Test-Driving The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage

Forbes

a day ago

The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage.
Debuting last year, the latest V8-powered Aston Martin Vantage is the badge's most peak form. Sporting more power than ever, an incredibly capable chassis, and some handsome exterior revisions, it's a substantial refresh ready to carry the badge into the future, and contains ample Aston Martin DNA throughout to make sure both enthusiasts and casual observers never confuse it for something else.
Starting at $194,086, the 2025 Aston Martin Vantage is both engaging yet comfortable, refined yet rowdy—everything that discerning enthusiasts could ever want in a high-end sports car-slash-small grand tourer.
The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage.
Up until 2024, the current-gen Vantage's overall look was a point of contention for some time; its shape is quintessential sports car, but impressions were mixed. Especially regarding its small, squinting headlights. For this latest facelifted iteration, it's as if Aston Martin had a checklist typed out in bold with the headlights at the top. The new units are quite sleek and not only fit the brand's current design language well, but are also a visual throwback to Vantages of yore, plus the DB7 and DB5. A traditional grille replaced a wire-mesh version a few years ago, with the latest model's beautifully accompanying the body's side strakes and overall shape when seen from a three-quarter perspective. The rest of the revisions are minor, but they contribute to its toned and athletic appearance.
The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage.
Inside, Aston Martin's made even more significant changes. Take for instance its infotainment system: It's no longer mildly archaic software from Mercedes-Benz and is tremendously easier to use. Navigating through different settings is a snap, and the screen itself is an unobtrusive 10.25 inches set lower in the dash, rather than up high. Cleverly placed switchgear on the center console means making adjustments to the exhaust tone, drive mode, dampers, and auto stop/start, as well as HVAC and stereo volume requires no extra thought, and the switches themselves feel of substantial quality. In fact, fan speed, drive setting, and volume are all heavy metal wheels that feel so nice and make a satisfying, muffled click. Elsewhere, my tester was trimmed in beautiful black Alcantara and leather, with a substantial amount of carbon fiber mixed in for an additional $6,000.
Finally, like the previous, pre-facelift iteration, the Vantage's low-slung driving position and spacious interior dimensions make for excellent overall comfort, particularly for folks above six-feet tall. Visibility is good, though a tad restricted over the left shoulder—standard blind spot monitoring makes up for. All in all, the sense of luxury is higher than ever inside.
The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage.
The Vantage is a high-performance sports car through and through, especially in how it rolls down the road. Adaptive dampers, 50:50 weight distribution, independent double-wishbone suspension up front, increased chassis rigidity over the previous model, and its front-mid engine placement give the baby Aston solid handling dynamics across the board, whether while taking on a twisty mountain road at high speed or gliding around town.
The steering's yaw response is tack-sharp in its immediacy and makes for a very engaging corner-carving experience—in fact, it's the best I've ever experienced in any front-engine fare, ever. Steering feel has great tactility, especially for being tied to an electrically assisted rack, and weight loads up well in corners and while cruising on the highway. Though, I wish the steering wheel's position was less awkward; like the old model, it still sits too high and doesn't have the ability to be brought down low and near the torso for an optimized driving position.
The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage.
When it comes to ride quality, the latest Vantage excels here as well, with a feeling of refinement and solid variety in its three damper settings—these are essentially sporty, more sporty, and track-ready. On the softer side, you never forget that you're in a focused sports car, but the road's most offensive features are nicely filtered out. Especially speed bumps, expansion joints, and washboard-like surfaces, which shows that Aston Martin probably spent a lot of time perfecting the dampers' compression tuning.
With the Bilstein-sourced dampers set to either their softest or middle setting, the Vantage exhibited beautifully neutral handling through high-speed sweepers and tight, technical corners alike, and chassis feel was brilliant. Gigantic carbon ceramic brakes with multi-piston calipers assisted in precisely balancing load on each corner by way of a firm yet easy-to-modulate pedal.
The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage.
Since 2018, the Aston Martin Vantage's V8 is a Mercedes-AMG-sourced 4.0-liter twin-turbo mill, but some substantial work's been done to it in this latest model: Bigger turbos, revised internals, and improved cooling enable it to produce an eye-watering 656 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque. With 3,847 pounds to haul, the Vantage is ravenous off the line and will hit the 60 mph mark in a hair over three seconds. The power curve has shifted slightly higher over the previous model, but it's still quite rapid all over the tachometer.
Throttle response is sharper than before, and Aston's done plenty to differentiate its character from anything with a Mercedes badge. It feels angrier and more motorsports-like, and the sharp V8 music emanating from under the hood and out the quad-tip exhaust pipes is truly excellent. Other new sports- and supercars are too quiet, the Vantage's decibel levels are always just right and give it profound, enthusiast-pleasing character.
A close-ratio conventional 8-speed automatic transaxle sits just behind the seats, contributing to the Vantage's 50:50 weight balance, and features excellent overall gearing with close ratios. It's lurchy and unrefined in some instances at partial throttle around town, and its torque converter requires careful throttle inputs to not upset anyone sitting shotgun. Yet, it comes into it own where it counts: ripping off shifts at both wide-open throttle down a long straightaway, and braking hard into tight, technical corners.
The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage.
Aston Martin markets the latest Vantage as 'engineered for real drivers,' and, for once, such a claim can't be chalked up to just hyperbole. The visceral experience behind the wheel—formed from its responsive chassis, classic sports car proportions throughout, and lively powertrain— doesn't pull any punches in expressing this. There may be a few weak points, but on the whole, it's the best V8-powered Vantage, ever, that truly belongs in the same ranks as every other luxury driver's car on the new car market. And when compared to anything else with its engine up front, it's at the top of the podium.