Like all Aston Martins, the Vantage is a beautiful, hand-built grand tourers (GT), with gorgeous line and perfect proportions. It sits on wide haunches in the rear, a long bonnet up front, and lovely curved form in between. The signature grill is large and aggressive, with an opening outlet behind the front wheel wells as part of a crease running the full flank of the car.
The dashboard is well proportioned and handsome. Two large round analog center dials are speed and tachometer (which moves oddly counter-clockwise) with 2 smaller ones on each side. The interior is bejeweled – the buttons are covered in glass, and the surfaces are leather. The key gets inserted into the center “start” button, and is also glass covered. (Don’t drop it, its $2000 to replace!). The “swan” doors open upwards 12 degrees to clear curbs; the also have infinity hinges that allows the door to “stay” in place whatever angle you open it.
The “Vantage” name is Aston Martin’s highest-performance variant of their line up. Lean and agile, it was originally intended as a more focused, pretty British competitor to the more teutonic and not especially beautiful 911. The 6.0-liter V12 (its really a 5.9) makes 580 horsepower and 457 lb-ft of torque; its paired with a seven-speed dogleg manual. Thats a big upgrade from the V8 version’s inital 4.3-litre quad-cam 32-valve V8 — it only produced 380 bhp, before it was upgrade to 400hp. The new 2018 model’s V8 makes 503bhp.
This 7,000 mile 2017 went for $187,000 versus its fully optioned MSRP of $243,359; That is a strong price for a 4-year old car, “only “depreciating ~23%. For Astons, which have been dogged by reliability reputation and have not held their prices, that is a good retention of value. An older 2011 Aston Martin V12 Vantage Carbon Black (after the jump) went for $92,000, which is almost affordable for a front engined, V12 6 speed manual Aston.
What makes these cars special — aside from their being gorgeous — is that they are modern V12 supercars with a manual transmission. These are mostly analog, naturally aspirated drivers, with a big engine up front driving the rear wheels, and three pedals. They are the last of a dying breed of sports GTs.
Source: Bring A Trailer
2011 Aston Martin V12 Vantage Carbon Black Edition 6-Speed
Source: Bring A Trailer
