2024 Aston Martin Vantage review. It’s got serious power but is it too aggressive for its own good?

Well welcome to a new Harry's Garage video and today's car is the new Aston Martin Vantage and I've got the press release in my hands and it says Vantage engineered for real drivers. Now we looked at this car in detail back in February and I loved the spec on it they've really gone to town on this this is their ultimate sports car it's also going to be their race car as well and you can see that in its spec top speed 202 miles an hour 0-60 in 3.4 seconds and with the AMG V8 reworked to Aston spec 665 horsepower so huge amount more horsepower than before it's about 110 horsepower more 30% more power and I think it looks terrific as well. So much engineering going into this car to make it the definitive front-engined Aston sports car. Let's go and have a closer look. I have to say this car is particularly striking in its cosmos orange paintwork that is an extra yeah £6,700 have that. I ought to discuss pricing as we go around this car because £165,000 is its base price but not in the spec you're seeing here and I was surprised how quickly the numbers add up so on this car you'll see it's got carbon fibre splitter at the front it's also got this black badge in here dark grille you have to spec I tell you ordering a car today there are so many options you now have to run through before you know I just want an Aston Martin Vantage but no there's pages and pages of things boxes you have to tick you come round and it's got these new generation Michelin Pilot Sport S5 tyres that have been developed specifically for this model and 21 inch wheels they're also an option £1,000 for that and then yeah if you want it normally comes on steel brakes if you want the carbon ceramic brakes you see here that's £10,000 black caliper £1,400 so you can see how it starts to add up I think its side profile is just fantastic there's more muscle to it it's got this wider track it's significantly wider at the front and then here as well again carbon see down there along the bottom seal you'll see a rear diffuser in carbon as well and roof in carbon on this press car if I look at the numbers for those well you've got £3,220 for the roof £12,500 for that lower carbon and upper carbon with the mirrors etc so with all those extras added up what's around £50,000 worth of extra so this car as you see it is nearer to £215,000 than the £165,000 list price quite chunky this is the look of Aston this is their rear design it's it's carried in DBX yeah it was also in a previous model but this is a better looking interpretation of it and quite an aggressive diffuser all in carbon huge amount of carbon so I suppose that's why it's a huge amount of money as well and again this in black as well is something you have to spec one nice thing on here it's a practical car if I quickly you can't open the boot from outside but if I just do that you see there there's a there's a hint of practicality around this car quite a big boot there and then this other area behind the seat we will look at it outside when it's a bit more light I bet that's an option as well but it seems to be on every Aston I ever see is the umbrella there strapped to the boot lid let's have a look at the engine there it is and they're really quite proud how far they've tucked the engine back in the chassis on this there's the centre wheel line you see the top of the towers and it's almost behind now you also see there's two turbos here this is a hopped v engine so the turbos are up top so that's the heat shields all going on here as well and a significant bracing between the suspension towers it's a much stiffer chassis set up on it all to enhance how it's dynamic so let's take it outside take it for a drive it's another car that I have to be careful getting in because it has these sports seats 16 way sports seats and a very hard carbon fibre ridge just as you get in which could cause a slight accident right anyway we have the new interior in the Aston obviously in advantage next generation we've seen it in DBX and obviously DB12 and yeah I'm going to start the engine up and to start this it just seems to take time to start up I noticed from cold it it just takes a while just to you know boot up as it were and you want to boot it up because this being a 2024 car you have to turn all the assistant stuff off which I'll do in a moment but yeah general layout small instruments in front of a screen in front of me unfortunately no dials now just these two screens small digits lots of people commented on it I will join the chorus they are too small I can just about see it's 16 degrees outside run a tiny script on it and then down here we have these lovely scrolls for temperature you can do that really nice feel just quite delicate when when you're driving you tend to go up it's like four degrees on the and the other bit I'm not quite sure about is they're just yeah if I do heated seats it's it's a touch sensitive black all ready to smudge some things and the one bit I don't like is if I put it into manual into drive like that and I press manual this just doesn't feel very sporting as a way of turn it from between manual and auto to me a comment behind a little bit of space behind not huge you could just about throw a coat back there but you do get a glove box which is good and you do get fairly generous