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Has anyone had any experience / ownership?

would love an R8 but over here they are over 100,000GBP for a 2008

the V8 Astons are closer to 60,000GBP for same mileage & age

are they reliable?, fun to drive?,

more importantly do they give you the equivalent of the RS smile when you drive them or will I get over the looks because of design issues / faults?

Graze

Right where do I start? I traded my B7 RS4 for an Aston V8 Vantage 3 years ago. As much as I loved the shape and sound of the Aston it failed to live up to the performance and excitement of the RS. Most other V8's on the market will out perform the standard Vantage.
Other niggles, the gear stick sits quite far back so when driving in traffic your shoulder is twisted slightly inwards during gear changes which becomes uncork table after a while.
Reliability was fine I had no problems other than the odd radio/iPod glitch.
I only had my Aston just over a year as it just didn't fulfill me, although the attention the car draws is unreal. I went on to get a DCT M3 which was way more satisfying. One other thing the standard V8 Vantage depreciates quicker than an R8
Anyway good luck with your choice, I hope that helped?

The "uncork table" is spell checks way of correcting "uncomfortable" lol

I didn't have one long but i think its is a good car. It's not dynamically a contender against other more focused card like. 911 or even a cayman.
Treat it and approach it like a gt and it tick the boxes. Think sports at and it's 'ok'.
The only thing I would say is
1) remove the fuse for the exhaust flaps (#22 I think but it's been a while!
2) go for the 4.7. The 4.3 just feels far to sluggish for its looks and noise.

Even though I never really hot on with the r8's handling on track it's a far better drivers car.

I can confirm it's fuse #22, and yes that is a must to give that V8 growl all the time.
I had the 4.3 and found it very sluggish after the RS4.
My mate who had a Jag XFR destroyed me on the track, but he drove a Jag so had other problems...

I had the same 2 cars at the top of my list a couple of years ago, I went for the Vantage due to price.It turned out to be a dud so it went back to the dealer after 6 weeks, and I bought a R8.I did like the Vantage but it was lacking in most departments compared to the RS4 Cab I traded it for, hence the reason I didn't get another one to replace the dud.Fine looking car, sounds great and fast enough for road use but its not as good dynamically as many of its rivals.The handbrake on the right hand side is also a major pain in the arse.I traded my R8 for a Maserati GranTurismo which was great but too big to have any fun in, so I've just bought a new 2013 model Cayman, easily the best handling car I've driven at roughly half the cost that my last 3 cars would have cost new.

Lofty, you just added the other 2 cars I've been looking at - love the looks and exhaust note of the granturismo (priced mid way between the Vantage and the R8), have never been a Porsche man but at half the price of te others the cayman is a possibility. Think I'll hang out for few years and wait for the right R8 to come along, got plenty of driving enjoyment and variety in the 2 RS4's so it's not like an immediate need

Thanks for the thoughts

Graze