[Auto / Moto] Aston Martin Will Offer Grille Swaps to Vantage Owners

[Dr_-_PiKaChU]

 

Aston Martin will offer Vane grille in place of Hunter grille to Vantage owners.

Swap requires some work and will be done by the company's Body Shop only in the U.K.

Tuner Revenant has offered its own restyling pack for the Vantage

 

It's rare for automakers to make radical changes to a car's design based on reception, with the last particularly memorable quick fix being the mid-cycle reworking of

But actually offering a restyling modification to existing, already purchased cars after they had been delivered to customers is not something we recall happening all that frequently since Tatra used to update its 603 sedans with newer headlight designs and positioning as part of general overhauls. But that was done because a lot of the parts on the car were also swapped at regular intervals.

And that makes it all the more unusual that Aston Martin, not often knocked for polarizing exterior designs (unless we recall the Lagonda SUV concept from a decade ago), will now offer a more traditional Vane grille for the Vantage instead of the Hunter design. The automaker made the announcement a few days ago on Twitter.

Of course, Aston Martin is not a complete stranger to retrofits, offering factory performance and equipment upgrades on multiple models, most notably the Virage in the 1990s. Being a small automaker that sells handmade cars makes this possible.

 

 

The original Hunter grille on the Vantage is not a featureless opening but actually contains a mesh deep within that looks differently based on lighting conditions. In the shade the interior of the grille can appear almost completely obscured, but in different lighting conditions the mesh can be quite noticeable while also revealing the innards underhood. Needless to say, sensitivity to lighting conditions is one of the issues here, but the large and mostly dark A-shaped opening has also invited comparisons to current Lexus grilles.

But the swap itself is not as plug-and-play as it would seem, requiring the nose piece of the car to be slightly altered. And the grille itself also needs to be painted to match the exterior color of the car, which can be tricky given the range of custom colors that Aston Martin offers. That's why these swaps will be done at the automaker's own Body Shop in the U.K., and not simply at a dealer service location. Also, these swaps will be done solely in the U.K. for now, which means that owners outside the U.K. will have to ship their car there to have the swap performed.