In this business, you quickly get a sense for the rare and unusual. Cars that stand out from the crowd, cars with strange stories, cars that make no sense at all. An Aston Martin with over 300,000 miles on the clock? Yes, that fits the bill rather keenly.
The Facebook group Mileage Impossible is dedicated to cars that have, as you may have guessed, logged mileage numbers that seem impossibly high. Click through, and you’ll find many Toyotas, Volvos, and even the odd Hyundai turning 100,000 miles once, twice, or even three times over. What you won’t find are many expensive British luxury sports cars achieving the feat, or even coming close
Enter Vince Marchefort. He’s the proud owner of a 2006 Aston Martin V8 Vantage with an odometer that reads a healthy 515,309 km—that’s 320,198 miles in the King’s money. So where did this thing come from!?
The car was originally sold in Germany in 2006 as a base V8 Vantage with 385 horsepower. In the 18 years since then, the Vantage has done an average of almost 18,000 miles a year. Vince had seen the car for sale on a German website three times before he pulled the trigger. He’s added 621 miles himself driving the car home after he finally picked it up.
So how much does a Vantage like this set you back? Vince says he paid €24,000, or around $26,000 USD. He notes the car drives well, and that the condition is “truly remarkable” given the miles on the clock. “The sound it makes is out of this world,” says Vince on Facebook. “I think the exhaust valve fuse has been removed.” The Autopian has contacted Vince for more details on this well-travelled orange coupe.
@wing.it.decisions #astonmartin #500k #highmileageclub #V8 #Vantage #sound #exhaust #flyby
Sounds bueno, no?
Apparently, the car did hold an official Aston Martin extended warranty until 2018, at which point the car had around 250,000 to 280,000 miles on it. That may have been the secret to its longevity. Beyond that, however, Vince has little to no other history on the vehicle. Pictures posted to Facebook show that it’s a little dusty inside, but in otherwise very good shape. It also bears a sticker for something called “BLP’s WORLD” on the dash.
That sticker doesn’t turn up any obvious results on Google. But it does carry us to a post from Dizzy Riders, a Bulgarian automotive site. Just a few months ago, the site posted an article about this astounding Aston.
Pictures from the original advert show us the build plaque, which state this Vantage was a “Limited Edition one/1” and “Hand built in England for B.L.P’s WORLD.” It’s no surprise this is a custom build, which perhaps explains the orange-over-orange paint and interior. The car was sold with 513,921 km (319,355 mi) on the clock.
Meanwhile, an article from Spanish outlet Diariomotor leads us to the original advert, which was posted on German auto trading website Mobile.de. It’s sadly no longer available, but the ad also apparently confirmed that this vehicle is not on its original engine. We’re told the 4.3-liter V8 was replaced just over 20,000 miles ago. No word on whether a brand-new engine or a used donk was installed.
The car also wears what looks to be some carbon fiber parts and Vantage S-style bumpers. Whether these are stock or aftermarket is unclear. The original price back in April, according to Autoblog.nl, was €29,990, or $32,500 USD.
Thus far, it appears Vince has pretty much driven the car home and lined up an oil change. That’s a smart thing to do whenever you buy a used car. He’s also started a TikTok channel called wing.it.decisions, on which he’s been sharing some short videos of the car. They’re easier to follow if you speak… French?
@wing.it.decisions #wingitdecisions #sound #500k #highmileageclub #V8 #Vantage #astonmartin
We tend to shy away from cars with a lot of miles on the clock when shopping used. It tells us the car has been well-used, or over-used, and that many parts might be worn and due for replacement. At the same time, once you reach a certain threshold, higher milage almost makes a car more appealing. It’s kind of a proof that the car works, and has been working for a long time. This Aston certainly falls into that category.
Update: Vince reached out to us with his story! The long and the short of it is, he saw the ad, reached out, and pulled the trigger. “The car was on Mobile.de, the German website,” he explains. “I sent a message saying it’s actually not my first high mileage car and… here we are I guess!”
