I thought we were talking about the late 80s James Bond version:
I thought we were talking about the late 80s James Bond version:
LanEvo said:A friend is selling his 2002 Vanquish. This has got the v12 engine, Magneti Marelli gearbox (borrowed from 550 Maranello), and Lotus-derived carbon/aluminum chassis. Full service history. Updated shifter mechanism, which takes care of one of the biggest complaints about the Vanquish. Just 22k miles and dead sexy.
Would be probably $15k more than a V8 Vantage ... but it's mighty tempting!
Doooooo itttttt
(Then come back here and tell us of your experiences.)
kb58 said:Somewhat related, we recently sold a Jag F-Type R that we owned for only a year. Reasons included:
Extremely limited cargo space. This turned out to be a big deal because wherever we went, it always seemed like what we were buying wouldn't fit. Even Costco runs were out.
Cost of ownership - real or imagined: I learned that even though you may have bought it relatively cheap, you are nevertheless seen as having deep pockets by repair shops and parts departments. Being a high(er)-end sports car, everything has the Exotic Tax on it.
Related to the above, after learned that a headlamp assembly is $4K, and used engines around $20K, I became much more apprehensive about owning one. Even concerns about door dings became a bigger deal, worried what it would do to its value.
Traffic: Traffic has become bad enough that I've lost all interest in driving anything sporty. This weekend, on a trip to a big box store, there are eight traffic lights. "Just for fun", I counted how many were red on the way there - all of them - and on the way home, 6/8. Some time back, we took the Jag on a "relaxing" drive down the coast highway, and idled along at 20 mph along with everyone else in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I felt kind of stupid sitting on 550 supercharged horsepower.
The point is, ask yourself what you'll do with it - will it fulfill that need? More importantly, consider whether you have the financial backing such that potential repairs are a non-issue. For me, the anxiety of what could fail overruled its beauty :(
So when I see a really nice sports car parked far from everyone else, I get it, but do wonder how much anxiety it's causing the owner. Who owns who?
Long ago I learned that lesson. It wasn't so much fear of expensive repairs because I do my own work and have great scrounging skills finding affordable parts.
But the limitation of driving to the cars potential. I spent a long weekend driving all over Southern California looking for a place to open it up. I both wanted to see the end of the speedometer and enjoy the handling and braking power. I eventually got near the end of the speedometer only to have to leave the highway and dodge around small towns finally hiding in a orange grove for hours while the highway patrol made an all out push to arrest me.
The return trip was tense since I feared a repeat and wound up in endless traffic jams around Disneyland and on Highway 5 as rubberneckers went 1/4 of the speed limit or slower.
After that I limited all my speed adventures to the race track.
Well, I pulled the trigger on this. God help me.
In reply to LanEvo :
THAT IS TOOOOOTALLY WICKED!
Thanks! Picked up the Vanquish yesterday. Dropped off my '88 E30 M3 and '74 Alfa GTV coupe to the consignment shop today. I'm going to be sad to see them go (especially the M3), but there's only so much Top Ramen one man can eat.
In reply to LanEvo :
berkeley yeah you did! following with great interest.
Man is that a good looking car! And the Vanquish seems like it would be much more special than a Vantage.
In reply to LanEvo :
God help you, indeed. Hope you love it as much as it looks!!!
In reply to LanEvo :
Wow that's beautiful
That's a beautiful car, congrats!
Wow, well done.
For those still thinking about the newer V8 Vantages, here's an interesting blog from an owner:
http://davecarguy.blogspot.com/2015/04/long-term-ownership-costs-and.html
First impressions after 1 week of ownership:
(1) a small piece of interior trim came off in my hand. The leather is sumptuous, but there's a distinctly "handmade" vibe to the cabin. Fit isn't exactly perfect.
(2) a bunch of little things don't work: couple of bulbs in the dash; windshield washer sprayer; radio. None of these are deal breakers, just niggles.
(3) if there's cruise control, I can't find it. Weird omission for a GT car supposedly designed to fly across Europe. This is dangerous as the car's "natural" cruising speed in 5th gear settles in around 75-80 mph. And there's one more gear after that LOL.
(4) I don't have a great sense of the driving dynamics yet. It's a big, heavy, and very powerful car with surprisingly soft brakes, especially considering the Brembos which would have been insanely large 20 years ago. Steering feel is excellent, but I don't have a solid sense of how much grip there is at the rear. Will need to work up to the limits.
(5) the gearbox is fussy, but much better than expected. It's a single-clutch SMG with relatively slow shift times. You need to lift on upshifts and give the shifter a moment to do the job before getting back on the throttle. On downshifts, it feels like a slight throttle blip helps smooth things out. If you just plant the throttle and hammer out shifts like you would in a modern sports car, it feels clunky and jerky. If you treat it like a manual gearbox, it's brilliant. But I can totally see why people (like Jeremy Clarkson) who tested these cars 20 years ago would have hated it. You need to have some mechanical sympathy and learn to drive around it.
(6) daily driving a Ram 1500 for the last 3 years has recalibrated my sense of appropriate fuel economy. So I didn't expect to be bothered by fuel consumption. But I'm getting between 9 and 11 mpg of 93 octane in gentle driving. With current gas prices, that's $100 a tank ... which will get me maybe 200 miles.
(7) the car gets a surprising amount of attention and it's all very positive. No one knows what it is, but they can tell it's something unusual. I think that's down to the size and the deep, sophisticated exhaust note.
Love your recap!
Looks gorgeous! Keep enjoying it to the fullest 
I'm amazed at how far back the engine sits in the chassis. Almost a front-midengine car.
The interior feels very lush, but lots of imperfections. It's weird because the exterior of the car is amazingly perfect in terms of fit and finish. All the panel gaps line up like a laser and the paint is deep, glossy, and consistent. Best paintwork I've ever seen on any car, including Porsche, Ferrari, etc.
I love the lines of this car. I showed it to a friend of mine who knows nothing about cars and has zero interest. She commented "I don't know what it is, but that car looks sexy. Like a really beautiful woman." I have to agree!
The paintwork is even more dramatic in the sun. The color looks darker and richer.
The cruise thing is really odd for a car costing as much as that did when new.
Wow, its gorgeous! Congrats! Best looking car on GRM?
How does it not have cruise?! That's wild.
You might be able to recoup the cost with the sale of the E30, the way I hear those are going these days, ha.
Hot dog that is a beautiful machine
It looks like cruise control was optional and requires changes to the steering wheel.
I find this to be insane.
In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :
The generation did not have cruise at all, even with a package. The next generation did though.
Visited a friend (and enabler) with a couple of Astons of his own: a newer Vantage and DB11. That's my E30 M3 street car in the pics, BTW (it's for sale to fund the Vanquish).
I'm surprised by how much more "techie" and supercar-like these newer Astons are. I think they're very impressive from the technological point of view, but I find them a LOT less appealing aesthetically than the previous generation of "VH platform" cars: the V12 Vanquish, V8 Vantage, and DB9. And the AMG twin- turbo engines are cool, but they don't sound as sophisticated as the Ford/Cosworth V12 in the older models ... IMNSHO of course.
Now my buddy is looking to pick up a V12 Vanquish of his own LOL.
I completely agree with your take on the old vs new.
AND ... the check engine light just came on!
So it begins
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