Lots of us love a V12 Aston Martin.....

[Andyk]

I have to know that emotionally I know which one I'd go for....

C

Enjoyed that. No guess which one I would take. The prettier one of the thee and it doesn’t have a dancing donkey on it. The Vantage just doesn’t look old even after 18 years. The other two do look old..Or should I say classic.

 

[Andyk]

https://collectingcars.com/for-sale/2012-aston-martin-v12-vantage-2

If only I had the space …….and the money.
A very rare non silver/grey/black V12 vantage, very nice.

Yep, that is a stunner and as you say a very rare colour. Wouldn’t surprise me if there wasn’t another in this colour.

 

[Andyk]

I'm 12 months into Aston V12 ownership with my 2012 Virage.

Its my third Aston, the previous 2 being V8 Vantages but I really wanted to experience V12 ownership before its too late!
Fantastic car and a truly special experience on each and every drive. My previous car was a GS (both cars together in my profile pic) I absolutely loved my GS and truly miss it.

The Virage and GS are very different cars. Virage leans more towards being a proper GT car. GS is a sports car with some handy GT car attributes......like having back seats that you can actually use!
Sadly my GS has now gone.........but I still keep looking at them

My conclusion is that you need both cars.

View attachment 112533View attachment 112534View attachment 112535

Beautiful car and it sounds like you are still loving it.

 

[Ewan]

I mentioned on here a while ago that a friend had bought a new AM Superlegerra (I think that’s what the top of the range V12 GT AM is called these days). If I recall, the list price was something around the £250k mark, but he got a good discount.
Anyway, I had lunch with him last week and he turned up in his daughters Golf, so I asked about the AM.
It turns out he had sold it a couple of weeks earlier, after 18 months of ownership. He decided he needed to be out of it before it got too old or had too many miles on it.
Remarkably he only lost £20k in depreciation. I find that incredible on a car of that age, value and brand. Demand for these must still be high, so not a crazy purchase as long as you get a good deal in the first place.
He’s now going back to a DB11 (as he had before), on the basis that he doesn’t need 750bhp, and that 550bhp is more than sufficient to get him to the local shop, pub, etc.
So, for all the YouTube videos talking of the shocking depreciation on brand new Astons, maybe it’s not always the case.

 

[Andyk]

I mentioned on here a while ago that a friend had bought a new AM Superlegerra (I think that’s what the top of the range V12 GT AM is called these days). If I recall, the list price was something around the £250k mark, but he got a good discount.
Anyway, I had lunch with him last week and he turned up in his daughters Golf, so I asked about the AM.
It turns out he had sold it a couple of weeks earlier, after 18 months of ownership. He decided he needed to be out of it before it got too old or had too many miles on it.
Remarkably he only lost £20k in depreciation. I find that incredible on a car of that age, value and brand. Demand for these must still be high, so not a crazy purchase as long as you get a good deal in the first place.
He’s now going back to a DB11 (as he had before), on the basis that he doesn’t need 750bhp, and that 550bhp is more than sufficient to get him to the local shop, pub, etc.
So, for all the YouTube videos talking of the shocking depreciation on brand new Astons, maybe it’s not always the case.

That is interesting Ewan. They seemed to have bottomed out at about 135k/140k for an early line and they have been there for some time. I think new there were some good discounts but good on him as that is not much to lose on a car at that price point. What may be helping now is that they have announced production will stop this year hence the final 707 version. Short life span will probably also help.

 

[Felonious Crud]

I'm 12 months into Aston V12 ownership with my 2012 Virage.

Its my third Aston, the previous 2 being V8 Vantages but I really wanted to experience V12 ownership before its too late!
Fantastic car and a truly special experience on each and every drive. My previous car was a GS (both cars together in my profile pic) I absolutely loved my GS and truly miss it.

The Virage and GS are very different cars. Virage leans more towards being a proper GT car. GS is a sports car with some handy GT car attributes......like having back seats that you can actually use!
Sadly my GS has now gone.........but I still keep looking at them

My conclusion is that you need both cars.

View attachment 112533View attachment 112534View attachment 112535

Wonderful. And your conclusion is correct, you do need both.

I went from a GTS to a V12 Vantage S and love it. I especially like the size and having just two seats. Mrs Crud thinks two seats is just silly, but as she only ever occupies one at a time I have decided her opinion in this case is inconsequential. I also like how riotously silly it is.

 

[CLRut]

I just remembered it was me who started this thread. For me, the peak of AM manufacturing was 2014-16. The cars (Vantage, DB9 and Vanquish) were fully honed and simply beautiful with no fussy lines. Bizarrely, with the AMi III, the infotainment was first class and better than the out of date Mercedes systems they then fitted to the DB11 and new Vantage to overcome misplaced criticisms of what they had developed themselves (sadly very few owners got to experience AMi III unless they spent a lot of money upgrading (myself and F. Crud went for it with no regrets at all).

