07 Vantage bought

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Discussion

SR

Original Poster:

269 posts

212 months

Wednesday 9th October
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Very happy, somewhat pi**ed.
Here I am halfway between Portsmouth and Bilbao on the ferry , a bottle of red wine inside me after dinner and contemplating life. It’s good!
Excuse my drunken ramblings.
I’ve just bought a 2007 Aston Martin Vantage!
Let’s start at the beginning.
I have lucked into a job as estate manager, (I’m a welder/fabricator by trade), of a huge private property in Majorca, get paid very well, have a small pension ( I’m 66 ) and get £600 month rent for my poxy little flat in Portsmouth. In addition the estate gives me a newish Audi Q5 for my own personal use and the wife and I get £4,000 a month for expenses. Lucky bd! Ramblings, very drunk, sorry.
Anyway, I’d long planned to buy a Vantage for when the wife and I retire and do a huge European tour. We have been in the job for a year now and plan to do one more year. Ideally I’d have bought the car nearer our retirement but a car popped up on PistonHeads auction site, I bid sight unseen and won. £22,000 plus commission so about £23,400.
Flight from Palma to Edinburgh, train to Tweedbank to meet the seller and a short drive to his home and there’s the Vantage on his drive, a one off light metallic blue that’s apparently a Ferrari colour looking stunning!
I’d done a bit of checking previously, good MOT history, excellent service history, one previous owner and just under 40,000 miles. A quick look around the car, transfer the funds to the seller and on my way to the ferry at Portsmouth eight odd hours away.
First impressions. The car drives superbly, no rattles or squeaks, lovely manual gearbox, brakes are good and it sounds superb. Negatives are a hell of a lot of road noise and having had a C4 Corvette that would do nearly 30 mpg on a run 20 mpg on a lot of 50 mph restricted motorways is not good. Especially not living in the UK and knowing petrol prices I stop and fill up at 1.65 a litre!
UK motorways! F*ck me! Still works on the M6! Still works on the M27! 50 mph average speed cameras for miles!
In the ferry car park alongside me was a Ferrari SF90 and a few cars ahead one of the GMA fan cars which I first mistook for a KTM as it was in that particular orange colour KTM seem to use. Mine is the best looking!
In my humble opinion my Vantage has to be in the top 5 best looking cars ever.
I will arrive in Bilbao tomorrow morning at seven then drive six or so hours to Barcelona for the ferry overnight to Palma. No worries about the car and can’t wait to drive in Majorca. Out of season there, when it’s less crowded there are some fantastic roads and the island is stunningly beautiful.

Nigel_O

3,057 posts

226 months

Wednesday 9th October
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Dream job, dream car - well done on both counts.

I’ve never found it written down anywhere, but apparently it’s the law to post pictures of your new purchase.

I suspect servicing might be a bit of a challenge. AM specialists are thin on the ground in the UK, so I can’t imagine there will be many in the Balearics… will you use an AM dealer on the mainland?

XMark

62 posts

178 months

Wednesday 9th October
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Nigel’s right, pics or ban lolol
Enjoy!

geresey

448 posts

130 months

Wednesday 9th October
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Sounds really nice and a good deal!

Interesting account of buying from one of the auction sites. Presumably the seller just needed a quick sale.

Ps - Put in a word for me when you finish the job in Majorca, and I’ll take mine over on a similar trip smile

Calinours

1,328 posts

57 months

Wednesday 9th October
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Congratulations. IMHO you are bang on the money as maybe top 5 (certainly top 10) best ever designs. I've always thought that car as utterly beautiful from any angle. It's a sure fire future classic, enjoy it and look after it, and it will look after you. The only weak bits are clutch and electrical control modules. Photos pls...

Edited by Calinours on Wednesday 9th October 21:17

SR

Original Poster:

269 posts

212 months

Wednesday 9th October
quotequote all
SR said:
Taken on Hayling Island before catching the ferry to Bilbao.
Front wheels need a refurbish and will get the car ceramic coated.
I will have to go to Barcelona for official AM service, not too expensive on the ferry, residents here get a big discount for Spanish travel. Having said that the dealership is where I took the bosses Bentley Bentayga and they have somewhat disappointed with their service. Another story.
My car was fitted with a new dual plate clutch earlier this year so shouldn’t have any problems there.
On one aspect of owning the car it’s a bit strange people’ assuming ownership equates to huge wealth. I could have bought a new something or other for the price I paid and would lose a third of the purchase price over a couple of years. I’m hoping to do a big European tour, add ten or fifteen thousand miles and sell losing perhaps four or five grand worse case scenario. Taking servicing costs into account I reckon pretty evens. Petrol difference more than made up for the noise! God it sounds dirty above 4,000 rpm!
Man maths smile

Astontony

464 posts

61 months

Thursday 10th October
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Love the colour and happy driving.