“It drives very good, the first owner did the majority of the kilometers and took great care of it,” he says. “The brakes judder a bit and I have to do a good service but that’s all really I plan to do—maintain it and keep it.” He’s made his first order of parts already and expects them to ship in later this week. Ultimately, it’s everything he wanted and more. “Driving an Aston is a dream come true for me,” he explains. “I never expected to be able to buy one, honestly!”
Real talk: If I told you I had an 18-year-old Aston Martin with 300,000 miles on the clock, you’d be surprised to hear it was still running. Meanwhile, this one sings. Ultimately, it looks like Vince has quite the ride on his hands with a great story to tell. I’m sure many of us will be cheering this Aston on to its next big milestone.
Image credits: Wing.it.Decisions via TikTok screenshot, Mobile.de automotive advert
These cars look amazing, and sound amazing. Unfortunately the control weights are all wrong, it’s very difficult to heel-toe, and you can’t see out of it. I don’t miss mine.
I’ve put 40k on my FF since I got it. I see no reason why that won’t be 6 figures in due time
Fiat Fiorino? Ford Flex? Folkswagen Faeton?
Ferrari FF lol
Nice FFlex
As someone who has followed the saga of Simon George’s Lamborghini since before it retired as a rental (exotic car experience type thing), I appreciate this. At whatever point Simon’s car has to retire from being driven, I feel like it’ll need a proper send off party. Probably same for this Aston.
Hey, don’t go on here and give somewhat sound advice. It’s going to run up prices for us! I’m looking at v6 F-types and v8 vantages in the next year as my masters degree gift/kids old enough to start driving my car so need a third.
I wonder how many clutch replacements it’s been through. It’s got to be at least a handful, right?
It’s awesome to see someone rack up this many miles on a Vanquish.
The person selling the low mileage one for maybe 60% more got hardly any value out of that extra measly $20k or whatever it’s worth over this one (it’s tough to get a good gauge on what they go for, but I’m assuming around $50k for one with low miles that probably also has dried out suspension and engine parts that need to be replaced) vs this owner and, IMO, this is the one to buy if it checks out. That’s in incredible shape for that mileage, too—not even any obvious road rash and that doesn’t look like the kind of color you can just slap some touch up paint on and buff, so that tells me this is a very conscientious owner who obviously cared about the car and didn’t defer maintenance for the next owner to worry about. Color wouldn’t be my first pick, but I’d take it over any non color (especially James Bond wannabe silver).
Love stories like this. Enthusiast cars should be driven. That car has had a great life.
Drive your fun cars, folks: they can handle it.
I would love to make the same questionable decision of buying a 500,000-km Aston.
Nice! Always fun to see these. I shudder to think how much money it took to hit this mileage but it’s nice to see someone using a special car to actually drive.
Driving a car like this is one thing, maintaining it is another, but if you are affording these vehicles you likely toss the dealer your keys and they have your platinum card on file. I’m sure owners don’t question or even look at the price of services.
(keeps driving ’99 Tercel)
Stuff like this is why I used to buy lottery tickets if I found cash in the wild.
This AM would make an excellent tow pig for a crappy Lemons car built from the rusty shell of a Renault.
Built Ford Tuff yo 😛
Why yes I will just daily drive my Bugatti and Lambo on my 90 mole commute to work. Wait I don’t actually own a real Bugatti or Lambo and those are just virtual pixels in a vidya game? Damn
90 moles huh? That’s a very unique measurement. I feel like a mole is small enough that 90 would only be like 75 feet or so, going that far I think would go underwhelming for a car like that. Go around the block a couple times, add a couple thousand moles at least.
just proof of the old ‘muricans will use any unit of measurements as long as it’s not metric’ 😀
(The mole is an SI unit, it’s a count of how many atoms/molecules/etc. are in something, measured in terms of the number of atoms in 12g of carbon, which is 6×10^22, ie six with twenty two zeros after it. So, a very big number)
Avogadro’s number, baby!
