Your baby is so chill and inquisitive

I’m sure it’s painful paying those bills 😢 but I bet the smiles back within 30 seconds of starting her up and driving off listening to that Aston Martin V12 soundtrack 😊, how could it not be 😄

Glad to see your open and honest review of costs. I always recall someone saying when buying used cars, look at their original purchase price as that will give you an indication as to the likely running costs. Hope the channel continues to grow with your niche angle. Cheers, Kevin

You deserve way more subscribers mate. You are so sincere, honest and comical too. My jaw dropped when you said the bill amounts, thank you for showing us what it’s like to own this magnificent car.

I just picked up an '05 DB9 with just over 15k miles from a very reputable dealer I've dealt with before and it's been put on a flatbed to the mechanic twice in the first three days of ownership 😂 she's so beautiful and fun when actually working that I just don't care

Great pleasure seeing you in pain, Ben....it's all part of the Aston experience

The ANSWER is very simple - learn to do all the easy stuff YOURSELF!! Even in a wheelchair, I was able to do a lot on my own with my DB9... Until it was written off by another driver! Admittedly I never had any major problems over the two years I had it. That said most of my limited expenditure was on improvements and minor upgrades. The biggest issue was bubbling paint (on EVERY SINGLE PANEL!!) which I had got as far as being about to clearcoat the repaired spots. I will readily admit that this would never achieve a factory finish but it would pass unnoticed by most at 10 feet! I will be getting back into the brand, via a Rapide S, as soon as possible and maybe this could be a different experience - who knows! In your case, start by learning how to refurbish your wheels - it's an eminently DIY job and there's plenty of tutorials on KZfaq!

You have such an awesome and genuine positive attitude, and these videos about your DadB9 make us feel like we own it with you (even if we're not chipping in for fuel 😜). Always a pleasure to watch. Take care pal.

I own an '08 650i and when I was considering buying it one of the best bits of advice I read was this: it's a complex engine, with a high cylinder count and NEEDS to be serviced and maintained on time (twice a year, without fail!) and PROPERLY, ie use high quality oil, not cheap petrol-station swill. If you do that, the car is generally very reliable, any major problems are either a complete crapshoot lottery or sheer bad luck. If you don't, then the engine will have all manner of problems and that laziness will result in enormous bills. The advice went on to say if any prospective buyers didn't want to pay for getting servicing done, or you can't afford the costs, then best to look at a different option. And this video instantly reminded me of that. How many people would baulk at the plug and coil price and think "nah, that's £2k plus change I don't want to spend, it'll be fine..." and then the car develops major and very expensive problems, but you've done it properly with a specialist who know what they're doing. To me, this goes into "Good, honest, real world consumer advice." Major lifespan services can be expensive, but there's a good reason and rather than showing how expensive the car is, you're showing that, if properly serviced, even a 00's Aston WILL be reliable. The tyre and SRS modules are just terrible luck and any car can get a puncture that writes the tyre off, but even then, you didn't half-a$$ it and did the pair. I assume you looked into a tyre repair before replacing? I had a major puncture on a motorcycle tyre, and the repair done by a professional (not patch, proper repair) was fine for the life of the tyre, which saved what had been a nearly new tyre.

I’d be interested to know how much the costs would have been if you had replaced the spark plugs and coil packs yourself? Labour in garages is a rip-off and work like that can be done by somebody who’s relatively handy with cars without being a mechanic. Appreciate you probably haven’t got the time or maybe didn’t want to take the risk! These jobs don’t sound too bad to me - compared to a Ferrari this is straightforward stuff and comparatively cheap.

Love the honesty here mate, it’s great that you’re able to share all elements of the ownership experience with us. My Maser should be due a service soon, keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks for the transparent video. I feel fortunate that you have made your channel around the time I am shopping for my AM.

This is the reality check my husband needs, as he dreams of having an Aston Martin (I love them, too).

