There’s an old belief, often credited to the late automotive journalism legend David E. Davis Jr., that everyone should own a naturally aspirated V12 at least once. Aston Martin built an entire flagship around that idea: the Vanquish, a long-hooded grand tourer wrapped around a 5.9-liter (marketed as 6.0) V12 with no turbos and no apologies. The catch was always the price. New, the second-generation Vanquish started around $300,000 — Ferrari, Bentley and Lamborghini money. More than a decade on, depreciation has quietly done what no marketing campaign ever could: made an Aston Martin flagship look almost sensible.

According to Kelley Blue Book’s October 2026 estimates, an early 2014 Vanquish coupe with roughly 50,000 miles now trades for around $102,000, while the later, more powerful Vanquish S from 2018 sits closer to $151,000. That’s still real money, but for a hand-built British GT with a V12 that actually sings, it starts to look like one of the more interesting ways to spend six figures on a used exotic.

The numbers aren’t dramatic by modern standards. Early cars made 565 horsepower, later ones 568, and the range-topping Vanquish S pushed that to 595 hp and 465 lb-ft in US trim — enough for a 3.5-second sprint to 60 mph and a 201-mph top speed. But the Vanquish was never built to win drag races. It was built for the way it talks back through the steering, and for a ride that stays composed on a long highway stretch while keeping a V12’s worth of reserve on hand for anything that gets in the way.

2015 is the year to look for. That’s when Aston swapped the original six-speed automatic for a far sharper eight-speed ZF unit, dropping the 0-60 time from 4.1 to 3.6 seconds and lifting top speed to 201 mph. Stretch the budget further and the 2017-2018 Vanquish S adds revised intake manifolds, recalibrated suspension, sharper shift mapping and a more aggressive aero kit with a quad exhaust to match.

None of that comes cheap to maintain, even if the purchase price finally has. Carbon-ceramic brakes are standard and brutally expensive to replace. The carbon-fiber bodywork looks spectacular until it needs repairing after a crash. Budget for a specialist pre-purchase inspection — sagging leather, failing interior trim adhesives, worn door struts and glitchy adaptive suspension are the usual suspects on cars this age.

There’s no shortage of alternatives in this price band — the Aston Martin DB11 V12, Audi R8 V10, Bentley Continental GT, Porsche 911 Turbo — and most of them are faster, more modern, and cheaper to live with. None of them quite replicate the Vanquish’s analog, unapologetically old-school character. It isn’t the fastest, the most practical, or the cheapest exotic you can buy for around $100,000. That was never really the point.

Source: Motor1.com (https://www.motor1.com/reviews/813328/used-aston-martin-vanquish-buying-guide/)