I am no photographer but I was really pleased with these shots taken on a recent visit to Bicester Heritage. 2015 Vanquish Ultramarine Black

Don't forget the V12 Vantage S 7-speed manuals which, from memory, were mainly 2017 cars and captured all of the years of development/honing which had gone before it - including the AMIII. Delighted with my first few weeks of ownership - albeit itching for better weather! This deserves miles to be piled onto it.

V12VS 7Spd dog-leg heaven :) - Page 1 - Aston Martin - PistonHeads UK

....And yes, I do still miss the wonderful Strad and that glorious engine, albeit the V12 through a Titanium exhaust system is an appropriate compromise.

 

[Andyk]

Don't forget the V12 Vantage S 7-speed manuals which, from memory, were mainly 2017 cars and captured all of the years of development/honing which had gone before it - including the AMIII. Delighted with my first few weeks of ownership - albeit itching for better weather! This deserves miles to be piled onto it.

V12VS 7Spd dog-leg heaven :) - Page 1 - Aston Martin - PistonHeads UK

....And yes, I do still miss the wonderful Strad and that glorious engine, albeit the V12 through a Titanium exhaust system is an appropriate compromise.

Wasn’t the 7 speed manual in the V12V an acquired taste as it wasn’t the easiest to handle and a very easy car to stall in traffic. One for the faithful maybe. From what I have read it is the same with the latest manual Vantage. Sounds like you are loving yours and why wouldn’t you. A beautiful thing.

 

[Felonious Crud]

Don't forget the V12 Vantage S 7-speed manuals which, from memory, were mainly 2017 cars and captured all of the years of development/honing which had gone before it - including the AMIII. Delighted with my first few weeks of ownership - albeit itching for better weather! This deserves miles to be piled onto it.

V12VS 7Spd dog-leg heaven :) - Page 1 - Aston Martin - PistonHeads UK

....And yes, I do still miss the wonderful Strad and that glorious engine, albeit the V12 through a Titanium exhaust system is an appropriate compromise.

Ah, it was you that bought it! Stunning car, very well done. Where are you based? I'd love to compare notes (sic!) on the exhaust. I have the Bamford Rose setup and it sounds tremendous but can be a bit anti-social unless you keep the revs low enough that the valves don't wake up. On the upside it goes like absolute stink. And then, when you want, you can turn the wick down, manually close the valves and Mr Hyde becomes a far more sedate Dr Jekyl again.

I'll take your Alcantara, I could be swayed by your colour but I'd need to try the bucket seats and the manual 'box. I think on balance I'm too lazy and prefer the same gearbox but with a robot doing the changes for me. But chances are whichever I had would delight me in equal measure.

Again, bravo!

PS - I'll take your carbon waterfall as well. Mine's piano black, which is a dust, fingerprint and scratch magnet.

 

[CLRut]

Wasn’t the 7 speed manual in the V12V an acquired taste as it wasn’t the easiest to handle and a very easy car to stall in traffic. One for the faithful maybe. From what I have read it is the same with the latest manual Vantage. Sounds like you are loving yours and why wouldn’t you. A beautiful thing.

Hello Andy - hope you are well and many thanks.

Most testers of the car recognised you needed to spend a bit of time in the car to fully gel with the box as its a 7sp dog-leg which takes effort. From my perspective, it was a major part of the reason for purchasing as I have to work at it and it's not a given from Day 1. It's not really been any issue and after a short time, it's 2nd nature and huge fun - take a look at videos from Harris, Goy et al and they recognise this. I'm not currently in that much of a hurry that I need or want to bang through the gears at super speed (even if ability allowed!) - I'm laughing too much at the exhaust noise and sheer amount of pace from whatever gear

EDIT; Cracking video here - https://www.topgear.com/videos/chris-harris-drives/aston-martin-v12-vantage-s-vs-porsche-911r

As regards stalling, that's not something I was aware of - the engine has so much torque you can pull away in 3rd if you wanted and so I've not experienced any issues in urban traffic.

 

[CLRut]

Ah, it was you that bought it! Stunning car, very well done. Where are you based? I'd love to compare notes (sic!) on the exhaust. I have the Bamford Rose setup and it sounds tremendous but can be a bit anti-social unless you keep the revs low enough that the valves don't wake up. On the upside it goes like absolute stink. And then, when you want, you can turn the wick down, manually close the valves and Mr Hyde becomes a far more sedate Dr Jekyl again.

I'll take your Alcantara, I could be swayed by your colour but I'd need to try the bucket seats and the manual 'box. I think on balance I'm too lazy and prefer the same gearbox but with a robot doing the changes for me. But chances are whichever I had would delight me in equal measure.

Again, bravo!

PS - I'll take your carbon waterfall as well. Mine's piano black, which is a dust, fingerprint and scratch magnet.