Oh, man.... I love this car but have to concede I can't afford one. My 'Scouse Knob-Head', know-all brother-in-law is fond of saying: "The easy part's buying them". Hate having to admit he's right.

There's not a single job that you listed on your service invoice that you could not have undertaken yourself. A DB9 is just a car, it operates just like any other car and whilst jobs may require more stuff to be removed for access, they are all doable. Plus in doing the work yourself you get a better understanding of how the car works. Personally, I am looking forward to the time when my DB9 requires a coil + plug service, its roughly £1,600 for all the parts and probably a couple of days of fun time.

You've just taught me that having an extra set of arms and legs joining yours in gesticulating really helps when you need to rant.

I went to my local Lidl this afternoon and when I came out, there was a Maserati GranTurismo in the car park. Such an elegant car, but I'm sure that it would cost more to maintain than your DB9.

Unlucky mate, those bills must have really stung, especially with the cost of living crisis and 4 young kids! Your bills this year are more than what I spent on buying my current car lol. Every time I think of getting something fast or fancy, I remind myself that they can cost a fortune to keep in good condition.

It's a great channel, and thank you for putting the content out! Hopefully someone on the channel will have a B7 RS4, that was a perfect Dad car when I had mine, but it was similarly expensive to run to my friend's V8 Vantage!

Those prices seem quite reasonable to me. Labour costs must be quite economical.

I’m so glad I did my YTS mechanics apprenticeship as a kid and can find my way around my DB9 now

My new favorite youtube channel. I love the db9 and the ONLY thing that has prevented me from chasing this car is the idea of fitting carseats into it. You are slowly convincing me (even with the expensive bills).

8 weeks into my ownership I had a new clutch fitted, with some discount as it took quite a while to get fixed was 3600, and that did not include a new ASM pump which was another grand but that was covered by the warranty Expensive yes but sell it ? Hell no It’s the mist wonderful thing I have ever owned and I just dont care , I love mine to bits, it’s beautiful and a joy to own, and when I get out , I look back at it and smile.

Ah mate!! what a shitter..especially that bulb.. £94!! better luck next year

😮The joys of motoring, especially prestige cars 😢 A few of those extra jobs would possibly be covered under a decent warranty? I'm lucky to have 10 years/100K miles on the GR4, but wouldn't know "exactly" what was covered throughout that warranty period. The "renowned" small print and clauses!! For older cars it's arguably better to just put aside the 600 quid or so for an aftermarket car warranty or likely 2K+ for an A.M equivalent, lol.. I'm hoping your A.M servicing is actually being substantially discounted due to your video promoting😉 Did you have someone else there monitoring your sweet dog outside the car? The thought of him running back to the car and jumping up on the door with a repetitive paw scratch is further 🤯💰

Found you through JayEmm. Gorgeous car! Considering buying one here in the US.

It does not take long for service items to add up and I fully agree with your positive outlook, it's the price of driving an interesting car with the added bonus of helping to create good content for your channel 😜

I have a z4 35is and was planning to get this exact car next, this has definitely changed my mind. I'm 25 and don't even own a property yet. I feel like a wee cheap 2nd car is the better option at the moment then buy a house/flat when the interest rates go down

Thanks for the vid. I’ve been lucky with my Rapide. I’ve had two door struts go on me which wasn’t too bad. My most recent service was a biggy £1k. I don’t have an extended warranty which was a good call as that would cost £2500. Which would have been a waste of money. One thing you forgot to mention is the car tax. That is £630 per year, ouch!

Great car, I would love to be able to afford the Aston Martin DB9 Volante 2010 model. Such a beautiful car.

Fantastic reviews - and your children are wonderful! And your dog also!

Whole industries charge people far more than that for installing commercial industrial machines. You should see power generation and aerospace for heavy bills. A good servive provider will clean and inspect everything while they are in there, so disassembly is reliability, a viable expense.

