2015 Aston Martin Vantage Daily Driver

[Froomee]

I've previously had an immaculate Z4MR that was written off whilst parked and replaced with an Interlagos Blue Z4MC (no photos to hand at the moment).

Due to work hours and distance (55 mile round trip partially through London) the MC was always a weekend car and I had the use of a Ford Fiesta for work. The Fiesta was on lease and due to go back in June this year. Earlier on in the year I secured a new job on better pay whilst reducing my daily mileage to approx 30 miles. So I was contemplating getting something to do both... daily driver and weekend car.

Iv always wanted a Vantage and was contemplating getting one after the Z4MR. So after a bit of man maths I.e. my mileage has halved so I can afford a car that uses double the fuel, the tax is the same as my Z4MC, etc the search began...

My criteria was as new and as low mileage I could get within my budget, tasteful specification, manual and non-s model as the carbon splitter and speed humps would not be compatible. I looked at a few cars some had red callipers which I wasn’t keen on personally, a few had coloured inserts, some had mismatching tyres, generally tired, etc.

After looking at a few cars and considering I was going to use the car as a daily I decided that a warrantied car would probably be a better option.

Whilst my search was going on I had a call regarding my Z4MC and a guy arranged to fly over from Dublin to buy the car on a Saturday in May. The Thursday before a timeless car dropped in price to within my budget and I called only to be told it was sold but I left my details in case it didn’t go through... at 6pm on Friday I got a call to say as I had rung first I could view the car on the Saturday.

So I got up at 6am on Saturday, drove to Luton and had my Z4MC sold and sorted by 11am. An Uber trip later and I arrived at Park Lane.

The car was a 2015 model (updated), manual with just under 17k miles on the clock. As the stars seemed to have aligned for me I paid for the car and arranged for collection later that month.

Iv had the car 3 months now and it’s just ticked over 20k Miles.

I’ll add some updates on the three months shortly. In the mean time some obligatory pictures.









|https://thumbsnap.com/wZeraGhg[/url]

Edited by Froomee on Saturday 31st August 19:07

[anonymous-user]

Simply excellent.

[Ph1listine]

Perfection. Should be pretty depreciation-proof now!

[natben]

Very nice, always wanted a V8 Aston but can’t bring myself to part with my 4.5 V8 TVR Cerbera.

[gf15]

I look forward to reading this. The perfect daily in my view.
Please keep us updated.

[col1983]

Funnily enough, I’m thinking of doing the same! Z4MR to V8 Vantage, albeit I suspect my budget may only stretch to a 2009/2010 model with the mileage I want. Aside from price, how do they compare? Looks like a great example - look forward to reading more about it.

[Dick Dastardly]

I remember a thread in the AM sub forum a few years ago asking what car we’d come from, and a surprising number of us had gone from Z4MC to Vantage. Especially unexpected given how few of the former they actually made.

[milu]

I had a late z4mc from new back in 09
Always regretted selling it.
Here we are much later and I have a Vantage too. Very similar I think. AM makes a better noise but is similar in performance and general demeanour.
Z4mc rarer I suppose but AM is an AM so nice to have.
Hopefully I’ll keep this one longer

[phumy]

Talking of which car you came from to go to an AM, i went from this:

That is self induced "stance", i.e. rotten beam axle.




To this:

After raiding the kids piggy banks, old ladies handbags and ATM machines





Sorry OP not wanting to swerve your thread.

Edited by phumy on Monday 2nd September 05:29

[milu]

phumy said:

Talking of which car you came from to go to an AM, i went from this:

That is self induced "stance", i.e. rotten beam axle.




To this:

After raiding the kids piggy banks, old ladies handbags and ATM machines





Sorry OP not wanting to swerve your thread.

Edited by phumy on Monday 2nd September 05:29

I thought I'd seen your V12 on the A1 south in West Yorkshire on Saturday. Sure it was that colour because I remember the pics. However it was a different reg.

[phumy]

Definitely not me im about 6500 miles from there at this time.

[Froomee]

To answer a few of the points made...

I figured the car would be fairly deprecation proof and some of the initial loss would be offset by the fact I’ll get a years warrantied usage out of it before any major expenditure.

Some (rushed) interior shots...









The gear knob came with the car which was a nice touch although when I took delivery they had removed it for a standard one although that was soon rectified. The car also has an optional umbrella which may come in handy during the winter months.

