Aston Martin Vantage review

• What is it?
• How much does it have in common with the DB11?
• What’s it like to drive?
• Let’s have the lowdown on the engine.
• What about other versions?
• What's the verdict?
• What is it like to drive?
• How does it feel compared to big brother DB11?
• How’s AMG’s mighty V8 twin turbo in here?
• Do I sense a but coming?
• There’s a manual, isn’t there?
• What about other versions?
• Talk modes with me.
• What is it like on the inside?
• What should I be paying?

Overview

What is it?

The first all-new Aston Martin sports car since the Vantage rejoined the ranks in 2005 is not – we repeat, not – merely a Mercedes-AMG GT in a Savile row dinner jacket. Yes, the new baby Aston Martin shares its 4.0-litre, twin-turbo engine with AMG’s finest – and some of its interior technology – but beyond that, this is all Aston. And it’s a very fine piece of work.

How much does it have in common with the DB11?

And don’t think that just because the Vantage sits on a shortened version of the DB11’s aluminium platform, and shares its eight-speed automatic gearbox, that it’s more Aston reheated leftovers. Aston kept the DB11 deliberately soft and gentlemanly so the shorter, lighter Vantage could be punchier, angrier and more of a sports car. Finally, some clear daylight between Aston Martin’s products.

What’s it like to drive?

The gearbox is sharper. The electronic rear differential is lightning-fast in its reactions, to maximise traction (or yobbery, depending on your mood). There’s no longer a Comfort mode for the powertrain and chassis – this time everything’s gone up a notch, with Sport, Sport + and Track modes to choose from. Heck, there’s even a seven-speed manual gearbox available. You won’t find that in any of Aston’s other models.

Let’s have the lowdown on the engine.

There’s more than one now. The regular engine develops the same 503bhp and 505lb ft as in the Mercedes-AMG C63 (though torque’s down a smidge in the manual), which is enough to get the 1.5-tonne Vantage from 0-62mph in 3.6 seconds and on to a top speed of 195mph. Those figures climb to 4.0secs and 200mph with the stick-shift transmission. That’s huge performance from an entry-level model, but necessary now the Vantage has an options-free entry price of £120,000 and has to compete with the likes of the Audi R8 V10 Plus, McLaren 540C and Porsche 911 Turbo.

What about other versions?

There’s a soft-top Volante but the coupe gets other power options. There’s an uprated F1 Edition that’s £18,000 more and boosts the V8 to 527bhp. That car, although not as attack-orientated as a Porsche 911 GT3 is the more track-focused machine, the one that leads the F1 circus around as the safety car. Then there’s the V12 Vantage. It’s so different we’ve given it a whole review to itself, but it’s worth running through the basics here: 690bhp and a 200mph top end. That ought to do it. It somehow conspires to be less than the sum of its parts, though.

Aston Martin struggles at new cars, traditionally. Oh, it gets them right eventually. But take the DB9, the last Vantage, even the DB11 – we tend to remember them most fondly for what they morphed into throughout their lives, not how they first emerged.

The new Vantage is, mostly, different. Slightly dead steering and lazy automatic gearbox aside – and those are minor gripes, we promise – this thing feels far better sorted than the car it replaces. It sounds wonderful, looks fabulous, goes like stink and has an extremely capable, if slightly inert unless you’re going ballistic, chassis.

Is the Vantage special enough for £120,000 and up? Look, it ain’t as dramatic as the mid-engined Audi R8, but now McLaren (540/570) and Mercedes (AMG GT) have withdrawn from this sector, the Vantage has less direct competition. Of course they’ve left because the competition from Porsche is so hot. The 911 is a phenomenal sports car, and Aston has deliberately priced the Vantage high to add distance. But the badge, the image, the desirability allow Aston to add this brand tax and get away with it.

Driving

What is it like to drive?

First thing’s first, before you even get to the traction or the balance or the agility – it’s the size that grabs you. The Vantage feels small on the road. It’s shorter than a 911 Carrera and feels narrower – despite those gorgeous hip-like rear haunches actually having a wider footprint than the Porsche – and that immediately removes a layer of intimidation from those crucial early miles. You have space to play with.

Next up, you appreciate the driving position. OK, because of the front engine you sit higher than you would in anything that puts the engine behind you, but the steering wheel has generous reach and the seat is a triumph of comfort, support and situation. It’s amazing how many cars still get these fundamentals wrong (Audi R8, we’re looking at you), but the Vantage is spot-on.

How does it feel compared to big brother DB11?

Immediately it feels far firmer, but the control and quality of the damping is excellent. It doesn’t jiggle or jar you, but it’s taut enough to trim body roll and give the car an obedient character. It’s nimble enough, but somehow rarely comes alive and has a real appetite for corners. There’s some unwanted vertical movement in the suspension, and the steering is too numb.

Aston Martin, unfashionably but entirely rationally, has fitted sensibly geared steering. It’s 2.4 turns lock-to-lock, which is at least half a turn further than most rivals and means the car totally sidesteps feeling nervous or twitchy when corners charge towards it. The feedback itself is the Vantage’s weakest suit – compared to the old car’s hydraulic assistance, the new electric power steering lacks the texture and communication we were spoiled with.

That slightly cloudy feel at the wheel – plus the fact the wheel is a daft square shape – conspires to undo the Vantage’s driver appeal. The brakes are strong, but the car feels a touch aloof and remote and doesn’t compensate for that by being a remarkably comfortable or refined cruiser.

How’s AMG’s mighty V8 twin turbo in here?

