it might require one. I know the standard answer is - depends on how it is driven. From my point of view, normally carefully and not too aggressively. But does anyone have any guidance on typcially what the experience has been with these on clutches and what kind of mileage is 'normal'. How much do they cost to have done once they need it?. Do they go slowly with warning, or drop off a cliff one day to a crisis?. Any help gratefully received.

[1JEB]

I think it's more pertinent how the previous owner(s) drove the car... and that you or the dealer will never know. Mine needed a new clutch after 20k miles. I would budget for needing one soon after you buy it, if you don't then happy days! Not sure how the sale of goods act would apply if it needed one soon after buying but given that the parts (on a sportshift at least) are well over a grand and it needs 12hrs labour, they'll try to avoid paying it.

Clutches seem to be one of the few things that paying up for at a dealer offers little or no protection. Brakes and tyres are relatively easy to check and the rest will be under warranty.

Good luck!

[ipd57]

Thanks both. Yes, I know it is down to the prior owner, and the cost is sounding rather ouch if it needed it within say 3-4,000 miles which for me might only be a year. Do the Aston's not have a diagnostic which can tell them the amount of clutch wear?. I know this can be done on some other marques (my Porsche for instance I think)

[1JEB]

ipd57 said:

Thanks both. Yes, I know it is down to the prior owner, and the cost is sounding rather ouch if it needed it within say 3-4,000 miles which for me might only be a year. Do the Aston's not have a diagnostic which can tell them the amount of clutch wear?. I know this can be done on some other marques (my Porsche for instance I think)

I don't think so unfortunately.

[jonamv8]

You sound like you are in exactly the same position as when I bought mine last August. I'm not even going to tempt fate...

Out of interest how much is the car your are looking at - Do you have a link out of curiosity?

Can you try and speak to the previous owner to gauge their attitude to driving at all?

My mate had his clutch go on an M6 3 months after purchase and got it fixed by BMW as a goodwill even though it's not covered. If it went in the first 3 months I'd have a good go but your never going to know until the event.

[bogie]

I think you could get the clutch measured, but its not standard practice nor easy to do

im on my 60K service at the end of the month, on original clutch...so fingers crossed for me, hopefully I can get it to last another year or two maybe

..I bought it at 5K miles, 4.5 years ago, majority of driving longer journeys rather than city commuting

[mikey k]

My sport shift car has done 19k with no issues
Only thing I would say is avoid reverse
It is too highly geared so needs a lot of slipping going up hill and moving slowly.

[drcarrera]

I'm looking at an ex-AM owned car, which apparently has been loaned to customers for extended demos. General condition and brakes I can check visually, but as it's probably been ragged quite a lot I'm worried about the clutch. I assume it's not covered by the standard warranty.
Don't really want to be stuck with a big bill a few weeks down the road!
I've had over thirty cars in thirty years and have never needed to replace a clutch on any of them!

[Murph7355]

Clutches are wear items. If you want to be covered, buy a new car or try and get the seller to agree to cover the cost if it goes - good luck with that one though. I wouldn't if selling privately.

I don't think there's enough data to suggest the average lifespan. But plenty on here have gone a long time on the original (bogie - 60k. Me - 43k and plenty of others).

Demo cars possibly increase the risk as the box can catch people out. Especially when reversing a lot. Though if it's with a dealer, either try and get them to agree to cover it or knock 3k off the price and bank it.

End of the day, if you genuinely want an Aston, you need to be fully prepared to take the servicing costs. No one wants a big bill straight after purchase, but consumable parts wear out. Be ready for it. You may be able to get a car for 40k, but it still carries the servicing costs of a 100k car (though the AM is mostly very good in this respect). Thankfully the clutch is by far the worst general item. So even if you end up needing one, that should then leave you with no more scares for the rest of your tenure.

And if you've gone so many cars without incident, IF it happens on this one, just write it off against all the others

[ipd57]

For what it was worth, the car when I drove it just did not grab me. It actually felt ...ordinary. Just did not excite me. I can't buy a car that I can't fall for like that.

But......they did have a 4.7 Roadster on Sportshift, so.....today's the day and my life extends by one Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

Thanks for those who responded

[mikey k]

Welcome to the sportshift roadster club