Published:
20 September 2024Chief among the Vantage’s revisions is the new interior, with cues and hardware and software of a type that was originally introduced on the DB12 and that we were, in the context of the inherited and frankly ancient Mercedes software of the old DB11 and previous Vantage, really impressed by.
The central 10.3in touchscreen is still not the last word in usability – its icons are sometimes too small, its layout can be a touch unintuitive and the surface itself seems to get quite hot – but Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integration will make life considerably easier for owners.
We are less enamoured with the purely digital display that constitutes the instrument binnacle. Yes, it has good clarity, but its graphics lack romance in a car like the Vantage and the capacitive controls on the steering wheel are prone to latency and can be entirely unresponsive.
At the same time, Aston evidently still believes to some extent in having physical buttons and dials, and the little grooved rollers that adjust temperature and fan speed and audio volume are truly lovely, not to mention straightforward to use on the fly, with barely a glance downwards. Useful when you have more than 650bhp underneath your right foot. There are also simple buttons on the wide transmission tunnel for tuning the major dynamic elements, and a large rectangular one to knock the gearbox into manual mode.
Stitching and material and perceived quality is high too, save for some lateral play in the stubby gear selector, and suchlike. Our test car also had trouble recognising when the substantial key fob was in the car, which is something that needs to happen before you can depress the brake pedal and start the engine via a push button. Aston Martins have come a long way in terms of electrical reliability, but perhaps there remains some glitches that you would be unlikely to find in, say, a Porsche 911 Turbo S. Occasional error messages also flashed up on the display, none of which ever amounted to anything.