Thanks Felonius. Yes - after over 9 months of looking, test driving both flappy and 7sp, and holding out for the "right" spec (for me), I moved on the Romans car which has mileage at a level that I will be able to enjoy many years of enjoyable driving hopefully! I thought very long and hard about the manual given the substantial step up in cost, but there was also a very emotional draw to it as well given I've owned a TVR Tuscan for 18 yrs and have driven the 6-spd V12 extensively. In the end, I couldn't get my head around spending c£90k on a 11-13 yrs old 6-speed, and whilst I was very impressed with the flappy paddles, the "full package" of the manual, and it being built in the last 6 months of that era of Vantage, meant the stretch was made - at least in man-maths terms...

Seats were the main "non-negotiable" as I'd sat in the originals for long journeys before and found them excellent. The newer ones are even better and I'm pleased I waited again. They were surprisingly uncommon in the 'S so it meant most of the cars coming to market over the past 9 mths were non-starters for me in that regard. Carbon dash the same as I concur on the Piano feedback. First world issues from a man with an ancient TVR with carpet which has never fitted properly and falls down constantly

The exhaust is the same set-up as that on the GT12 - it was the OEM AM Performance pack which the prior owner had the superb foresight to spec. I'll never forget hearing the GT12 at a car event around 5yrs ago where I could hear it over a mile away . The "AM Shift" option is also a nice touch albeit you can pick and choose whether you use it.

 

[Andyk]

Hello Andy - hope you are well and many thanks.

Most testers of the car recognised you needed to spend a bit of time in the car to fully gel with the box as its a 7sp dog-leg which takes effort. From my perspective, it was a major part of the reason for purchasing as I have to work at it and it's not a given from Day 1. It's not really been any issue and after a short time, it's 2nd nature and huge fun - take a look at videos from Harris, Goy et al and they recognise this. I'm not currently in that much of a hurry that I need or want to bang through the gears at super speed (even if ability allowed!) - I'm laughing too much at the exhaust noise and sheer amount of pace from whatever gear

As regards stalling, that's not something I was aware of - the engine has so much torque you can pull away in 3rd if you wanted and so I've not experienced any issues in urban traffic.

Sounds fantastic my friend. Is the the silver one you posted you bought ? Stunning vehicle.

This is a pretty good watch with the V12 manual in it.

 

[Felonious Crud]

This is the BR config. It sounds best at full chat.

 

[hashluck]

Don't forget the V12 Vantage S 7-speed manuals which, from memory, were mainly 2017 cars and captured all of the years of development/honing which had gone before it - including the AMIII. Delighted with my first few weeks of ownership - albeit itching for better weather! This deserves miles to be piled onto it.

V12VS 7Spd dog-leg heaven :) - Page 1 - Aston Martin - PistonHeads UK

....And yes, I do still miss the wonderful Strad and that glorious engine, albeit the V12 through a Titanium exhaust system is an appropriate compromise.

Cracking! Well played

 

[CLRut]

This is the BR config. It sounds best at full chat.

That fly-by is magnificent

This is the same exhaust as mine has - and also happens to be a superb SCD video; fast forward to 4 mins

 

[Felonious Crud]

That fly-by is magnificent

This is the same exhaust as mine has - and also happens to be a superb SCD video; fast forward to 4 mins

It does do full-chat very well!

Your exhaust has a bit more burble than mine, which I like. The V12s will never pop and bang but can burble quite well. As I understand you have the regular manifolds as me but no secondary cats, is that right? Whereas I have tubular manifolds and sports secondaries, plus the chance to set the valves manually between open, closed, or factory (i.e. open at around 3k depending on whether in sports mode).

 

[CLRut]

It does do full-chat very well!

Your exhaust has a bit more burble than mine, which I like. The V12s will never pop and bang but can burble quite well. As I understand you have the regular manifolds as me but no secondary cats, is that right? Whereas I have tubular manifolds and sports secondaries, plus the chance to set the valves manually between open, closed, or factory (i.e. open at around 3k depending on whether in sports mode).

AMR Performance pack included the following - so a change in manifolds, exhaust system, rear diffuser and removal of secondary cats.

V12 Vantage - Dynamic - Accessories

www2.astonmartin.com

 

[Felonious Crud]

AMR Performance pack included the following - so a change in manifolds, exhaust system, rear diffuser and removal of secondary cats.

V12 Vantage - Dynamic - Accessories

www2.astonmartin.com

It's the same old restrictive standard exhaust manifolds but with new inlet manifolds plus the secondary de-cat (plus a de-cat or minus a cat? Anyway...) and a whopping five-figure bill. There's someone local-ish to me who has this and I need to compare the acoustics. As he has no roof it's quite possible that he's a deaf as a doornail.

 

[Andyk]

New DB12. Evolution rather than revolution. Cross between DB11 and DBS which for me isn’t a bad thing but the biggest change is the interior which seems more fitting for the price as the DB11 and DBS would have never won awards for theirs against the competition and not a note and electric propelling it at all.

 

[Andyk]