Any DB9 experience?

MisterCorn · 5 Jul 2016

I quite fancy a V12, the Ferrari 599GTB has shot up in price over the last year, and my wife doesn't like them as they are too shouty. The DB9 looks like good value and is available as a manual. Anybody have any experience of owning/driving them? I am expecting more of a GT than a sports car, but that suits me fine, if I want to go quick I have the 911

MC

gliderpilot40 · 5 Jul 2016

Hi MC
One of my friends had a DB9 at the same time as I had my R8. We did a number of track days. I had a number of passenger laps with him at Oulton and I have to say, they are by no means slow! It was not as nimble as the R8 and I am sure that it was not quite as planted as the C4s in the group, but I was quite impressed. Was a great car.

mzmini · 5 Jul 2016

Phil 997 has had one for a few years he be along soon :thumb:

Phil 997 · 5 Jul 2016

DB9 or we can call it the £1500 car as everylittle thing that goes wrong will cost you £1500, coming from a 911 you will be so disappointed , They are very low spec the nav is an old volvo thing that's been bolted to a flip up panel. you will be as disappointed to get one as I was the other way when I got the 997 . the last straw was when I needed brakes , I said was it pads and disks ,no just pads they said ,oh good how much I said , £1480 they said
for four F!!king pads I said , yes sir they said. Anyway I ended up driving a 200 mile round trip to a place that did them for £900 lucky me. I had the car for just under 4 years and I estimate it cost me £12,000 per annum in that time plus fuel etc. the 997 I have had 3 years cost me a third of the DB9 has cost me about 10% per annum what the DB9 cost and is worth the same or a bit more than I paid for it 3 years ago. and thats why I grin a lot when driving the 911

So my advise is, If you have money to burn and want a car the total opposite of the 911 in every aspect and need some disappointment in your life go ahead get a DB9.
That is my honest view and I am normally a very positive person. :thumb:

MisterCorn · 5 Jul 2016

Oh dear, that does sound bad. What sort of problems did you have?

MC

mzmini · 5 Jul 2016

Phil did you use to work in the Aston Martin sales department ? if not I am sure that you could get a job with them :floor: :floor: :floor:

Lavazza · 5 Jul 2016

Phil 997 said:
DB9 or we can call it the £1500 car as everylittle thing that goes wrong will cost you £1500, coming from a 911 you will be so disappointed , They are very low spec the nav is an old volvo thing that's been bolted to a flip up panel. you will be as disappointed to get one as I was the other way when I got the 997 . the last straw was when I needed brakes , I said was it pads and shoes ,no just pads they said ,oh good how much I said , £1480 they said
for four F!!king pads I said , yes sir they said. Anyway I ended up driving a 200 mile round trip to a place that did them for £900 lucky me. I had the car for just under 4 years and I estimate it cost me £12,000 per annum in that time plus fuel etc. the 997 I have had 3 years cost me a third of the DB9 has cost me about 10% per annum what the DB9 cost and is worth the same or a bit more than I paid for it 3 years ago. and thats why I grin a lot when driving the 911

So my advise is, If you have money to burn and want a car the total opposite of the 911 in every aspect and need some disappointment in your life go ahead get a DB9.
That is my honest view and I am normally a very positive person. :thumb:

I can't argue with your personal ownership experience, but to add some balance, I've owned a V8 Vantage for around 4 years, and it's been trouble free. It's had new pads and a sqeaky belt replaced - neither were especially pricey, and I take it to an approved AM dealer.
I read a lot about how Aston Martin are unreliable and expensive to run, but in my experience nothing could be further from the truth. On the other hand, every Porsche I've owned has resulted in some steep bills along the way.
Perhaps I've been lucky, and maybe you've been unlucky/ripped off? The joys of sports cars eh...

As an aside, thrilled with the Cayman S my wife has just bought, superb car...really pleased to have a Porsche in the fleet again.

