The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage: Great, but frustrating
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Check, if it's raining I'll leave it in the garage drive the Lambo instead. (which I can also afford)
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Multiple Top Gear episodes featured May complaining about water getting into the electronics on older cars and things going downhill, guess some things never change.....
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It boggles my mind that the Brits still can't make a flawless sports car. It's one of the reasons Mazda's Miata MX-5 is so popular - basically took the idea of the small British roadster (think MG), but made it one of the most - if not THE MOST - reliable sports cars ever made. The occasional bumps in the road aside, the MX-5 remains one of the most top rated reliable cars in history. It would drive me mad to drop north of a quarter million on that Aston Martin and have it fail during a rain storm. And the slow booting infotainment is unforgivable in a car at that price point. * Update - whoever down voted me is insane. You know what I said is true.
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That Podium Green is like Rosso Corsa for Ferrari or Giallo Evros for Lamborghini; if you get the car in any other color, what exactly the fuck are you doing with your life?
That said.....hm. It's gorgeous and unique and very special. It's got that old-school sense of drama to it in a way that most other cars, even ones in the price band. That green is the Good Color. It's not like I or any actual buyer of the car is capable of driving it to its limits.
But if I had $191,000 to spend on a car, would it be this? Would it really? Because the 911 Turbo is right there. And that one starts up every time, even in the rain, is likely to hand the Vantage its ass in a high hat on a track or even a twisty road, and the golden shield on my steering wheel would give me just as much of a boner as the spread wings.
That said.....hm. It's gorgeous and unique and very special. It's got that old-school sense of drama to it in a way that most other cars, even ones in the price band. That green is the Good Color. It's not like I or any actual buyer of the car is capable of driving it to its limits.
But if I had $191,000 to spend on a car, would it be this? Would it really? Because the 911 Turbo is right there. And that one starts up every time, even in the rain, is likely to hand the Vantage its ass in a high hat on a track or even a twisty road, and the golden shield on my steering wheel would give me just as much of a boner as the spread wings.
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Interesting car to look at, for sure. I still think a physical speedo and tach would look classier in a car like this than the LCD display. Perhaps as LCD displays become the only gauge cluster available across all "economy" cars, we'll see exotic cars move back to an 'exotic' physical gauge.
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That's because unlike Mazda most signature British sports car names have been bought, sold and tossed around for the past thirty years.
When you ignore the mainstream brands and head over to smaller players like BAC you literally cannot ask for a better "sports" car.
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Typo? I'm assuming "ZF's excellent 8 hp transmission" is meant to read "ZF's excellent 8 speed transmission"
Always loved AM's, just gorgeous cars.
Always loved AM's, just gorgeous cars.
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200k and you still get touch buttons on the steering wheel that will randomly activate while you drive. Truly the touch technology is one great equalizer in today's world. Both rich and poor get to suffer it.
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Sticking within the same segment, I understand (certainly not first-hand) that McLaren comes adequately close to "flawless" if there is such a thing. And it's probably unfair to suggest an Aston Martin Vantage and Mazda MX-5 are being judged against the same metrics. In my mind, the MX-5 represents a modern, competently designed and built update to British two seaters of yesteryear such as the MGB GT/Roadster and Triumph Spitfire and TR6, the flaws of which I won't begin to enumerate.
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It's like some of the aerodynamic bits on there; I'm sure they're significantly functional but they detract from the elegance that's been a defining characteristic of Aston Martins.
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I know this isn't the point of this car's existence, but:
This sounds really wrong. Do other cars start with this on by default, even if you switch it off? It seems especially antithetical to a sports car.
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You can't get 5* EuroNCAP without all the driver safety aids being on every time you start the car.
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What you did there... I sees itPretty odd that a British icon doesn't like...the rain(I mean neither do I but I ain't no icon)
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I'd argue that most cars have some kind of electronic flaw. It's an understatement to say that there are a lot of wires and connectors in a modern car, it's more like a computer with wheels. I drive German-made cars (VW group) and in most of them there's been some intermittent, but tolerable, fault with things like the infotainment system. I will concede that on a $200,000 car it should be better.
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Bigger question is why turn it off as it provided a very useful capability, unless that capability is so intrusive that you don't want it.
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Looks like a catfish to me.
Other than the front the rest looks fine.
I'm not an Aston guy so what do I know. The green is nice.
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I agree completely, but last night I watched the Top Gear drive of the new Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale*.
One element I loved is that the interior is ultra-focused with physical controls and no steering wheel buttons, but a single physical switch to pop a touchscreen out if you need it for navigation or media.
It looked like a beautiful serene place to be that let you focus on driving, and I hope that the approach trickles down to lesser Alfas or to other manufacturers .
*As they are only making 33 of them and the cost infinity, it's really a concept car with patronage, not even a flagship in the traditional halo car sense.