Overall I think your bills while expensive are actually pretty reasonable for the parts and labour involved. The ignition modules are expensive even in a Toyota and not too different. If anything more expensive. Personally I think your Aston DB9 is a really good vehicle that makes allot of financial sense if want to own an exotic classic. You have a great original car that hasn't had to be restored. I bought a lovely but older Silver Shadow. One bill had 300 hours of labour! Just do the maths on that! Plus parts. And buying an old Aston cheap ish nah doesn't exist but the bills sure do. Enjoy your Aston superb.

That sidelight is a £5 part off a Transit. JH-R at Aston Installations replaced both my fogged up ones for nothing when they upgraded it.

Refreshing video I enjoyed it! Where in the UK are you based the beach looked good on your BMW X5 vid !

Wow dude! That is painful. I just hit the 7 year service interval on my MY2016 V8V. Rather than the "standard" cost of 900 for a regular service, I hit 1700 quid! Turns out there were quite a few filters and other sundries that all needed doing. Seems also that some of the filters hadnt been done by the dealer I bought it from which was irritating. I was pleased with Hardwoods Chichester, but will give Phoenix AM a try later this year.

would love to see some luxury sports sedans on the cheap like an XJL V8, quattroporte GTS, CLS amg, etc.

Thanks for the video. I've commented before and really enjoy your Dadcars videos. I Own Maserati GranTurismo and Cabrio S in lieu of the Aston DB9. I've been happy with them, but don't use them, as my daily - Abarth500 for that. I hope the DB9 doesn't eat your bank account and await your next video. Cheers!

I own a jaguar xk 4.2 V8, I think this would apply to all exotic big engine car. The only way you can keep them at reasonable cost is by doing most of the work your. Luckily I have carried out all works on my XK myself from service full brakes replacement pads and disk. Full drain coolant and topped up. Full service all oil n filters spark plugs etc.

hold up, you paid 1400 for spark plugs and then another 1200 for coils and labor? i mean plugs were to be removed and replaced anyways. how hard is it to unplug the coils and plug new ones in while changing the plugs?!?!

I love how you’re trying to break down the costs into £ per day of use and £ per memory created ❤man maths at its absolute best!!

Hi Ben and kids & Monte. Hope your all doing good. That was one hefty bill for the car. I just finished paying the bill for my car. $2400.00 for a new turbo intercooler and plus wires and brakes for a 1991 Mazda MX6 GT Turbo. Take care and stay safe.

I’m sticking with my 911 Bloody ell, those costs are insane. VW parts are quite cheap if you know the right mechanics

Great content man !!

That's a bad run of luck, I hope it ends there and you can enjoy some trouble-free Aston ownership 🤞 I've truly wanted one of these for a while, and whilst I can handle the purchase, service and even coil pack costs, the killer is unexpected items - I've researched endlessly costs of replacement exhaust parts, suspension parts, even items such as the front grille. They're staggeringly expensive almost without exception. It does seem as though just the name Aston Martin warrants a 300% price hike on some parts. There are a number of parts which are shared with other manufacturers, identical, but heavily inflated owing to the name which proves just this. Frustrating isn't the word! On a happier note, another excellent video, real world stuff 😁

Thanks for the heads-up, Dad. You have just explained why so many of these cars have at least three owners.

Beautiful grand tourer. Worth the cost of repair and probably will happen year after year. That’s what Aston martins cost to keep running and still it’s so beautiful how could you not fix the car year after year. Still the worlds most beautiful car is worth every cost. JMO and good luck

Dogs a character!

Loving your channel

To be honest most of that won't be needed for a long time hopefully (sparks/coils for example). Have you had the primary cat delete to stop risk of failure (and debris ingestion into engine?).

AM should sponsor your wonderful channel! Keep up.

Brian Cox says "tyre soft, screw sharp"

You’d have lost that in depreciation on a new 3 series. And if anything the value will be going up

If it makes you feel better, you could have purchased a McLaren 12C. The 10 year service, along with various hand built issues was >$10k USD (and that was with warranty covered work and not fixing everything). That along with depreciation I think makes your Aston by comparison good value for money!