Also, I think it’s 6.02*10^23. I do not know why I remember that from 8th grade science class but I now realize that I’ve waited my entire life for this moment. 😉
Haha damn typo and not proof reading. Well on the topic of moles damn moles in my yard have been destroying my duck pen.
Guess you could say they’re…. Ducking moles! Eh? Eh?
I’ll be here all night. Tip your server.
“Bobby, no more dang vidya games!”
-Hank Hill
Exterior Orange: Incredible, spectacular, fantastic.
Interior Orange: See Above
Together: Absolutely phenomenal, 10/10 I love it more than life itself.
This feels like the right time to mention I asked for an Orange themed birthday part when I was 5, naturally, this is all I want in life.
You might like this, I suspect that is peak orange;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUtBzkjVnyY&t=827s
That is the hardest I have ever seen anything commit to a bit. I’m impressed, but I imagine the strong orange tint on the glass/plastic would make driving that a complete nightmare.
Kinda the opposite for me. I couldn’t have gotten through the first 50K miles without going nuts due to all that orange, much less 320K. But hey, there’s a color combination for everyone!
Ever seen UHF?
https://youtu.be/TN-pXWHqAAM?si=NRtXySlPXsVrFubY
Not your regular Honda high mileage post 🙂
So orange!
To be able to afford a car like this AND afford to drive it that many miles IN THE EU is a true statement of financial wealth.
I would love to see a summary of the fuel, maintenance and repair costs this thing has racked up over that mileage.
I picture the driver looking like the monopoly guy and just having bags of money in his car.
Fuel alone is about 150000€ for 500tkm.
Quick googling gave me 14mpg from fuelly.com. Few hundred user reports there. And that’s about 17l/100km. With avarage fuel price of about 1,7€/l. So 17*1,7*5000 = 144500€.
Isn’t that 500 megameters?
Megameters sound good.
I’ve got ’86 RRC with 3.5 V8 as a *project car.
I drive about 40tkm/year and I’ve often pondered how rich I would have to be to daily it. If consumes about 20l/100km driven conservatively, more if trying to actually drive it in motorway speeds, which it hates anyho. I think rich enough to electrify it, as I don’t think I could justify either the fuel bill, lack of performance, or the tiny range (<400km) no matter how wealthy I was :d.
*I bought it mainly to learn how to weld thin steel (which was plenty as a and b -pillars were rusted through on both sides, rear crossmember was history, as was most of the floors.
This has got to be from one of those supercar rental places, no?
I drive lots of (normal) rentals, I can pretty much guarantee no Aston would make it to 300k miles as a rental. Probably not even to 30k miles.
During and after the pandemic when the lack of new cars had made rental co’s stretch their car replacement intervals and even buy used cars from private owners I’ve had the chance to drive some ‘higher’ mileage cars (higher for a rental, think 40-60k), many were falling apart around me, and those were 3-5 years old Toyotas, Hondas, Chevys, not a 15 year old AM.
The clientele for a exotic car rental service (where you generally get an hour or two, not a week) is going to be much different than the guy renting an Altima.
And this kind of mileage wouldn’t be unique for a supercar rental, some examples:
https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a15094812/we-drive-a-250000-mile-lamborghini-murcielago-feature/
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32677216/lamborghini-huracan-188k-miles-for-sale/
I think the issue of hourly rental would only matter if we’re talking hours running, not miles. I also think when renting an Altima no one is tempted to find its limits, or would get egged on by its performance engine and playful CVT 🙂
As far as high-mileage exotics, I notice your examples are Lambos, which are famously not british. Based on my somewhat limited experience with british cars (mostly Land/Range Rovers and a Jag) and vast experience with Italian cars, a new Range Rover under warranty will make an old Fiat found in the back of someone’s backyard look like the pinnacle of reliability in comparison.
I share your view of British reliability, which is why I feel no one would spend the running costs needed to keep this on the road for 300,000 miles except for a business that was still making money from it. A normal exotic owner would just have bought a new one somewhere along the way.
I also dispute the idea that renters of regular cars aren’t exploring their limits; that’s what rentals are for.