2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Review: Atmospheric Entry (Level)

Is the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster a Good Sports Car?

• You’ll be hard-pressed to find a two-seat convertible sports car that blends as much character, class, style and stonkin’ performance as the 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster.

How Does the Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Compare With Other Sports Cars?

• In the Vantage’s world, it’s the same as it ever was. With a competition field filled with back-roads weapons like the Porsche 911 Carrera GTS, Corvette Z06 and Mercedes-AMG GT, the Aston Martin stands out with wicked good looks and enough performance to match any of them.

When you weren’t looking, Aston Martin got serious — really, really serious. The last time a British automaker buckled down as hard as Aston’s folks have over the past few years, we got the McLaren 720S, and that was a triumph. The 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster is also a triumph both mechanically and existentially, if not only for the marque’s clear intent on bringing the winged badge back to the forefront of performance.

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We here at Cars.com usually refrain from discussing much about a car’s styling — it’s a very subjective thing to arbitrate on — but my goodness! The refreshed Vantage is easily one of the best-looking things I’ve seen on the road in quite some time, and it makes it all look so easy. It also makes you wonder how the prior iteration left the cutting floor with that controversial shark snout and featureless grille that all looked a bit underwhelming, especially with its narrow-profile headlights.

“Underwhelming” is the last thing an Aston should ever be, and the new front end and musclebound proportions fix every stylistic issue. Other than a new egg-carton-style grille and a set of more traditional headlights, the bottom portion of the car below the grille is now painted, neatly fixing its predecessor’s severe underbite and bringing us full circle back to that signature gawping-catfish grille that’s defined the brand for over 70 years now. This is the best the baby AM has looked in years, and this is especially true when you drop that electrically operated top, an operation that takes a shockingly scant 6.8 seconds — or, quicker than most new cars will hit 60 mph.

What Engine Does the 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Have?

That’s no such problem in the Vantage. The Mercedes-AMG-sourced twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 also returns, only now with around 153 extra Brit-bred horses from before, with “base” output at a mighty 656 horsepower and tire-thwonking 590 pounds-feet of torque. Any Aston engineer reading this likely just chucked their spanner; brand reps and program managers on hand at the Roadster’s drive program in Palm Springs, Calif., made it clear just how far removed the Vantage’s new heart is from the old AMG engine.

In fact, they were rather dour on the prior Vantage as a whole, citing how relatively “restrained” its performance and on-road character was. (Uh, fellas: I drove the prior V-8-powered Vantage on three separate extended occasions, and at no point was that 503-hp, 505-pounds-feet supercoupe remotely restrained.) In the spirit of all Astons from that renaissance era of forced-induction power, the last Vantage was a torque-‘n’-turbo-forward brute in a suit that chased the likes of a Carrera GTS or Corvette Grand Sport down the mountain and beat them to a pulp at the valet stand.

This new Vantage? Its 656 hp means you’re now up the soot chute of a 911 Turbo or Corvette Z06 with zero chance of those California Camrys getting the last upfront spot at valet. This wasn’t a case of simply turning up the boost, either; Aston claims a new block, turbochargers, induction, runners, heads and electronic control unit are among the changes.

This is all part of this “seriousness” I mentioned earlier. Talking to the Aston reps, looking at the current product offensive and driving the latest metal — the boutique British automaker is taking leaps, not incremental steps, toward improvement. Whether this is due to Chairman Lawrence Stroll’s ongoing effort to reshape and restore the brand’s prestige or the fruits of an ongoing evolution sowed earlier, it’s working.

How Nice Is the Interior of the 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster?

Forget the power for a moment. Even without touching that crystalline start button on the center console, you’ll notice the new Vantage’s interior is lovely and detail-oriented. It’s an effective port-over of the larger DB12’s cockpit complete with the same fabulous controls, slim steering wheel, shift paddles, center infotainment screen and digital driver display. These last two bits are crucial; compared with the Mercedes-based system in the prior car, Aston’s newest digital architecture is quick, intuitive, lean and stylistically elegant. All of this comes in a flush dashboard display that no longer looks like a tacked-on afterthought.