It’d have been an appalling result for Aston to inherit AMG’s bombastic 4.0-litre hot-vee engine and muck it up, and predictably, they haven’t. The uncanny throttle response, mega appetite for revs and on-demand potency of the V8 has all survived intact, but its trip to an English finishing school has delivered a more serrated, angrier edge to the soundtrack that’s part Bullitt Mustang soundtrack, part Liam Gallagher soundcheck. And yes, the car is really, seriously fast.

Perhaps not as rabid as an R8 or McLaren, and for the money, that might be an issue for the most power-greedy addicts. But how quick do you need to go? This is a 195mph sports car and by not overcooking the outputs (as per the DB11), Aston’s not ended up with a snatchy, traction-limited mess that you can only lean on for a couple of seconds at a time before it enters pointlessly illegal speeds. This is a Goldilocks set-up.

Do I sense a but coming?

A couple of them. In our testing it wasn’t as quick as Aston claimed, hitting 60mph in 4.0secs rather than 3.6. It also has a proper thirst for fuel (30mpg cruising, 21mpg elsewhere) and the automatic gearbox struggles to keep pace with the motor.

It’s an eight-speed ZF automatic mounted at the rear to finesse the weight distribution, and it doesn’t deliver upchanges with the seamless snap of the dual-clutchers in the equivalent Porsche, McLaren, Audi and Mercedes-AMG. First-to-second is a crucial getaway change, and if you’re using the gearshift paddles manually, the Aston’s box struggles to resolve that moment crisply. Mind you, it’s undergone a leap from the DB11’s similar transmission. Auto-mode kickdown and upchanges are less haphazard, and the blips for the downchanges are sweeter.

There’s a manual, isn’t there?

Yeah and it ain’t perfect either – its dog-leg set up (first is bottom left in the H-pattern) is awkward to get acquainted with and even with time, the changes never really flow smoothly. But there’s something proper about operating a punchy little V8 sports car with both feet, and a ballsy little Aston shouldn’t be a doddle to drive. That said, if offered the choice, we’d go auto. The manual is too obstructive.

What about other versions?

Aston made quite a lot of changes for the F1 Edition, not quite turning it into a 911 GT3 rival, but the stiffer rear springs and dampers, new bump stops and rubber top mounts, plus upper control arm and a lateral damper between the rear subframe and torque tube that helps reduce drivetrain movement, all bring more crispness and edge to the Vantage. The aim, on standard road tyres, was to take 15 seconds off the Nurburging lap time. Mission accomplished, in 7mins 30secs.

Talk modes with me.

There are many to choose from. For road driving, the optimal setting is Sport Plus for the powertrain, to enliven its responses, and the Sport dampers, which is plenty firm enough unless you’re heading for a circuit, where the electronic rear diff’s ability to switch between 100 per cent open and fully locked will indulge you in the lairiest of brutish Aston behaviour.

Interior

What is it like on the inside?

The driving position is spot-on, the seat a triumphant marriage of back-cradling support and everyday comfort. It faces a… cramped cockpit. The centre console in particular looks and feels haphazard, all the buttons and controls crammed together. Now, in a touchscreen world, we like a button, but do we need two separate clicky toggles for working the central locking? Does the whoops-I-appear-to-have-crashed SOS call button need to live right next to the traction control? That fussy nest of buttons could’ve been simplified. And there’s no glovebox.

The DB11’s virtual instruments return, free of the Playmobil bezel that cheapens the big GT, but still suffering from grainy resolution. Come on guys, we’re the OLED Retina screen generation. What’s a pixel?

But we’re nitpicking. The fundamentals are bang-on. It literally reeks of quality – no-one cures leather of more olfactic delight than Aston Martin – the Mercedes infotainment and stalks are elegantly integrated, plus the whole environment feels more expensive than a 911 or 570S and more bespoke than an R8. Boy does it need to at this money.

It’s strictly a two-seater, but you can cram extra (creased) luggage behind the back seats, and the 350-litre boot is superior to a Ford Focus’s cargo area in terms of raw litres, if not usefully shaped space. And unlike the old Vantage, the manual gearstick is placed right where your hand falls, not half a foot behind. No obscure RSI in your shoulder from driving this one too hard.

Buying

What should I be paying?

Aston has bumped the Vantage up the price scale. At £120,000 it’s trading on its name as much as its abilities, and Aston’s well documented cashflow issues don’t encourage buyer confidence. Anyway, what this means is that while you can lease yourself into a Porsche 911 for not much more than £1,000 a month, a Vantage will be around £500 more. If you can stretch to it, the £142,000 F1 Edition is the better all-round car. But with yet bigger monthly repayments. It’s not any less comfortable or impractical, but is sharper to drive and better equipped. Easily enough so to offset the price increase.

Using the development might of AMG to supply a widely used new engine ought to bring peace of mind for new Vantage owners – the transmission too is a popular gearbox across the industry with no known horror stories. This ought to be the most bulletproof Aston in history. No, that’s not a James Bond joke. Aren’t we grown up?

Though the V8’s consumption climbs to 27-28mpg during a megacruise, 21-22mpg is a more realistic average, and if you’re caning it, low teens are to be reckoned on. It’s utterly worth it. And with a proper 73-litre fuel tank, range anxiety isn’t a concept known to the Vantage.

Aston’s still lagging behind on the equipment it offers – there’s still no adaptive cruise control or any lane assist, though we’d argue it’d be almost inappropriate to house autonomous driving functions in a car that’s as good to drive the old-fashioned way as this.

The Mercedes Comand infotainment is actually better to use than in most Mercedes (not that they’re fitting it in anything new anymore), principally because you get the same excellent interface, but Aston Martin makes the utterly redundant and cumbersome touchpad that hovers over the clickwheel a delete option. While you’re ticking boxes just remember to select the stowage cover armrest so the interior actually looks finished, and add the gorgeous glass buttons. And keep a handwipe nearby.

Keyword: Aston Martin Vantage review