Problems with the Aston Martin Vantage factory grille? Personally, I think it looks good, but apparently some Vantage owners are offended by this and have decided to check out the front view of their sleek British sports cars with replacement alternatives.
If you happen to be driving a Vantage, you can now sleep soundly as the company has found a solution. Aston Martin announced last week that it would offer a replacement grille called Vane, which can be installed on existing cars in the company’s bodies. The design of the Vane grille is softer and more traditional, with classic chrome horizontal stripes and black vertical supports that contradict the cavernous, edgy fern of Vantage’s original Hunter design.
The result ends up being a cross between the one that originally launched the Vantage and the DB11 grid. In February 2020, the vehicle manufacturer announced that Vane’s face would be the stock disguise for the Vantage Roadster, while the Coupe would continue with the Hunter-inspired Hunter mouth. I like the new version, though I think Aston was smart to leave it out of the coupe version and the track-centered AMR version, where it would feel a little too soft. Aston does not indicate a price for the conversion; if you have to ask, and all that.
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People will naturally compare the alternative look of Vantage with the spare part built by a company called Revenant. The Revenant approach, a design that has a different bumper cover, strikes me as strange because it gives the car two stacked mouths of the same size. I’m not sure what to look for; I’m also not sure if I should perceive the middle mouth as a nose. It confuses me and I don’t love it.
Ultimately, it’s weird to see how one carmaker offers an alternative face for their car, even a high-end brand like Aston Martin that does so much tailor-made work for its customers. Companies usually stick to their weapons until the bitter end, finding growing criticism with encouraged indignation, driving a vicious spiral, made worse by every scrupulous tweet. Aston Martin, however, didn’t, and that’s why I give them accessories. Which grid do you prefer?