Aston Martin maintenance: cost, plans and service schedule

Are Aston Martins expensive to maintain?

Yes, Aston Martins are expensive to maintain, even when compared to other exotic cars. On average, you can expect to spend $2,200 to $2,500 per year for basic maintenance, not including brakes or tires.

“The first-year service on a V8 Vantage is $2,200,” said a service advisor at our local Aston Martin dealership. “Year two is $2,500, and year three can range anywhere from $2,500 to a few thousand more, depending on whether you need brakes and spark plugs at that point.”

Granted, your local Aston Martin dealer will do more than merely kick the tires and change your oil during these visits. Here’s the complete service schedule, courtesy of the Aston Martin Houston dealership.

Aston Martin maintenance cost and schedule

Each annual visit includes a highly detailed inspection of both hardware and software on your Aston to help ensure no issues fall through the cracks.

Even still, an average of $2,350 per visit is highly expensive. On top of that, Aston Martin doesn’t offer any complimentary maintenance like Bentley or Ferrari do. So while we’re on that topic, let’s see how the cost of maintaining an Aston compares to that of a similar exotic car.

How Aston Martin compares to other automakers

Aston Martin’s $2,350 per year for maintenance is slightly above average for an exotic car. It’s cheaper than owning a McLaren, but both Lamborghini and especially Ferrari offer cheaper maintenance.

Ferrari easily takes the cake because it offers seven full years of free scheduled maintenance from new. So if you buy a new Roma instead of a V12 Vantage or a DB11, you’d end up saving at least $16,450 in maintenance across seven years of ownership (should you keep your exotic car that long).

Compared to Bentley, Aston Martin vehicles cost about the same to maintain. Bentley offers your first year of maintenance for free, but years two and three cost $2,685 and $4,385, respectively. So across three years of ownership, the average for both brands is about the same.

Lastly, if you’re considering an Aston Martin purchase, you might also be looking at a top-end BMW or Mercedes, such as the M8 or S63, respectively. Data from Edmunds, an online automotive marketplace, suggests that the M8 is the cheapest to own out of the three and that S63s are almost exactly as expensive to keep on the road as a Vantage. That’s little surprise, given they’re both powered by a version of AMG’s M177 4-liter V8.

All things considered, if you’re looking for an exotic car that’s cheap to maintain (if not cheap to buy), you might actually be looking for a Ferrari or a Lamborghini, believe it or not.

If you still have your heart set on buying an Aston Martin (and who could blame you, just look at them), your next question is probably this:

Which Aston Martins are the most (and least) reliable?

We posed this exact question to the service manager at our local dealership, with an emphasis on which Astons pose the most problems.

“The ones that sit,” he replied before we could even finish the question.

He went on to say that Aston Martins have become significantly more reliable since the late 2010s. “In the last generation they’ve really flushed out all of the major issues,” he told us. “There really aren’t any ‘common problems’ that we keep seeing. For the first 50,000 miles, all we really have to do is brakes and tires.”

That being said, there is one type of Aston Martin that keeps having issues – and burning a hole through its owner’s bank account.

“An Aston Martin that’s being daily driven is going to be significantly more reliable than one that sits,” he said. “These cars DO NOT like to sit.”

Apparently, letting an Aston Martin play garage queen for too long can be quite bad for it.

“For example, the electronics all run on a closed circuit – so if the owner fails to hook it up to a (battery) maintainer, the voltage drops and the computer freaks out, suddenly thinking there are issues everywhere.”

In addition to software-related problems, letting your Aston Martin sit for long periods can wreak mechanical havoc, too.

“Aston Martins are designed to be driven,” he asserted. “They need oil and gas running through them on a regular basis. If they don’t get it, it can cause even more problems.”

Needless to say, starting up your Aston every once in a while is a critical form of routine maintenance. “Just turn it on and let it idle. Get the fluids going,” the service manager advised.

But let’s say you or the previous owners did let the car sit for too long. What might it cost to repair this “common” set of issues?

» READ: Average car maintenance costs

Aston Martin repair costs

It’s hard to say what the common repair costs are on a modern Aston Martin because, according to the service techs we spoke with, there’s no such thing as a “common” repair on modern Astons. In other words, Aston Martin really does seem to be going through a much-needed reliability renaissance.

“Plus, any issues you do happen to experience within three years should be covered under warranty,” one told us, referring to Aston Martin’s three-year/unlimited-mile factory warranty.

The one issue you may encounter with a new or used Aston Martin is the aforementioned litany of problems that can arise if you let the car sit for too long. How much would that cost to fix?

“It’s a case-by-case kind of situation,” a service tech told us. “Most of the time it’s $0 because Aston Martin ends up covering it under warranty, even though it’s technically a customer issue, not a factory issue.”

The key word is “most.” The tech we spoke with has seen situations where the customer had to pay out-of-pocket to fix an Aston that sat for too long. Naturally, the cost was well into the thousands.

As for other repairs, data on the newer Astons is scant. Nevertheless, it may prove beneficial to set aside a rainy day fund, or consider an extended warranty.

» LEARN: What is a manufacturer’s warranty?

How can an extended warranty help?

Even though Aston Martins have become significantly more reliable in recent years, their durability beyond 50,000 miles is still largely unknown. Plus, the factory warranty is a rather brief three years, meaning if you go the pre-owned route, your time will be very short.

Both are reasons you may want to consider an extended warranty to go with your Aston Martin. These plans often pay for themselves after a single big repair, and even when you’re not using them they can provide valuable peace of mind.

With Astons, your options for coverage may be somewhat limited. Third-party extended warranty companies tend not to provide plans for niche, high-value or exotic vehicles, and Aston is all three. They do tend to cover BMWs and Mercedes, which gives those brands a small hidden advantage.

So your best option with Astons may be twofold:

• Purchase a Timeless Certified Aston: Aston Martin calls its certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicles “Timeless,” and to help them live up to the name, they include an inspection and a one-year extension of the factory three-year warranty.
• Consider the official Aston Martin extended warranty: As long as your Aston Martin is currently under warranty (factory or CPO), you can purchase a 12- or 24-month Aston Martin Extended Service Contract for additional bumper-to-bumper protection. Dealers quoted us around $5,500 per year of added coverage.

All things considered, a Timeless Aston Martin may be the way to go. You’ll save $30,000-plus on depreciation, get a full year added to your remaining factory warranty protection and have the peace of mind knowing that your Aston was inspected and refurbished to a high standard.

Plus, CPO Astons have their most recent maintenance visit already completed, so that’s another $2,200 or $2,500 in additional savings.

» MORE: Car warranty vs. car insurance