The baby's so cute!

I really hope they didn't charge you labour to do the coils after they charged you to do the spark plugs since they remove the coils to get to the spark plugs 🤨🤨

I was looking at Vantages (way over my budget ultimately) did lots or research but decided I wanted a toy with more "sensible" running costs....... So I bought a maserati 4200 😂 Tbf I got a very well looked after car, for well under half what the CHEAPEST Vantage has ever been. Absolutely love the beast and have been doing some simple DIY upgrades to make it the best it can be. Service costs though (well known independent) sound VERY similar to your DB9. However the ferrari drive train is meant to be bomb proof if serviced correctly. It's not my daily, but I will be driving it!!!!

Great review. Absolutely right re using it every day v only once in a blue moon. Btw, this kind of car needs to be used on a regular basis. You will have probably avoided many more problems. And yes, exotic cars are expensive to run!

Get the primary cat removed if you want peace of mind. The cat they used in these was ceramic and can break up and be ingested back into the engine, which is a disaster. You can pay to have these removed by Bamford rose, an Aston Martin tuning company, they will also install high flow secondary sports cats so the car is completely road legal, remap the car for the change in air flow, it makes a considerable difference to the performance of the car, and it sounds incredible. They also install a button that allows you to close the exhaust valves making it almost silent if you’re driving on a long journey and for whatever reason don’t want to hear the car constantly. They also do an option where they fit a high performance manifold, which is more expensive, but adds even more power, taking up it up to about 510bhp from 450. The engines on DB9s are very restricted, and can comfortably achieve 600bhp without forced induction.

Your content is amazing, keep it going and I'm sure you'll be getting enough views to pay for the repairs :)

We brought a 2005 db9 early 2021 and then not even 8 months of owning it, my dads best mate wrapped it around a tree. So we brought a 2008 one and it is 10x better they are really good vehicles

Will stick with my Jag XKR - poor man's DB9.

Love a good bit of pragmatism 👍👍👍

timeless design

Are they special Aston Martin spark plugs and coils? Or just normal ones? Could you have sourced them yourself with the specialist fitting them for you? I understand maintaining the specialist stamp is important but changing spark plugs really isn't a specialist activity! Keep up the good work on the videos.

You couldn’t repair the tyre? That’s so unlucky man. I had the same a week after a new set of 4 on my xc60. £200 for a tyre lol Is it still feeling worth owning it?

Thanks

It's expensive but it's worth it if you can afford it

will you recommend this for a US dad lol or the rapide? im considering

Might be cheaper to run a Maserati…. Oh!

the baby is looking as if it knows what exactly is going on..

Fingers crossed.

My opinion: If you complain about the price of maintenance for the car you own - you can't afford that car. Go for something you can afford.

And this is why I don't buy expensive cars without a good warranty

Just came to see you in Pain.. :) hehehehe Just kidd'n. Know you have 4 kids, but did you consider doing any wrenching yourself? Many of those jobs you mentioned are eady DIY jobs

👍

Wealth killer, but how can we resist to these beauties?

So we can safely say its about 3-4k a year running cost?

Yep just like its going to its new owner jay emms and the dbs witha very dubious history from a less that cosha 2nd hand car deAler

what the hell is a pound? pounds of gold or silver ? or something else ?

Aston Martin and Ferrari owners have money to pay for maintenance. If you don't have the money to maintain it don't buy it

🤨 you do not drive that car every day. It's not a Honda or Toyota, you Drive those every day. Look at it as an investment,not a daily drive NO.

Oh don’t, mines going in for a service in a couple of weeks 🥹 I’m lucky in the fact that I have a technical job so when my coils and plugs are needed then il do them over a weekend. Changing a fuel pump on one of my Jags tomorrow. That would of been well over a grand at main dealer. I’ve only had my DB9 9 months but it’s definitely worth the pain/financial doom 😂