Sold my Gen2 PDK C2S and "defected" to Aston Martin
Well its been a long story but Ive finally given up on getting a GT3 in the UK until next summer at the very earliest and decided to look elsewhere to fullfill my auto-addiction desires. Its taken me almost 3 years to go back to Aston Martin but Ive finally gone and done it today and bought a new 4.7 Vantage V8 Coupe. I decided not to proceed 3 years ago when my 12mth long held deposit on an early 4.3 V8 Vantage came to the top of the list and I then jumped into a much "cheaper" new C2S 997 (man, aerokit, sport exhaust) and never really looked back at Aston until a couple of weeks ago. 4 months ago I traded that C2S for a gen2 C2S PDK and Ive hated from a few days after I picked it up (PDK isn't at all what I thought, and the gen2 had no aero and no sport exhaust). The new car was just too much like an auto, too quiet and too bland to look at compared to the first car, and so I placed a deposit for a GT3 to "fix" things, but alas its not going to happen for at least 12mths and I cant drive a car for 12mths that I don't like, so I looked around again and my thoughts flicked back to the vantage I so narrowly avoided 3 years ago.
Ive managed to get a deal on the V8 that I am pretty happy with, albeit not so happy with the retained value of the 4mth old PDK 997! One of the main reasons I walked from the Vantage 3yrs ago was because of its >£90k price tag and at the time I jumped into a <£80k 997 and pocketed the £15k difference as a happy man. Interestingly now the GT3 is now >£90k in the UK and deals can be had on a new 4.7 V8 Vantage for significantly <£80k and the £15k saving has reveresed, indeed the AMV8 is almost £20k less than the GT3 will cost me!!!
The car is already built and I plan to collect it on Friday. Suffice to say my Porsche dealership have behaved shockingly over the whole thing since the moment they took my deposit on the GT3 to a disgraceful amount of messing around today with the trade in value on my car. As a result Im not sure if I will proceed with my GT3 but its perhaps too early to rush for the deposit back - just to keep options open. On the other hand the Aston dealer I have bought the car from has been a delight to deal with and a real help despite the embarrasing behaviour of the Porsche dealer towards them when they realised their messing me around on the GT3 meant I was now defecting to Aston. I remain a porsche fan of course, but Im really really looking forward to the Aston I wanted all along for almost 4 years now! Bizzarely (and Ive never done this before), Ive not actually seen the exact car as its at the other end of the country and Ive effectively bought it over the phone, but its brand new and Ive seen all the colour options in various other cars so Im pretty sure there is no real risk here.
Anyway onto the car, its taken me over a week to find the right new car and deal but Im delighted with it as its 99.9% my ideal colour & spec and considering I dont have to wait and got a very healthy discount thats pretty good in my book. I test drove the Aston Sportshift system and I have to say it is really good, seemed very similar to the BMW SMG system I had loved before on my M3's, and certainly a whole lot better than Porsche's "automatic" PDK box. However as I have just had my fingers burnt with PDK I felt it was safest to sick with a manual this time despite my gut feeling that I would be very much at home with sportshift.
Yes a Vantage is chalk and cheese to the GT3 and if pushed not quite as good to drive as the even the C2S manual, let alone the GT3, but thats not what this car is all about. It is a surprisingly good drive regardless, requires a good deal of input to handle its muscle car style and perhaps most importantly they are quite simply stunning both outside and inside. Ohh and the sound of that exhaust over 4000RPM is out of this world. Its less about the pure driving with the Aston and more of a whole sensory package.
So the Aston's spec is :
Model : 4.7 Coupe Manual (V8 : 420BHP / 346lb ft)
Ext : Onyx Metalic Black + Silver Calipers + Sport Pack with 5 spoke wheels + N400 style clear rear lights + Bright front grill
Int : Obsidian Leather + Silver Stitching + Piano Black Trim
Toys : Premium Audio, Sat Nav, bluetooth, HID, Heated Seats, autodim mirror, powerfold mirrors, cruise control + lots of std gear that you have to pay for on a 997S!
Im really delighted with the colour combo (all stealth black + silver) and hope it will look a bit like a mini V12 Vantage - albeit one that comes at only a smidge over half the price!
I shall be unplugging the sports exhaust with immediate effect (the function is almost idential to the PSE and just as easy to unplug) and then it should sound as good as it looks all the time.
Cant wait - roll on Friday! (pics to follow in due course)
PS : Im not "leaving" by the way - Im sure I will be back to Porsche at some point, quite possibly in the GT3 in 12mths (despite my current hostile feelings to my OPC) and I certainly shall continue to post and contribute here on this forum as this remains one of the best car enthusiast forums Ive ever been on.