I have an 05 S for sale as well for the same price as this one $225k, my car has much fewer miles 1900 vs this 8k, my car is here in the US, has been fully serviced by Aston every single year despite the low miles and still comes with some warranty remaining.
Here is the deal. You cannot compare the Euro market with the USA market at all on these cars. They are completly different at least for now. Furthermore In europe they are a bit weird on selecting cars. They will pay over $220K for a euro model but not $120K for an imported USA model. The reason appears that they dont like the $50 US reflectors on each corners of the bumpers. Other than that they are the same cars. US car dont sell in europe. An 06 USA model has been on sale for close to a year at $130K in the UK with less mile than this one and dont sell. Despite being $220K this one is likely to sell. go figure. I'd love to know the deep pshychology of the euro buyer/collector on that one. they sure know how to drive their car but on the buying side, I am a bit lost or I totally miss something.
The classic center tried to buy my car. They did not pay my ask or I would have sold it but they did offer north of $160k USD, so for the right car they will pay more than $130k. However, overall I do agree with you point that there is a much higher appreciation of these cars right now in Europe. Some other cars like a BMW z8 have a similar dynamic. I will say that they are asking 225k for an 8k mile car and think if they have a sub 2k mile car they would be asking closer to 300k. So I think my asking price of $225k (while many think it is high) is still a fairly nice discount to what the classic center would ask for it in Europe.
there are currently 3 Vanquish S available in Vancouver,, autotrader.ca if anyone is interested,, Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yes, stunning this one : 2006 Aston Martin Vanquish S Coupe | Autoform 2006 Vanquish S - 12 000 miles - $135k CAD Beautiful combo !
I recently bought an 03' VQ with 10k miles. Never have I experienced such vault-like build quality in an automobile (at any price). These standard spec VQ's are such the bargain right now! Regards, D
Perhaps I might offer some insight. The pre-s cars can still be had at a reasonable price here right now. It's the s that commands the premium.Early s (so pre-DB9 style slab dash) are the only S models that wouldn't be liable for VOSA inspection here in uk, due to age. That means as well as not having a euro certificate of conformity, the American cars would require replacement headlights, seat belts, mirrors, rear lights (which are no longer available) front and rear bumpers, and quite a few other items. Add that lot up and you are into many, many thousands of pounds. So you'd have a federal car, converted to uk spec. Originality is what sells. That's why they are not sought after here. We have sold 31 vanquish to clients throughout Europe over the last 18 months. Aston works have bought a couple off us too. If there are ANY mods or imperfections people won't buy...it's that simple.....
It is interesting then to hear that a conversion US to UK is considered a mod and a slap to originality of the car even if Aston did both versions in each country. I am not sure the US market cares as much (many old lambo US specs are actually worth more in euro specs here). A US converted euro car becomes worthless to the US market because it is 2 to 3 times the price when it is back in the US owners garage. So it seems to me the import US to UK is a one way trip at a loss, at least now.
Yes, that's the case right now, but I suspect that once these fabulous cars get to really really high values (which many, including Works service are predicting) and the cars no longer require VOSA testing, a few will begin to find there way over here. It's not just Aston, all marques are the same, US versions of a Euro car really don't have much market appeal to collectors, unless extremely rare/unavailable....
Not as horrendous as many make out. You can retro-fit the later sensors If you like. Oddly that's a mod that seems perfectly acceptable over here. We really are an odd bunch!
