Aston Martin Vantage Review

It’s improbable that you’ll jump straight from owing something ordinary into an Aston Martin Vantage. Your garage floor will have undoubtedly had some wide rubber attached to some desirable cars parked on it.

It’s almost certain you’ve owned a Porsche 911 (too common), a Ferrari 488 GTB (too showy) or a Jaguar F-Type (too unreliable) among a host of other cars on your route to Aston Martin ownership. If there’s not an iconic classic British sports car, an E-Type or suchlike, squirrelled away in your big garage we’d be amazed, too. 

If that’s the case, the Vantage is very much the right car for you, the brawny Aston Martin might not have the rear ‘seats’ of the 911, but it’s got a decent-sized boot. It’s not too far off that Ferrari for performance either. And thanks to an engine borrowed from Mercedes-AMG, it should prove more reliable than that Jaguar. 

Is the Aston Martin Vantage right for you? Hell yes it is, it’s right for everyone, assuming you can afford it, of course.  

The most obvious, and common rival, for any car in this class is the Porsche 911 Carrera. They’re everywhere, for good reason, but that’s also a good reason to buy a Vantage instead. The closest car in concept is something like Jaguar’s F-Type in its most powerful forms, though even so specified you’ll be a big number away in price from the expensive Aston Martin. 

You don’t reach Aston Martin Vantage ownership without having owned at least a handful of its rivals, and, perhaps, some other Aston Martin models, the DB11, for example. If you’re at this point, then similar cars to the Vantage aren’t likely to sway your decision, not least because it’s highly probable you still own them as well.  

New Vantage buyers can have their cars trimmed with everything from wild coloured inserts, headlining to the door cards, dashboard top and every other surface imaginable. The busy design, and those many materials do, largely live up to their premium, hand-crafted status. But dig around the interior and there are some poorer quality plastics with evidence of some cost savings. 

Lift the lid on the storage compartment between the front seats and the plastic inside is a bit scratchy and cheap feeling, while the 12v plug socket cover is the same as you’ll find in any Ford from the last two decades. 

Overall, it feels pretty special, but there’s the odd let-down, admittedly if you go hunting for them. The more obvious parts sharing, Mercedes-Benz derived column stalks and a few other switches and knobs is acceptable, given Aston Martin’s low volume status and no less apparent than in many rivals.

In a touchscreen world the Vantage, despite its 2018 introduction, is a little bit traditional in its infotainment offering. 

The 8-inch central screen is small by today’s standards, while its operation is by a rotary dial and touchpad down on the transmission tunnel. It’s a Mercedes-Benz system with a flashed Aston Martin front.

It’s not the most recent, with slightly clunky sub menus and graphics that aren’t as good as you’ll have on the smartphone in your pocket. It does work well enough with a bit of practice, and is light years ahead of the terrible system Aston Martin used to offer. 

It’s a shame that there’s no proper Apple CarPlay connection, you can connect your phone or iPod, and operate them, but it’s not the full-on experience that people increasingly expect. 

Bluetooth, DAB, navigation and the entertainment options and more are all controlled by that screen, a lot of these also possible via the right-hand instrument screen and the steering wheel-mounted controls. Sensibly, Aston Martin leaves all the seat, air con and ventilation controls out of the screen operation, with banks of switches and knobs taking care of these.

A two-seater, that’s generously spacious in the interior, there’s plenty of room for a couple of adults to get comfortable, even if they’re at the taller end of the spectrum. 

Oddment storage isn’t overly generous in the cabin, with small door bins and a lidded arm rest between the seats, though there is a bit of space behind the seats if you want to wedge jackets or laptop bags in there. 

Best, though, just to use the boot, which at 350 litres is fairly generous in its volume compared to its rivals. That it’s accessed by a hatchback only makes that space more useful, even if you have to lift bags in and over a high lip to drop them in. 

The shape and depth of the boot means you’ll be best packing soft bags rather than hard cases, Aston Martin offering a choice of four or seven piece luggage sets in leather that are tailored exactly to fit that space. They’re not cheap to buy new so a useful extra to look out for on used cars. 