JohnnyDangerous · 5 Jul 2016

DB9.......................................one word.......................Dont

For the $$$$ biggest POS ive driven and we worked on TVR !!!!!!

Phil 997 · 5 Jul 2016

Lavazza said:
Phil 997 said:

DB9 or we can call it the £1500 car as everylittle thing that goes wrong will cost you £1500, coming from a 911 you will be so disappointed , They are very low spec the nav is an old volvo thing that's been bolted to a flip up panel. you will be as disappointed to get one as I was the other way when I got the 997 . the last straw was when I needed brakes , I said was it pads and shoes ,no just pads they said ,oh good how much I said , £1480 they said
for four F!!king pads I said , yes sir they said. Anyway I ended up driving a 200 mile round trip to a place that did them for £900 lucky me. I had the car for just under 4 years and I estimate it cost me £12,000 per annum in that time plus fuel etc. the 997 I have had 3 years cost me a third of the DB9 has cost me about 10% per annum what the DB9 cost and is worth the same or a bit more than I paid for it 3 years ago. and thats why I grin a lot when driving the 911

So my advise is, If you have money to burn and want a car the total opposite of the 911 in every aspect and need some disappointment in your life go ahead get a DB9.
That is my honest view and I am normally a very positive person. :thumb:

Click to expand...

I can't argue with your personal ownership experience, but to add some balance, I've owned a V8 Vantage for around 4 years, and it's been trouble free. It's had new pads and a sqeaky belt replaced - neither were especially pricey, and I take it to an approved AM dealer.
I read a lot about how Aston Martin are unreliable and expensive to run, but in my experience nothing could be further from the truth. On the other hand, every Porsche I've owned has resulted in some steep bills along the way.
Perhaps I've been lucky, and maybe you've been unlucky/ripped off? The joys of sports cars eh...

As an aside, thrilled with the Cayman S my wife has just bought, superb car...really pleased to have a Porsche in the fleet again.

I agree there are bound to be different opinions and also the V8 may be a better car despite still having the silly volvo nav bolted to a flip panel.
mine was not very old and very low mileage when purchased but I was not impressed .but each to there own I guess I am pleased you like yours and its not cost you much . :thumb: :grin:

Phil 997 · 5 Jul 2016

mzmini said:
Phil did you use to work in the Aston Martin sales department ? if not I am sure that you could get a job with them :floor: :floor: :floor:

:floor: :floor: :floor: Chris ,I bet you knew I would be less then positive ,although I did like the personal name plate of the guy who build it in the engine bay .so I knew who to call a lazy useless git when it cost me yet another £1500. lol

Phil 997 · 5 Jul 2016

MisterCorn said:
Oh dear, that does sound bad. What sort of problems did you have?

MC

There were just a constant stream of warning lights on the dash or noises and it was always things like the fuel injection pump or that type of component. or it not starting. and for a long time I just put it down to owning a hand made British sports car and I just assumed all the more exotic cars were all the same as I had come from a merc SL500 which was bullet proof but not very exiting to drive. But eventually it got tiresome. and it was only when I brought the 997 which was older, higher mileage and cost a third of the DB9 that I realised what owning a fun ,fast and reliable car was about.
My nearest AM dealer was Chichester some 60 miles away, no one close would touch it even the aston service place 2 miles from my home only worked on cars older than the DB7.
So I would drive to Chichester get it looked at, very often they didn't keep the item in stock so I would have to go back the next day.
I think the problem was they are built from mainly modified ford bits and as such they are prone to breaking.
Now maybe the V8 vantage was a totally different beast with a built from scratch engine and not just the parts bin from other makers , if so then that might be the way to scratch your AML itch.
I love my 911 and I could never have said that about the DB9 after the first month of ownership.
As your looking at things like lambo, Ferrari, AML etc.. I guess whatever you choose of those types of cars are not going to be the same reliable car as the 911, so if you go in knowing that they are more of a princess and will be more needy than the 911 then I think they will all be similar and if your only planning on doing 2/3k miles pa you may well be fine in any of them.
I must add the DB9 as is the 997 was/is my main car and as such did 10k miles pa so you need to consider that and weight it against the mileage you will be doing for a comparison. I don't want to unfairly bias your view if you were thinking I had all those issues and costs for a high days and holidays 2k pa garage queen. :thumb:

kurlykris · 6 Jul 2016

MC, I think you should ask PeterS about his Aston Martin experience, I believe he gave it away for free just to get rid of it :sad:

My mate Jason got rid of his DB9 within 12 months, he said it cost more in breakdowns than it cost him to buy and run his house :nooo: and that was before I told him about the horrendous run in the paint on the bonnet of the car..............He then had another 12 month battle with JLR to get his money back on a Range Rover that hardly left the dealership in his ownership :sad:

cheshire911 · 6 Jul 2016

I looked into this before the Turbo. My findings were:
1. 50/50 people said either "lovely car, trouble free so long as you buy a good one and have a warranty" and the others said "always going wrong with lots of niggles here and there and the occasional mechanical issue that costs shed load to sort out each tine"
2. Beauty of a car - especially the V12
3. Buy only with main dealer history and keep it that way. Reason? Few Indy (relative to Porsche), not much cheaper and value plummets once you take it outside of main dealer history.
4. Service intervals crazy (9months?)
5. An Indy locally had one - couldn't sell it and ended up selling it back to AM main dealer who commented they knew the car having supplied it and had just come out I warranty having racked up a huge bill of repairs under warranty and the owner did not want to keep the car outside warranty and he was not happy with the price we offered.

But drop-dead gorgeous looks and sound. There is a main dealer nearby and quite a few in this locality that gives an opportunity to talk to owners.

I still get tempted when I see one, but have to pinch myself each time. I guess a brand that has been in and out of receivership and different owners all trying ti revive the brand has issues with different owners tampering about with it.

The old AM's are of course collectors under the David Brown ownership (hence the DB).

The Ferrari would be the one to go for. Prices just keep climbing.
But again, very high cost of ownership compared to a Porsche.

Norfolk &amp; Idea · 6 Jul 2016

Phil 997 said:
DB9 or we can call it the £1500 car as everylittle thing that goes wrong will cost you £1500, coming from a 911 you will be so disappointed , They are very low spec the nav is an old volvo thing that's been bolted to a flip up panel. you will be as disappointed to get one as I was the other way when I got the 997 . the last straw was when I needed brakes , I said was it pads and disks ,no just pads they said ,oh good how much I said , £1480 they said
for four F!!king pads I said , yes sir they said. Anyway I ended up driving a 200 mile round trip to a place that did them for £900 lucky me. I had the car for just under 4 years and I estimate it cost me £12,000 per annum in that time plus fuel etc. the 997 I have had 3 years cost me a third of the DB9 has cost me about 10% per annum what the DB9 cost and is worth the same or a bit more than I paid for it 3 years ago. and thats why I grin a lot when driving the 911

Hmm, yeah. A familiar story. A good mate of mine had one from brand new. He loved it and they're a gorgeous looking motor but by Christ it cost him some serious dosh along the way. And the cherry on the cake was him getting royally bummed on resale.

So my advise is, If you have money to burn and want a car the total opposite of the 911 in every aspect and need some disappointment in your life go ahead get a DB9.
That is my honest view and I am normally a very positive person. :thumb:

Any DB9 experience?

MisterCorn

Fuji

gliderpilot40

Silverstone

mzmini

Barcelona

Phil 997

Le Mans

MisterCorn

Fuji

mzmini

Barcelona

Lavazza

Spa-Francorchamps

JohnnyDangerous

Estoril

Phil 997

Le Mans

Phil 997

Le Mans

Phil 997

Le Mans

kurlykris

Singapore

cheshire911

Portimao

Norfolk & Idea

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