I saw the thread on the Z4M to Vantage when purchasing mine... was useful to read.

Edited by Froomee on Monday 2nd September 21:11

[Froomee]

col1983 said:

Funnily enough, I’m thinking of doing the same! Z4MR to V8 Vantage, albeit I suspect my budget may only stretch to a 2009/2010 model with the mileage I want. Aside from price, how do they compare? Looks like a great example - look forward to reading more about it.

I’d say they are similar to a point (manual, two seats, nice sound with the right mods, fast enough) but the ride is very different I’d say the vantage feels far more planted and sure footed than either of my M’s. The Vantage feels a lot wider especially on smaller roads.

I think the Vantage feels slower than it actually is due to the lack of noise in the cabin... with the secondary cat delete, traction off and windows open, etc it feels notably quicker than the M.
My MR had a Hayward and Scott X-Pipe and boxes and the MC had a Gruppe M I preferred the latter.

I think the Vantage feels very closeted when driving at normal speeds which for me is part of the appeal as a daily. Mine has comfort suspension so even the worst speed bumps are dealt with in a composed manner. In the MC my spine could feel each bump in the road although for me it felt better on the CSL’s with PSS’s than the standard wheels on standard tyres.

The noise of the Vantage especially in the upper revs going through the gears is immense... better than the induction noise from the S54 in my opinion (although having both would be nice).

The interior of the Vantage is miles ahead of the BMW and with the updated interior of the Vantage things like USB, Bluetooth connectivity, Sat Nav, etc are all much better and more modern/user friendly.

In both cars due to my height (6’3) the driving position takes a bit of time to get comfy but I found both we’re fine for long journeys (road noise on the M and it being more sensitive to changes in the road being the major differences.

I prefer the gearbox in the Vantage by miles it’s nice and easy to engage gear and the clutch isn’t unreasonably heavy although reverse gear must be some sort of private joke. Blipping the throttle seems to make the car more jerky when reversing and often results in stalling... but there is a knack to it where it’s possible to reverse smoothly.

I also prefer the steering in the Vantage the wheel on the M is a bit thick and I like the weight of the Vantage steering.

Cup holders and glove boxes in both cars are basically useless except for storing a pen or driving at 20mph.

[Froomee]

phumy said:

Talking of which car you came from to go to an AM, i went from this:

That is self induced "stance", i.e. rotten beam axle.




To this:

After raiding the kids piggy banks, old ladies handbags and ATM machines





Sorry OP not wanting to swerve your thread.

Edited by phumy on Monday 2nd September 05:29

Not at all... lovely car btw.

I’ll contemplate a V12 if/when I don’t have to use it as a daily I think the petrol and carbon ceramics would be a step to far for a daily (unless I half my journey again although winter use would be a bit much maybe...)

I’d like a manual roadster potentially but they are way out of my budget at the moment...

See how this plan turns out first!

[Froomee]

A few bits to update (I’m a few months behind so I’ll try and catch up)...

Averaging around 19mpg at the moment for the driving I do and I’m averaging around 800-900 miles per month.

I was never a fan of the front plate holder. I got rid of this following the step by step in the Aston Martin subsection of this forum. I ordered a 3/4 sized front plate and some Velcro then competed the following...

[Froomee]

I ordered a set of over mats and Jack pads also recommended in the subsection of this forum.

I spent a weekend cleaning the car up throughly , although the dealer prep was really good it wasn’t to my standard.

So after a weekend of cleaning and polishing I ended up with the following...

[Court_S]

Good work on the paint; Black is a bugger to keep looking good.

Car looks lovely and top man maths for this to be a daily.

[ollyh1988]

Just beautiful.

With a black car I can fully recommend getting it professionally detailed. I had a paint correction done to mine and it looked like a mirror when I got it back - better than new. Also came up fantastically whenever I washed it myself.

[Froomee]

A rainy day at Goodwood followed shortly after...







That took me until the end of July or so... I still had some remaining bits to do I.e get the wheels off to clean the arches, seal them and wax the wheels.

Additionally the car felt a little muted even for a daily driver so I started looking into removing the secondary cats...

[LanceRS]

An absolutely stunning car. Found myself engrossed in Bamford Rose YouTube the other evening. I think that they may have a solution regarding the exhaust.