The Aston Martin Vantage Won't Make You James Bond, But Driving It Sure Makes You Popular

The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage is not a normal car by any possible stretch of the imagination. Sure, it has an engine, four wheels, and Apple CarPlay, but the similarities to your average Corolla end there. It's not even a car most people would ever actually be in the market for owning, given the $191,000 starting price. So when the manager of the press fleet emailed me saying that my review car for the week was cancelled, and my only option was an Aston Martin, I couldn't say no.

Getting saddled with an Aston Martin Vantage as my only form of transportation over the week is a deeply weird experience, given that my previous daily driver was a Chevy Cruze hatchback. I can say pretty confidently that the priorities of Chevrolet were fairly different to those of Aston Martin. Then again, nothing about living with a car like the Vantage could be described as normal.

Forgive me, then, for not filing a standard review where I complain about the infotainment system or comment on the seat adjustment buttons. SlashGear already has an in-depth review of what the Vantage rides and drives like. Please give that a read. What I was more curious about was what it'd be like to drive as a fairly average person in the suburban Baltimore area.

Let's go over what the Vantage is and what sets it apart from other speedy two-doors. First, it's an Aston Martin, the James Bond car, the brand that old episodes of the BBC version of Top Gear praised. If you've spent any number of hours blasting around virtual tracks in Forza or Gran Turismo, you've likely picked an Aston of some variety to drive. 

It's an iconic brand that just about no one gets to experience first hand and pretty regularly regarded as one of the best styled car brands to ever exist. It's one of those brands like McLaren that gets an immediate reaction among gearheads. Additionally, it's a brand that's steeped in heritage. While Lamborghini, Ferrari, and McLaren are moving towards hybrid technology for their supercars, the Vantage is still fairly "low-tech." How does that translate to 2025 driving?

With the gravitas of the situation covered, the 2025 Aston Martin Vantage is powered by a Mercedes-AMG supplied 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 that sends 656 horsepower to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission. Don't worry, you can manually shift if you want to through the paddles. I've driven sedans and EVs with more power, but 656 horsepower in a rear-wheel drive carbon-fiber festooned coupe is a different experience entirely. It's not tame or quiet. It's old school in the best possible way.

I've driven a lot of older cars, and the Vantage feels more like that. You could transport the coupe to Monaco in 1970 and it would probably fit in just fine, rowdy exhaust note included. Without sounding pretentious (maybe that's unavoidable in a write-up about an Aston Martin), it's in-tune with the road and outside world unlike a lot of other new performance cars I've driven. The BMW M5 has more power, yet it's perfectly content sitting in traffic. The Aston, on the other hand, feels like it needs to go fast. Sitting still, the Vantage emits a cacophony of rumbles, rattles, and smells that feels more vintage than contemporary. The inside is hot and cramped like you're sitting at the starting grid before a race. If driving an Acura NSX or a BMW M5 is like flying a Concorde, the Vantage is like piloting a Spitfire fighter plane, on its way to defend the skies of Britain.

That all sounds great until you have to drive it to church or the doctors office, then it's a bit of a chore. It's a production to drive and the stiff suspension and loud exhaust get a little tiring after a stretch.

On the efficiency end, I would hit single digit miles per gallon (like the Spitfire) when I applied anything but the slightest pressure on the accelerator. It's absurdly inefficient at preserving gas, but incredibly efficient at converting 93-octane fuel into speed and noise. On the overall practicality side of things, it's not, like at all. Practicality and the Vantage do not belong in the same thought. However, since it was my only car for the week, I did have to take a friend to the airport in the Vantage and the suitcase fit in the trunk just fine, albeit with almost no room to spare.

Alex Hevesy/SlashGear

I'm not sure I have the mental fortitude to own an Aston Martin as I was almost always worried about it over the week. It didn't fit in the driveway of my home as the front splitter would scrape, so I had to park it in the cul-de-sac. Fortunately, my worries were unfounded in the neighborhood and most of my neighbors know me well enough to not assume that James Bond is staying for a few days. 

Unfortunately, while I was at a family reunion dinner, a Toyota 4Runner bonked into the rear fender of the Aston while it was parked, scratching it a bit. Everyone was fine, but the police dispatcher was fairly surprised when I explained the make, model, and value of the car I was driving. Given its low ride height, I also had to be aware of every single road surface I drove on. It's not a car you can forget that you're driving and get careless. It will let you know.

The Aston was not particularly comfortable for long drives. The Alcantara seats were adequate to be sure, but certainly aggressively bolstered for racing and not sitting in a Wendy's drive-through or cruising on the highway for anything longer than a few minutes. It's also a very loud car to be in. The engine noise is a constant as well as road and wind noise. It reminds you every second that it's a performance car and not a grand-tourer, unlike something like the Aston Martin Vanquish. It has a Bowers and Wilkins sound system (a $10,000 option), but I can't truthfully attest to how good it sounds because I was too entertained by the grumble of the V8.

Every normal driving task was made stranger with the Aston. Going to the grocery store and shopping on a strict budget felt odd. Everyone is staring at you when you get out of the car or are stopped at a light. To my enjoyment, everyone who talked to me about the car seemed to love it: It's hard not to enjoy looking at a bright green Aston. I got a number of shout outs and a few people stopped me to take pictures when out and about. It's my job to talk about cars, so I was more than happy to oblige. The group of automotive enthusiasts at my church were overjoyed when I drove them around the block. It's a fun car to look at and be around, despite the fact it's somewhat difficult to actually live with.

I drove to historic downtown Frederick, Maryland with a friend in the Aston and as a result the glances, waves, and honks from every passing driver, the Vantage briefly made me the most popular person in town. I was only at risk of being upstaged by passing Porsche 911 GT3 RS. Even then it couldn't match James Bond's own pride and joy. 

The car has dozens of options, ranging from an Alcantara headliner to $14,400 carbon brakes; the paint color alone is a $9,700 option. All told, the Aston cost $264,300. A number like that probably doesn't mean a whole lot to the target demographic, but it makes the car completely unattainable for most drivers. Is it worth that? I don't know, I've never even flown first class on a plane, but I was always very aware of the price tag of the British cruise missile I happened to be in charge of.

Nothing about driving an Aston Martin over the course of the week is anything I would call average. It's ridiculously fast, completely planted on the road to an absurd degree if you can manage to keep it steady, incredibly uncomfortable to drive, and a head turner wherever you go. I absolutely loved driving it, and there's a pretty good chance I'll never personally own anything that even comes close to the Aston. That said, I was a little relieved when the Vantage was picked up and replaced with a more pedestrian SUV. Heritage, noise, and feeling a little bit of danger are fun for a while, but there's something to be said about staying up to date with the times.