That spacious, useful boot, as well as the accommodating cabin does mean the Vantage is a more useable potential day-to-day proposition than many of its mid-engined, rivals. Indeed, the Vantage scores strongly here over cars like the Ferrari 488 GTB and Audi R8, which have tiny luggage compartments and are way more compromised in daily use.  

The 4.0-litre twin turbo V8 arrives at Aston Martin’s production facility in a box from Affalterbach, Germany, where Mercedes-AMG is based. That’s no bad thing, as if you’re going to buy an engine from anyone, AMG is as good a place to start. 

With 510PS, produced at 6000rpm, its twin turbocharged technology means that for all its high revving intensity, there’s plenty of low-down response. Indeed, peak torque is sizeable at 685Nm, that maximum produced down at 2000rpm.

Mate that all to a sports exhaust (an optional extra and one well worth seeking out) and it sounds utterly magnificent, Aston Martin tuning the exhaust to give all manner of crackles, shrieks and tearing rips as you press the accelerator. It’s as dramatic to hear, as it is to experience. 

You can choose how to orchestrate all that drama and occasion with either the eight-speed paddle-shifted automatic or a seven-speed manual. Neither are perfect, the auto lacks the whip crack response of the best of its rivals – though it’s all relative, it’s still incredibly quick shifting – and the manual is a bit recalcitrant, with real patience and skill required to get the best from it. 

A tricky shift across the gate, odd springing and weighting makes that manual a challenge, but it’s one we rather enjoy and it reveals so much more of the Vantage’s character, at much lower speeds, to make it a very desirable choice.   

You’d be disappointed if you’d blown your hard-earned money on something as special as an Aston Martin Vantage and you couldn’t hear it.

Indeed, the aural appeal of a sports car is a huge part of the overall experience and the Vantage doesn’t disappoint. It makes all the right noises and crucially, at the right time. For all the engine’s drama, it quietens down on a cruise, with only the odd flutter or crackle on lift off to remind and tease a little smile on a boring motorway drive. 

There’s a bit of tyre noise at motorway speeds, especially on brushed concrete sections, while wind noise is also apparent at speed. You can drown most of that out with the excellent audio, though.

The manual transmission is notably more noisy than the automatic, with a bit of gear whine at lower speeds, while sitting idling has the slight background chatter of the clutch release bearing make itself heard in the cabin. In all honesty, that’s no complaint. The more physical, old-school appeal of the manual car rather suiting the mechanical sounds that come with it. 

Cars like the Aston Martin Vantage are too niche, built in too tiny numbers to feature on the radar of organisations like Euro NCAP for crash testing. To be sold worldwide though, the Vantage will have had to pass all the different global crash tests, so it’s at least as safe as the next car. 

Standard safety equipment in the Vantage’s stiff structure includes ABS anti-lock attached to huge brakes, sophisticated stability and traction control systems, driver passenger front and side airbags. There’s the availability of an all-round view camera for parking, as well as blind spot monitoring. Seatbelt pretensioners are fitted as standard, too. 

Insurance won’t be inexpensive, but you’ll have had a string of sports, GT and supercars before, and still, so you’re unlikely to be surprised by this. Chances are you can put it on a multi-car policy, with a friendly insurer, who’s got experience of your record and other cars. Servicing, for the first five years of ownership, is covered by Aston Martin. 

No car in this category is ever going to do anything but attract all the tax the government can squeeze out of its owner. Accept that, and enjoy it, and take heart in the fact that all those taxes are going to pay for stuff that helps run the country, or at least it should do… 

There are no real trim levels, the Vantage coupe or Roadster. Certainly we’d suggest the sports exhaust is a must, while the automatic is a better choice if you’re buying with an eye on resale value and ease – short term at least. 

A manual car might be a keeper, and worth more in a decade or two due to its certain rarity. Play it relatively safe when choosing what colour car you’re buying. More overt choices, however much you might like them, will restrict the potential pool of buyers in the future when you trade up to a new Vantage, DB11 or something else.