Aston Vantage V-8 4.3 vs 4.7?

You lost me with the "tiny" comment... park it next to your 308 or 512 or 930 and it won't appear "tiny"

To my eye the Vantage just looks right... and is so much more beautiful than the Jag... proportions are incredible. I say just do it (which rolls of the tongue so easily and fluently when one isn't required to hand over the funds to buy the car!!)

 

I sold my Aston because of the auto. It's really behind the times.

You will find yourself in traffic between gears and unable to accelerate to pass. It feels a little ridiculous in an Aston to not be able to pass a Honda...

It also tends to lurch unexpectedly when it's trying to find a gear.

All that, and the auto can stall on you. It happens most often when pulling into or out of a parking lot, something about the incline of a curb cut, the deceleration, then giving it some gas to move into the parking lot. With the glass key / emotion control unit... it can take a few minutes to restart using a combination of key push, shift, brake, car off, car on...etc..

The transmission does well if you're manually shifting on an open road driving it medium to hard, otherwise it's a pain.

 

Not my experience at all!

2009 V8V is completely seductive. Intimate and sporty. Smaller than my 458 but manageable power. It is ideal for gliding! Looks beautiful cruising on the road, I love its stance.

Have the F1 auto too. Not a great system for sure... likely its weakest link. Would love to see someone swap out for a DCT. That alone would transform the car.

My friend with quite a collection of Ferraris tells me when he brings in visitors to his garage where I store the car, it always draws strong interest for its looks...

SV

 

I took my '07 4.3 V8 Vantage out for a fall evening romp last night and oh my God I love this car! Mine's a stick and I would not even consider the automanual.

 

I test drove a new V12 Vantage S convertible about a year ago, thinking I would add a fun classic roadster for my countryside drives. They weren't offering manuals at the time as they now do. The auto paddle shifter was absolutely horrible. When you hit a point during spirited acceleration where you need to shift up, the thing hesitates for at least 0.5 second after you pull the paddle, the car stalls momentarily like the engine hit a dead spot and then it shifts.

It reminded me of a driver new to manual transmissions, pausing way too long between declutching and clutching action. I took the car right back to the dealer. The car looked nice but was miserable to drive. Automatic paddle manual trannies as a concept does not work because you normally maintain throttle pressure when you use paddle shifters, so the AM tranny actually tries to mimic your lifting your foot off the throttle and in the process, destroys any chance of an intuitive connection between your foot and the throttle.

OTOH, I think the new manual V12 Vantage S convertible should be really nice but I've already ordered a different much faster car.

At for the V8 Vantage, the newer cars have all sorts of fixes and improvements over older ones and it's not just the 4.7L vs 4.3L engine... at all. You should look to pick at least a 2009 MY car if budget is not an issue - go for the manual transmission. There are also the later N420 and S models.

As mentioned earlier, if you want to buy one of these cars, you would do (very) well to read (own) the The Definitive Guide... to these cars by Grant Neal.

 

Sounds pretty much like the same experience.

 

Not at all! My car doesn't lurch to find a gear. It is not DCT fast for sure, but it is quite useable. A manual might be better I think but this is far from a disaster. And a non-manual capable driver can still drive the car.

My point is just that it could be better. But the car was also a third the price of the Ferrari! So expectations have to be measured.

SV

 

Appears that the car has been sold.

 

Understand! I read it as physical size not interior size (I'm 5'9" and easily fit in a Lotus Elise so interior size isn't ever high on my priorities).

All the best finding something that works better for you!