2012 Aston Martin V8 Vantage range gets an overhaul

The 2012 Aston Martin Vantage gets a tweak

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage range gets an engineering and cosmetic facelift for 2012. Starts at £84,995.

It’s all but impossible for Aston Martin to come up with a new mainstream model, so all they can do is nip, tuck and tweak their existing cars in the hope that the market continues to smile favourably on their offerings. And so far, they’ve managed it.

The latest ‘new’ model from Aston Martin is the 2012 Vantage, with a raft of nips, tucks, tweaks and titivations to bring it up to date.

The most significant update to the Vantage since the 4.7 litre V8 arrived, Aston Martin has given the entry-level V8 Vantage much of what the Vantage S gets, so there’s bigger brakes and wider tyres and quicker steering, with hill-start added, and the new seven-speed SportShift II is now available.

Cosmetic tweaks include a new front bumper with air splitter, a new back bumper with diffuser, and new sills. Basically the bits that used to set apart the Vantage S.

The Vantage S gets the new Sportshift as standard, a new sports exhaust, a new aerodynamic ‘Motorsport derived’ package and an upgraded interior with hand stitched leather and the (long overdue) Garmin SatNav.

We’ve already detailed endlessly what the V12 Zagato gets, and the V12 Vantage remains unchanged, as far as we can see. The 2012 Vantage V8 starts at £84,995 and the 2012 Vantage S at £99,995.