sham1
8915
A great car in that
Nov 19, 2018,09:07 AM
it gave one a feel good factor even before starting the engine. One of the most perfect shapes ever in my opinion together with the Ferrari Dino. UK roads are not the widest so the width of the car is just about the maximum one would want in a car. The new Vantage like many other supercars are way too wide. This is where I salute Porsche which has kept the dimensions of the 911 and Cayman slim and compact.
When I sold the Vantage in December last year, it was ten years old and had done only 22,000 miles which is about 35,420kms, not much for its age. I learned a lesson with this car - it really needed to be driven and the only problem I had during my ownership was flat batteries! The fact that my office was a 8 minute walk from home did not help my efforts in adding the miles to the car. Sometimes, I actually drove to work (which took 10 minutes!) just so that the car had a work out.
It is the only car I have ever owned where I would take a walk around it every time before driving it and had to pinch myself that the car belonged to me. And I have owned quite a few like the Honda NSX, Mercedes 190SL, Maserati 3200 GTA, DB7, Rolls Royce Corniche and CLK55 AMG but to name a few but none made me drool the way the Vantage did. I am glad I did not bring the car back to Malaysia with me last year for two reasons - the road tax here is based on engine size and secondly, I think it would attract way too much unwanted attention. London really is the capital for sports and supercars so an Aston does not really attract much attention.
I now drive a modest Subaru BRZ. Do I miss the Vantage? Yes, I miss the shape and the feel good factor but the BRZ to me personally is a better car - tight, very pointy and it rides a whole lot better than the Vantage. It might be slower than the Vantage but it is not so much about outright speed but the way it delivers the speed. Also I would expect the BRZ to be a lot more reliable.