Aston Martin Vantage is being facelifted, and that is quite remarkable

The outgoing Aston Martin Vantage never really got their hands on it. Its beautiful predecessor, which was in production for almost 13 years, symbolized the modern Aston Martin. And filling his shoes turned out to be difficult. Especially with a design that – especially in the photos – was a bit difficult to digest. The car debuted with an ever-widening grille that extends to the bottom of its front, with two relatively small headlights diagonally above it. He looked a bit like a catfish.

The nose with which we got to know the outgoing Aston Martin Vantage.

Now the car ‘in real life’ still had the presence which fits an Aston Martin, but that was not enough for the (Dutch, at least) buyers. This was also because its predecessor in its ultimate iteration had an atmospheric, 600 hp strong V12 coupled to a manual gearbox, after previously having been delivered in all kinds of imaginative versions (see the GT8 and the GT12, but also the ‘ordinary ‘ V12 Vantage S). The new Vantage had to make do with a relatively characterful, but considerably less exclusive turbo block from AMG, where Mercedes’ influences in the interior were also reflected. And not so much in the positive: the Aston Martin got the infotainment system with touchpad control that the German brand was almost allowed to retire.

Later Aston Martin straightened things out a bit. The Vantage was given a different nose in various versions, still got a twelve-cylinder under the hood and found a job in Formula 1 as a – albeit not widely acclaimed – safety car. Nevertheless, the curtain is now falling for the Vantage, although there will be a successor.

The Vantage V600, the ultimate version of the first modern Vantage, had a naturally aspirated V12 manual gearbox.

Choice for facelift somewhat remarkable

As it turns out, Aston Martin took a closer look at the outgoing Vantage for that successor. It will clearly be a major facelift in which the nose will be new in appearance, and not an entirely new model. That is not that surprising, since Aston Martin only wants to sell EVs from 2030 and still intends to introduce a few other combustion engine models before then. In addition, developing a completely new Vantage also costs a lot of money. Still, in light of the V12 Vantage, it’s somewhat remarkable; previously, Aston Martin only introduced such limited variants at the end of a lifecycle, and not before a facelift.

Anyway: the Vantage is only 5 to 6 years old, so it can still be used for a while. Aston Martin must have thought so too. What the brand is doing to prove the rightness of that thought remains unclear for the time being. We suspect that AMG’s 4-liter V8 will still be in place in the Vantage for a while, and expect Aston Martin to come up with a newer generation of (borrowed) technology for the interior. Further changes will mainly be of an external nature, so take a closer look at the spy photos. What do you notice?

Incidentally, the larger Aston Martin DB11 will also soon receive a very extensive facelift.

In any case, the outgoing Vantage was also available with non-ceramic brakes.