Aston Martin Vantage interior, tech and comfort
- Superbly appointed
- Annoying foibles
- Out-of-date infotainment
How is the quality and layout?
The cabin of the Aston Martin is a pleasant place to spend time in, but while it appears to be well laid out, well-built and offering a certain visual excitement, not everything lives up to expectations.
The climate control buttons and door release handles do look a little cheap, especially with the firm’s choice of silver paint. Start using some of the buttons and it’ll be hard to ignore the cheap-sounding click that comes with every push.
There’s no traditional gearbox nestled between the driver and passenger. Instead there are a few gear selector buttons. They’re positioned quite low down, which results in them looking rather lost, being masked by the surrounding buttons above and below.
Electrical hardware aside, the interior is generally finished to a high standard, with some very luxurious leather and Alcantara setting off a suitably dramatic and sporty feeling cockpit.
The paddle shifts for the gearbox mounted on the steering column are large and satisfying to change gear with, but the steering wheel itself is slightly square and a little odd to use. The shape also means the top of the wheel cuts into the dials if you’re sat too low.
Still, the speedometer and neighbouring screens for the driver instrumentation screen on either side are clear, bright and easy to read.
Infotainment and tech
Aston Martin’s collaboration with Mercedes extends to the electronic systems. For instance, the rotary dial that controls the infotainment screen is nicked from an outdated Mercedes setup.
The 8.0-inch infotainment is also from Mercedes and looks ancient. It isn’t touchscreen and the graphics on the in-built sat-nav system look a bit mid-2000s TomTom.
It’s also slow to respond to inputs when using the steering wheel controls, requiring a heavy prod and a dose of patience.
Comfort
- Fabulous seats
- Quieter than most of its rivals
- Comfortable enough for motorway work
It benefits from a suitably racy driving position, placing the driver low down in the cockpit in a seat that offers both good support for spirited driving and high levels of comfort on long motorway trips. You can option to have heated and ventilated seats, too, with touch-sensitive switches located beside the climate control switches.
The electric seat buttons are in easy view, but they can get in the way of your leg as well. The padding just ahead of it designed to rest your knees on will be useful for drivers over 6ft tall, but those smaller and wanting to sit low enough will find these redundant and out of reach anyway.
Refinement could be better, with just as much road noise as the Mercedes-AMG GT, but its loud exhaust is still quieter and less antisocial than both the AMG and Jaguar F-Type SVR.