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Yeah, that's entirely the problem. The 911 Turbo is right there, and it won't have a mental breakdown because its raining.
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The transmission is called the 8HP. Turns out Eric Tingwall got around to writing the feature I never did* on why it's such a good gearbox.
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a23367341/automatic-transmission-best-zf-eight-speed/
*I even interviewed a whole bunch of ZF engineers in 2017 for the piece but it's one of those ones that slipped through the cracks.
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That transmission blows my mind. It's in everything from a Ram 1500 to an Aston Martin and it's universally beloved in every application it gets used in.
But then the transverse 9-speed AT from the same company got shitcanned by every reviewer on Earth and makes every vehicle it's in worse.
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The 33 Stradale should have been mass produced. It's gorgeous, well differentiated from the MC-12, and might have made Alfa some actual money.
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Astons are typically beautiful, interesting, or at least good looking cars and yet they have a long history of mechanical, engineering, and other issues. Not that any car maker is flawless, if there is such a thing. The Miata is an unfair comparison as mentioned earlier.
The DB-5 had substantial body roll and poor brakes and the Lagonda is a car enthusiast interest article all to its own if we're discussing the subject of car electronics.
I do hope they manage to stick around and remain solvent under the Stroll regime. One less car company that makes fun, pretty, and interesting vehicles (even if mere mortals cannot afford them) is a loss to everyone who enjoys cars and driving. There's a sea of boring, drab, and mundane cars, vans, and autos out there that can will get you where you want to go but can easily suck the joy out of driving.
Hat tip to any car company still making bespoke, low volume, automobiles that are unique, fun, and/or interesting like BAC, Ariel, Noble, Aston, etc.. While electric issues for a car costing this much isn't a good look, it's par for the course for Aston. It's almost part of their DNA at this point to create exceptionally pretty cars that have one or more exceptional problems. Besides, if someone can afford a car with this price tag, I would expect they have one or more other cars and/or means to get where they are going should the electrics play up on occasion.
Also, that green paint job looks amazing.
The DB-5 had substantial body roll and poor brakes and the Lagonda is a car enthusiast interest article all to its own if we're discussing the subject of car electronics.
I do hope they manage to stick around and remain solvent under the Stroll regime. One less car company that makes fun, pretty, and interesting vehicles (even if mere mortals cannot afford them) is a loss to everyone who enjoys cars and driving. There's a sea of boring, drab, and mundane cars, vans, and autos out there that can will get you where you want to go but can easily suck the joy out of driving.
Hat tip to any car company still making bespoke, low volume, automobiles that are unique, fun, and/or interesting like BAC, Ariel, Noble, Aston, etc.. While electric issues for a car costing this much isn't a good look, it's par for the course for Aston. It's almost part of their DNA at this point to create exceptionally pretty cars that have one or more exceptional problems. Besides, if someone can afford a car with this price tag, I would expect they have one or more other cars and/or means to get where they are going should the electrics play up on occasion.
Also, that green paint job looks amazing.
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Yeah, they just need to drop the price by 95%.
As it stands my 2015 4C represents a tragically missed starting point for Alfa.
It was "cheap" for a carbon fiber tub (from which I think the MC20 and 33 chassis developed), and is an angry little adrenaline machine that feels exciting even when standing still.
The spartan parts bin interior just gets out of the way.
If they had followed up with a 6C as some believe was planned (at say 50-70% premium) before the project morphed into the MC20 at 3-4 times the price, it could have been a different world with a relatively unique niche.
As it is we're stuck watching them make more SUVs to fail make a buck out of the same sectors as everyone else.
I fear the 4c will be the last sporty Alfa I can ever hope to afford.
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In the UK at least the demographic of the customer is the stereotype premier league footballer: someone with more money than sense. A real car person buys Italian or German in this segment.
We peasants can enjoy the MX-5 at normal car prices.
We peasants can enjoy the MX-5 at normal car prices.
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It would have been the F-32, had it won. The competing Lockheed entry was the X-35, which did become the F-35.
You can go see one of the X-32s suffering in the weather parked outside at the Pax River museum.
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Damn, but what a sexy looking car. Aston Martin Vantage sit among my all-time top cars for looks, and this is a clear continuation of that excellence.
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It seems the British still struggle to get out of their own way when it comes to building Aston Martins. You’d think that by 2025, they’d have things figured out. Meanwhile, Germany and Italy continue to produce vehicles that are world-class—both inside and out.
Considering the price of these cars, you'd expect the Brits to have their act together by now.
Considering the price of these cars, you'd expect the Brits to have their act together by now.
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Now that is a proper Austin Martin, beautiful to look at, random electrical issues. These are all features, not bugs.
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The options alone cost more than my car... which drives beautifully in snow, ice and rain. No quirky impotaintment either... Not a big fan of the gaping whale mouth at the front or the tacked-on exhaust covers, but seen from the side it does look like it's about to jump into hyperspace.
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