I finally gave up on my SL63 and ordered the new 2025 Aston Martin Vantage. Highly tweaked same engine with significant power increase and design features. With my new engine, the SL has performed well and still looks great, but the total engine failure lost my allegiance. It's not due until December and I look forward to trying out that new engine.

 

Congratulations. The new Vantage will also be my next car (I’ve owned 2 Vantages and a DB11 before) The updated interior, front end, and increased H.P. are awesome.

 

Congratulations, beautiful car. On the short list once our M8 lease is up. Compared to what MB is asking for these cars the Vantage is a no brainer. Aston is killing it.

 

Congrats OP very nice car, agree with the inflated prices MB had on their products, the AM is pretty much no brainer as this tier and price point.

 

What is the MSRP of your build?

 

$191,000 base plus options totaled $240,800. Probably overdid the options and a very nice build could be done for $210,000 I think.
Configuration code is T5NEWWLM7G and I think you can look it up on their configuration site for details.

 

Agree, thrilled with my SL63 and coming from the 2019 Vantage, my sights are squarely set on the facelift for my next car - just gorgeous and love the upgrades - Drive in good health! KH

 

Nice car, but one of the biggest reasons I got a SL, is the drop top.

 

Agree on preferring a convertible, but the Vantage Volante configuration may be six months away and I also think the coupe looks really good as is. I will probably look at the convertible version after 18 months or so.

 

Congrat...I love everything about the 2025 Vantage.

 

1. Congrats! That's a fantastic car.
2. Are you really expecting an Aston Martin to be more reliable than a Mercedes? Or easier to service for that matter?

 

I previously owned 3 Aston Martins (2 Vantages and a V12 DB11). All three were trouble free. I owned one of the Vantages for 7 years before trading it in for the DB11. The service costs were much higher than the SL, but you are dealing with a different level of ownership experience. Although cars from MB and Porsche (I have owned 10 Porsches) overlap with Astons on price point, AM customers are treated in the same tier as Bentley, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, etc. (lots of sucking up, and invitations to private events, owner drives to special venues, lots of opportunities to spend money at high end jewelry brands, private jets, pick up of vehicles for service in covered flatbeds, etc.). The downside with many of the high end cars is the limited length of the factory warranty (typically 3 years with unlimited mileage). The extended AM factory warranty runs about $5k/year. Annual service runs about $1200 to $2500 per year. Unlike some Ferraris and Lamborghinis that have negative reactions from the public, you will almost always get a positive reaction to the AM. The new interior in the AM is the icing on the cake. My next car will also be the new Vantage.

 

Shaken, not stirred. The man with the license to kill, code named 007, would be nothing without his Aston Martin!
When I was a lad, I had a matchbox replica of the DB5.

 

Well, I fixed my SL63 problems. I happened to see a new 2023 Audi R8 V10 Performance Spyder with 29 miles on it available at a local Audi dealer. 3 hours later, the SL 63 is gone and the R8 is in its new home.
Wow, it is beautiful and fun.

 

Interesting, so I guess the selling point was the V10 but no more Vantage coming : ( ?

 

That's the motor they should have put in the Urus. It's music to my ears.

If the frickin' air pollution wasn't so bad here in Houston where dumb rednecks burn piles of wood without the use of chimneys like Neanderthals used to... *sigh*

 

When you have driven it for a couple of weeks please report back to us the pros and cons viz-z-viz the SL63...when the SL63 was behaving itself that is... Beautiful car!

 

Is it an inny, or an Audi?

 

Congrats! I had a 2011 R8 V10 Spider with manual transmission I purchased new. Should have kept that car.

 

Curious how you like it, depending on what kind of driving you plan to do with it. I looked at the R8 back in 2018. Drove the Performance and non Performance coupes and spyders several times on my favorite canyon roads, but didn't get along with the on power understeer Audi engineered into it to keep owners safe from snap oversteer. Powering out of a corner resulted in the front going wide instead of rotating. It was very disturbing. I had an RS5 at the time with the high revving V8 derived from the V10, which thanks to the rear sport differential rotated properly in the same situation, and so do AMGs even with 4Matic+. They turn in and rotate under throttle. Heard the RWD versions of the R8 are much better, but never had a chance to try one. I never drove the facelift, though, so maybe they improved on this. Glorious sounding engine, though, although the facelift is quite a bit less so due to noise regulations and OPF, but I believe the US version got a different exhaust than the EU version if I remember correctly. Thing I like about the new Vantage is that it's proper RWD, but what I don't like is that it has a numb torque converter automatic. The dual clutch paired with the V10 in the R8 is a sweet thing to drive. The 9-MCT paired with the AMG V8 doesn't quite match it, but at least in my C63S Coupe it snaps gears properly with instant response. In the SL63 it seems they've goofed up the transmission somehow based on reports from owners.

 

Good question. Our UBS wealth management guy, just by complete accidental timing, was here yesterday for our quarterly review and he has a 2018 R8 plus 4 other legit supercars and he likes the R8 best as a daily driver. My wife knew the R8 that I happened to see in a Google thrusted ad intrigued me because it was what I ordered 3 1/2 years ago and Audi never delivered. That letdown led to the SL purchase.

She asked our guy what he thought about the R8 and the Vantage dueling circumstances. He said time is the real enemy at my age {78} and his advice was why not get both? With a little planning, he could easily make the numbers work. When she refreshed her memory by looking at the online web pictures, she surprisingly said she agreed and go get the damn thing if it was still there.

The dealer's Sales Manager said it was sitting right there and after I sent over my SL Vin and mileage, he said he could make the deal work with his allowing $106K for the SL to help cover my lease payoff of $111K. That really surprised me since my guess was that I was $25K+ upside down. Since I was paying $3300 a month and owed 8 more months, that was a no brainer trade and we will decide on the Vantage down the road. I drove down there and after less than an hour, the MB was theirs and I was driving out in a 39 miles new 2023 R8 V10 Performance Spyder at $300 more a month, but as a purchase not a lease. FYi

So far after about 500 miles, the R8 has been a joy to drive so am very happy so far. The SL, after the engine failure but AMG full engine replacement, did very well but the lack of confidence die had been cast. It was too bad MB released the car with so many software glitches and a hardware failure. Otherwise, it was beautiful and great to drive. Not nearly as Wow-inducing and vibrant fun to drive as the R8 though.

Sorry for the long answer, but I don't like disparaging the SL without some explanation.