wait it is not trivial to mount a magnetic S sensor onto a pre-S. it takes a take down of the trani and a complete retuning that can last for many days if done right. i will take upon myself to forward a write up from a guy who worked on these thing from the factory. His pseudo is ASMEXPERT. He wrote a lots of facts on the trani. This is a debunking of all the hearsay anyone heard from... 2008. He take is that basically the trani is a good one but must be well tuned by someone who knows and also there is a driving technique with these boxes especially in traffic. They are NOT worryless automatic transmission in the city. I can testify an S F1 is quite fast and pleasurable. His main of many posts: ----- The final software release is known as S0D34 MD0 but that could only be read by AMDS (Aston Martin Diagnostic System) this is for Vanquish S only. Whether this is the correct software version for your Vanquish is a bit more complicated. With introduction of Vanquish S (after the first 20 or so S) the methodology for reading which gear the gearbox was in changed. Prior to Vin 1592 (best recollection of correct VIN, I will check and confirm) the gear position was done using two potentiometers that were actually throttle pots converted for this use (at the time that was the best solution that Ford RVT, Research Vehicle Technology, could come up with). The pots, one either side of the gearbox were actuated by a "bent wire" arrangement off of the selector shaft. One reading the fore-aft position of the selector to determine if it is in the "rear" gears 1 3 5 & R or the fore gears 2 4 & 6, and in between being neutral, in Magnetti Marelli terminology this being called the PI position (PI being italian for something like pozzioni inioutio). The other is actuated by rotation of the selector shaft and reads for 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 & R, this being termed the PS (Pozzione selezioni?). So if you imagine a graph with PI being the vertical or Y axis and PS being the horizontal or X axis you can plot the position of each gear as a combination of two values the PS(x)and PI(y), this would create a diagram of a traditional H type gearbox, hence why the Magnetti Marelli actuator for the Vanquish is known as an XY actuator. There are a couple of problems with that solution though, which were not found during development. Firstly as the wire is obviously round and the part on the selector shoe is round where the two contact, although the parts are splashed with oil, there is a point contact which leads to wear. This creates a problem as the position that the TCU (Transmission control unit) has recorded for being a gear changes as it wears, causing a "clunky" or even a hesitant/missed gear change. Hence why on earlier cars they frequently had new gear postions learnt on dealer visits. The learning of the new gear positions is what is generally termed an "octopus". In extreme wear as the box changes across the signal can spike up due to riding over the ridges formed in the wire causing a gearbox fault to be recorded. This was compounded by the the first few hundred cars having what is termed "soft wire" ie it was not hardened. Hard wires still wear but at a sligtly slower rate. Second the wire exerts a side ways load on the potentiometer causing the shaft to stick, again this can result in a missed shift or no shift as the TCU does not have a logical position because one or sometimes both of the potentiometers has stuck. Again remember that these were originally designed to read throttle openings so are intened to be driven rather than in this application were the wire shaft has to drive. Thirdly the hysteresis inherent in this type of system creates a lag in the speed of knowing where the gearshift is. The creates a slower shift and a more clunky shift. This was the Achilles heal for the early Vanquishes and one of the problems (I can tell you the others and their solutions if you are interested) that led to the bad reputation that the Vanquish gearbox acquired. For Vanquish S (although it came in a couple of weeks after the introduction of S, due to stock run out at Tremec) an alternative system was developed in conjunction with Tyco Automtive sensors based in Speyer Germany to 'read' the gear positions. This is generally termed by dealers as the "magnetic sensor" the correct terminology being CGPS (standing for Contactess Gear Position Sensor). This sensor uses "two magnets" and "two+two coils" to read the x and y gear positions. This overcomes the problems of wear and sticking as there are no contacting parts. It also, although it wasn't designed to fix that issue but came as a by product of the new sensor, reduced the hysteresis of the system enabling smoother and quicker gear shifts as the TCU has quicker and more accurate readouts of the actual gear selector shaft position. Anybody who has driven a '460' Vanquish before and after sensor changes will notice the difference the CGPS sensor brings. This is a long way to get round to the initial answer about software levels, and which one is correct for your VIN. The first S's with the CGPS sensor were using hardware v4 but theoritcally none of those left the factory as the magnetic strength had to be increased. Hence hardware v5 was introduced and should be the release level of the early Vanqui S's, these use (from memory) software S0D30 MB0. The final iteration of the sensor was hardware v6 and software S0D34 MD0 which was introduced around January/February 2005. This was a major hardware change and alternative solution that had massive impact on the reliability of the system but the other issues with the whole gearbox arrangement have compounded to give the impression that it is no good. (A certain TV presenters continued dislike of "flappy paddle" gearboxs has not helped in the public perception of these type of arrangements). The Tremec T56 gearbox is an original Getrag gearbox design that Tremec purchased, it is the same gearbox that is used in the Mustang with the exception that the output housing is unique to mount the hydraulic actuator and is a very reliable gearbox. The gearbox being assembeld in Tremecs mexican plant. In the US parts for this gearbox are readily available over the net and good pricing. The