SR

Original Poster:

269 posts

212 months

Thursday 10th October
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The seller was a lovely guy, owned five cars and was reducing to two, a 911, he was still deciding on which model and a new electric Renault 5? He’d been offered £20,000 from a dealership, I paid £23,500 with commission and would have paid £30k for the car at a dealership. Man maths again, I’ve got £6,500 to spend on anything that needs doing. I never scrimp on car maintenance even when I’m driving old sheds, especially tyres!
I plan on at least one top speed run so will get the wheels done and new tyres all round in a few months.
With Majorca now less busy I can enjoy some fantastic driving roads here.

guyvert1

1,976 posts

249 months

Thursday 10th October
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Now thats how you do PH, looks like you've bagged a very nice Vantage, great colour.. Enjoy smile

bogie

16,613 posts

279 months

Thursday 10th October
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Congrats, the early Vantage is such great VFM, and you have a low mileage example in a lovely colour thumbup

enjoy driving it around warmer and drier climates smile

flow99

1,266 posts

215 months

Thursday 10th October
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congratulations! Am buying a place in Palma and havent seen an Aston there so will no doubt attract some attention. Would like to take my DBS over there for extended period of time, but concerned its too big for a lot of the local roads, so will probably take our Boxster initially.

Nigel_O

3,057 posts

226 months

Thursday 10th October
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A non-monochrome ‘07 V8V with a recent twin-plate clutch for £23,500!

Absolute bargain

You also have the added benefit of driving it on some glorious roads, in excellent weather

Not jealous, no siree…..

Go60 Jay

91 posts

12 months

Thursday 10th October
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Hi,

Congrats. The 4.3 manual was my first Aston in 2010. She looks lovely and a light weight clutch is perfect. Well done.

Enjoy the journey home and the trips away. I’m really pleased for you. ☺️

John

CatalystV12V

784 posts

188 months

Thursday 10th October
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Congrats on the purchase - I'm getting old I know, but I still love the VH era cars - timeless elegance which to my mind has yet to be beaten!

alscar

5,400 posts

220 months

Thursday 10th October
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Congrats SR - enjoyed the tale and your new car looks fab.
Best of luck with it.

Dewi 2

1,493 posts

72 months

Thursday 10th October
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SR said:
I’ve just bought a 2007 Aston Martin Vantage!

You have found a great car. Well done.
I tried to remember the name of the beautiful colour.

Think YouTuber Smee's Vantage Roadster, might be the same colour.
He used to post on here, before starting his YouTube videos.
Bought the Vantage, sold it and then later bought it back again.




bullet7

315 posts

109 months

Friday 11th October
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Dewi 2 said:


I tried to remember the name of the beautiful colour.

Think YouTuber Smee's Vantage Roadster, might be the same colour.

If it's the Ferrari colour, then it's not quite the same as Shmee's. It will be Grigio Alloy and I have one in the same hue. Oddly, whilst it is light blue in colour, on the V5 it is stated as silver, which I guess is closer to the literal translation of the Italian.

Krhuangbin

977 posts

138 months

Friday 11th October
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That looks bloody gorgeous. And as said above, complete bargain you’ve bagged there.

I have an early 06 car, with a couple of minor performance enhancements (look into a reputable remap and perhaps hiflo cats, both work together to turn the whole car up a notch…… jealous of your twin plate!!!)

They are absolutely quality, and pretty robust. And yes, the early 05-10 cars with original body, are just about as pretty as a motor can get. I still after a few years just drink it in sometimes. Gorgeous special little cars

Enjoy

Import

214 posts

37 months

Friday 11th October
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Funny how things work out…congrats..I love them in colour too..enjoy those breeeezy warm days…

Shnozz

28,008 posts

278 months

Friday 11th October
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Be interested to know your plans re re-registering or bringing it back before 6 months each year? I guess whether you are resident or not makes a difference to registration speed requirements.

Also same Q re insurance? Saga seem to be the only mainstream insurer that will offer more than 90 day European cover.

Vested interest in these answers as I’ve got cars both in the U.K. and (mainland) Spain and its way more complicated than just being able to drive them between the two homes without a lot of questions considered each way.