door pockets so they have thought about that and oh there's wireless charging underneath there which I can see my phone there and it of course does carplay wirelessly as well so what else little hatch in there yeah charging points are in there if should you need them seats once you're in are good oh another thing I'm going to mention it probably in the drive as well the height of the dash and the bed it just feels as though I'm looking out there is no view from my view outside there is no bonnet no nothing a little screen to look out at just high just a very enclosed feel do like the vents though yeah twist in the middle work an absolute treat other manufacturers please take note it is the best way to control vents not in a screen you have to dive in just with mechanical vents like that lecture over right I'm going to put it to drive and off we go and it sets off in this sport mode there is no GT mode in Avant New Vantage it's sports sports plus or track anyway let's head out go find some better roads probably worth me just showing you how you do turn all the speed awareness stuff off you go to this assistance and you work your way down this and traffic line visual and audible no I'll turn that to off speed limit warning lane assist I'm going to turn that off deactivate lane departure deactivate that's it isn't it it's just that's what we have to do now in today's cars if you buy a new car it's compulsory to have that technology fitted and yet we're all turning it off which just seems mad to me because it's expensive tech anyway let's get going it's quite punchy as you can tell from their gruff V8 sound can't help but say there's an AMG sound it's also now an Aston sound as well and reasonably noisy on a coarse surface I measured it at 77 decibels on my bit of road but it doesn't take much coarser sort of service and you're in well into the 80s it is quite noisy in here civilized though you know cruise because obviously it's eight speed automatic gearbox transaxle so sitting in the back axle and yeah pleasant car to be good visibility from these mirrors as well fine they're not quite as nice design as the previous ones but hey that might be just me all sorts of different displays you can have up here as well I have tyre pressure and on here I don't know why I have torque and power which is known as telemetry but yeah various things you can do different modes on here and then on here I can change between my settings so I'm actually if I go to driver mode there we are I'm in sports plus I only there's no GT so sport if I go one click back then I've got individual but sport is it's where it starts rather than GT as you get on DB12 things I'm going to put it into sports plus for this squirt up the hill and all in auto mode 25 miles an hour hitting the d limit what happens here we go yeah it just yeah it took a bit of waking up there because we've been cruising through town and then whoa it hits and the serious talk going to that was a little squirm as we just came second to third there it's yeah it is mighty quick this car we're running out of attitude to describe how quick today's cars are but this is right at the upper end it feels some mod well overpowered really it's making those back wheels really work those tyres have got their hands full with delivering the power to the tarmac which is sort of good and when you know you lift 110 horsepower up on where it was before they claim three and a half 62 and I see Autocar have figured one of these and they've got seven seconds to 100 miles an hour which is my benchmark which is pretty flipping quick interestingly the bit that gets me is they also tested that AMG GT63 that I had in recently heavier about 80 horsepower down that did 7.4 seconds to 100 miles an hour so it's a mighty mighty engine this AMG unit and yeah the weight thing I did weigh this car actually I'll put it on a weigh bridge because I was intrigued they only claim a dry weight was 1605 so it went 1740 kilos so that's to be expected but it is Aston Vantage for whatever reason have always been a bit on the chunky side whatever they always have a higher curb weight than you'd really want right now I'm going to go to manual I'm going down my favorite bit of road I'm going to flick down a few gears third might might try second just around here turn in oh I'm conscious I am front engine there just a slight step out yeah it is very sporting if I just just try its ride down here I ought to just give it a kind of time in sport it's knobbly the ride it never really relaxes the ride here you are definitely in a sports car there is no bumpy road setting and surprising bump absorption nope it will fight the surface it's a sports car and if you go up to sports plus yeah it just ratchets up the dampers slightly more obviously it's on conventional springs here there's no air springs or anything like that and let's have a look at deflection I noticed there's a chassis set up in the glove box yeah you see over there it doesn't handle that bump very well it's reasonably sad it's got quite a lot of negative on the front and rear bit of towing just going that way but nothing like as mad as that GT3 I had in it's okay for that I would expect it from such a sporting chassis setup right try it over these bumps down here just as I expected but it stepped out there one time in the wet a couple of days ago which surprised me it is a