only known weakness with this box is Tremec has had some issues with 4th gear syncros. As to can it cope with wear and tear in todays heavy traffic congestion? Yes there is no reason why not. As mentioned the gearbox is robust and has plenty of capacity to cope with the loads applied to it. As with any mechanical item though prevenative maintenance is always better. Have the oil in the gearbox changed at the specified service intervals. But one thing that is not specified is to have your ASM hydraulic fluid changed. AML have not issued any recommendations for this. But just like your brakes I would recommend that it is done every two years or 24,000 miles and every year have the dealer drain the fluid out of the clutch line. The reason behind that is that the majority of the ASM is an open loop system ie fluid enters the pump and is pumped throug the system to return to the resevoir. The fluid in the clutch line is a closed loop system and remains there just shuttling back and forward on each clutch actuation and degrades quite quickly. So just like the difference in how your brakes feel (should feel sharper and more responsive) when fresh fluid has been put in, the same applies to the clutch operation. As the fluid degrades it starts to become less fluid becoming 'heavier' and is not as reponsive. This knocks onto the speed of gear engagement as the TCU will not change gear until it sees that the clutch is released, sometimes this in extreme cases feels as though the clutch does not want to disengage when you are coming to a stop. Clutch life is a consequence of your driving style in traffic. To reduce clutch wear when driving in traffic avoid driving in first on light throttle. You can achieve this by leaving a bit of a gap to the car in front when you pull away, this will allow you to get moving and the clutch to stop modulating in between full open and full closed as any point inbetween the clucth is slipping and thus wearing. The other point with Vanquish S clutch is that it does need to be properly bedded in when changed otherwise the contact area is only about 2/3 of the contact area. Also if you only do a lot of in town driving the TCU does not have enough time to relearn the clucth "kiss" point. Normally the TCU would relearn the kiss point on a motorway type drive. However you can teach the TCU the clutch kiss point yourself. To do this do the following. Start engine, foot on brake release handbrake. Keeping foot on brake at idle select first. Keep foot on the brake in first gear and engine at idle for five minutes. After five minutes select neutral keep foot on brake and leave engine to idle for a further five minutes switch off take key out of ignition and wait 30 seconds. Key back in and start engine, new clutch position will have been learnt. The same applies to all Vanqui 460 and S. Unfortunately the key to a good Vanquish Transmission and a poor one is down to skill and training of the Tech who has worked on your car. I have driven both ASM and manual cars (as a footnote the engineer who did the work on the manual conversion is the same one who parked a DBS in a wet location), and would always say there is no substitue for a well setup ASM car, a lot of the refinement is lost with the manual, also the gear lever gets in the way of the radio. Also a properly setup transmission would cost a lot less than the manual conversion and perform better, a manual car is slower to change gear and the box is quite imprecise as the ideal place for the gear lever is directly over the selector shoe H plate but that is about 5 inches forward of the radio fascia so the gearbox is actuated thro a "bowden cable" like arrangement and the throw across the box 1-2 3-4 etc at the lever is long. It is not a short shift arrangement. -----.
Congrats! The car is very ruggedly built, a real thoroughbred. It's pretty amazing that this thread is on its way to 100,000 views
Missed that post ! Congrat as well. Your are living close to me. I am south of Hartford. We got to get the "girls " toghether. The 3 of them.
The baseball VQ for sale again. at $250K. Would you guys buy this as a car or as a book? clearly IMO that car should be advertised in the section "special book" because it cant be crashed and it cant be washed so the product sold may not really be a Vanquish. Could this as well be a signed stuffed pig for the same price? 2002 Aston Martin Vanquish Base Coupe 2-Door | eBay
New owner of an 06 Vanquish(Black/Black&Red).(been looking for a while for a nice example). I do have a question for the fellow AM community, the car was a Canadian spec car (no real difference except daytime running lights and car is set up in Metric. The question i have, (i thought it was a simple owners manual lookup, wrong) is how to display the digital Odometer in miles instead of km) I used the km/miles button on the left side of the dash, which works OK for trip computer but not the odometer. I also set the navigation for miles instead of Km, nothing on the odometer. Any suggestions? Thanks and as an FYI, i did a pretty extensive search on various sites with no luck.
Welcome. Sounds like you got the car from Autoform. Nice interior. the only km/miles you can switch is the trip computer. The odometer itself cant be switched. I think this may not even be allowed legally as this info is part of the country regulations. You would need a conversion for that I would think. That brings an interesting question I had before: how does a < 25 years car gets registered in the USA from Canada without changing these minor details?
One of the best values on the used market IMO. I've got a Montana Orange that looks amazing in the sun.
Thanks, yes car came from autoforum, and agree, interior is nice combo. I think there will be a combonation of buttons, for example, I was able to bring up vin info by pushing/holding trip button and turning ignition to I, same for language. Since it's a North American build, I would assume it's not overly difficult to use the same components and more than likely an eprom configuration at worse(fingers crossed), otherwise the local AM dealer will need to advise on what to do. (Folks in Europe have claimed to do this in reverse miles to km) but just can't figure how the did that(old posts)