very active car but pointy 2.2 turns a lot to luck yeah felt good around there I have to say it also introduces this traction control system to Aston Martin which is quite sophisticated it measures all sorts of yaw and pitch it has a very clever control unit looking at all the parameters and then builds it into the very sophisticated ESP system and you can adjust it I'm in it now I can go I think one to nine sort of five is in the middle I just put it down to four for on road no doubt you'd go down to the ones and two if you're on track you have to it's a bit fiddly to get in you have to press and hold when then it comes up in off and track and then you hold again and it gets you into the system but worth doing I think but on on road driving I'm going to put it back into manual I suppose we ought to start going through this car um likes and dislikes well where do we start yeah that on the dislike side it is I mean it's good it's wide track that gives it stability but it's just a big car now this part is it was introduced it was sort of much smaller more dainty more 911 like I suppose but that's got bigger as well but yeah it is a bigger car than I realized when I got behind the wheel it's close to DB12 now and that car has got more sporting well so has this one this is very definitely on the outer edge of what's bearable as a GT day-to-day car this is this is sporting with capital letters let's just try it around here low geared as well as you can hear it there yeah I just hear it light up it's got electronic diff it's fighting the torque and the horsepower through those sort of corners yeah just squats as you come out of there it keeps you concentrated this car if you want to actually get maximum out of this car my goodness you're on your toes forget about the amazing sound system and all that lot you need all your brain cells engaged and then it's quite rewarding but I'm surprised just how aggressive it is not a dislike I suppose the price kind of moved up in the stratosphere into the pricing as I say when it came out up against 911 things market has moved on with 20 years almost I suppose since it was launched original Vantage and now it's not a 911 rival to me in the crosshairs is the Ferrari Roma that is the car it's after equally aggressive much quicker than expected more swelled sort of body and I'm going to come up in the conclusion just discussing those two again but it is yeah pricey this car is so close to dv12 I'm a bit surprised by that lots of likes though because my god it's a handsome thing when you sit it outside your house you think wow that is exactly what I want an Aston Martin to look like and it's great that they've modernized the interior I do feel as though it's somehow even though it's expensive it sort of feels value it feels very special very Aston it's what I want personal to me and I like that about it I also like the way it has no tech on it there's no hybrid tech this is a pure driving machine that was its focus from the start of development well yeah conclusions on this car it's a hard one this one I expected to absolutely love it and yet I'm slightly struggling it is so hardcore it is it has surprised me and in four days of using it on on various types of roads I've never really found its sweet spot I find it's fighting the surface of this road I use regularly this is a challenging road that is why I use it it does not flatter cars in any way and this just thumps its way down there it doesn't absorb it doesn't breathe with the road surface as some great cars do they make great noises in all the puff in the PR that comes with the car that they've got this great bandwidth on the dampers 500% more than before but they don't seem to be using it they've got higher spring rates and that limits the way it can breathe of a road it's so firm that you don't get a bumpy road section on for tarmac like this it is more extreme it feels as though it's spent a lot of time on track doing setup and then the road bit came at the end is how I sense how this car is and that I've mentioned the Ferrari Aroma before that is a pure road car and there's no competition version of it there is very definitely a GT3 version of this and they were developed side by side and I sense that from behind the wheel and yet it's it's a heavier car it's 250 kilos heavier than a GT3 and it's racing against you know McLaren Porsche GT3s Ferrari 296 Cutcar that sort of thing with a front engine car you're at a slight disadvantage trying to get that dynamics into the car and does that compromise it also as a road car maybe I kind of wish that they'd develop a mid-engined Aston Martin as their most sporting model I think it would be a purer car it'd be against what Aston have known for but I think it would help them in today's market I feel enclosed I feel like I'm in a GT but I would be quite tempted with a DB12 because that's more what I expect an Aston to be like if you want a super sporting Aston this is the car for you you will have fun it is a hooligan of an engine and the handling with that adjustable traction control I really like it's got that tech on board as well so there you go slightly confused not a massive five-star car for me probably four four and a half great all the same have enjoyed it it's just not the car I expected it to be did enjoy this video keep watching keep subscribing more videos coming on very soon