That volcanic V-8 is also a carryover from the DB12 even if the engineers are quick to point out crucial differences between tune profiles. The larger, heavier, four-seat DB’s 671 hp is 15 hp more than the Vantage offers, but its thick 590 pounds-feet of torque is unchanged. Also unchanged is the mechanical guts of the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic transmission, though the Vantage’s shift software is focused more on performance and tactility than the long-legged grand-touring blend of the DB.

According to Aston, you must contextualize the Vantage as a pure, focused sports car, not as a lush, high-performance grand tourer in the DB12 and Vanquish mold. The rich leather and fine cabin appointments mean it possesses GT properties, but the automaker imagines customer crossover with the 911 GT3 and Ferrari Roma, not the Bentley Continental GT.

How Is the 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster to Drive?

As such, you’ve got a choice of five drive modes to pick from: Sport, Sport+, Track, Wet and Individual, with Sport serving as the default profile. This means that no, there isn’t a “Comfort” or “Tour” mode, with the “Wet” profile being the most restrained. For something that could conceivably be used as a very special daily (or at least frequent) transportation, the suspension and ride of the Vantage Roadster is quite stiff; composure over bumps, pavement breaks and expansion joints are just the wrong side of harsh. That’s excusable for a coupe, but a roadster is almost always used as more of a cruiser than cruise missile even if the capabilities are only slightly diminished from its fixed-roof counterpart.

Ah, well. Suffer for beauty, I suppose — only there’s hardly any suffering here. It’s just a bit flinty for frequent use, and I expect for some, this might make the whole endeavor that much more distinct and special. And special it is; roof or no roof, character oozes from the carbon pores of the Vantage Roadster like molten treacle. That dynamite engine shouts on a spectrum between a grumble and a guttural roar, sounding every bit of that mad AMG heart with some clear sonal tuning from Aston that prioritizes buttery notes over metallic gnash.

Wedge that dual-mode exhaust open and send it down your favorite road to spook birds and frenzy dogs three counties over. Do make sure you’ve got plenty of room, however, as you’re going to find yourself scrambling from Point A to, well, Point Oh Crap in no time. Aston cites 3.5 seconds for the 0-60 mph time, and it felt every bit of that on the tight, squiggling canyon roads deep in Southern California’s San Jacinto Mountains.

How Much Does the 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Weigh?

Considering the prevalence of heavy EVs these days, the Vantage Roadster’s 3,670-pound curb weight is reasonable if not still a bit porkish, with 132 pounds of it due to the droptop’s additional structural reinforcements. But weight only matters if you can feel it, and the Roadster — and coupe, by extension — is impressively sharp and disconcertingly agile considering both that on-paper figure and those comically swollen haunches.

Steering is both quick and on the lighter side, but there’s enough granularity and tactility to offset any artificialness. Steering and braking inputs are progressive, with a strong stamp to those massive (and optional) 16-inch front and 14-inch rear carbon-ceramic brakes shedding speed like hitting a mound of anvils. Grip is both tremendous and entirely expected thanks to the Aston-specific Michelin Pilot Sport S 5 AML tires cut to P275/35R21 in the front and a steamroller-wide P325/30R21 in the rear.

It’s a confident car at speed, with plenty of that grip to lean on while nursing the rather touchy accelerator pedal. In the canyons, I preferred Sport+ to Track for managing the drivetrain and keeping the chassis at least modestly more inline versus the Track traction setting. If you’re braver (or stupider) than I am, go ahead and futz with the Vantage’s eight-level traction control system for either max coddling or swooping, smoky drifts.

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How Much Does the 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Roadster Cost?

For what is now the most affordable new Aston, the 2026 Vantage and Vantage Roadster are beyond impressive for fit, finish, style, theater and performance, and they should absolutely dash any preconceived notions you might have of the brand whether this is your first or fifth sled.

Massive improvements come with a massive price: As of this writing, a 2026 Vantage Roadster will set you back no less than $205,900, or roughly $20,000 more than a Porsche 911 Carrera GTS cabriolet and ‘bout $7,500 short of a 911 Turbo cabriolet. It’s also around $80,000 more than a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 convertible, and while the Aston is more characterful and “special” than those Porsches, it’s a leather-lined moonshot away from the Z06 in fit, finish and presentation.

Hell of a redux, Aston. If the standard Vantage is this thrilling, I can’t imagine how nutso the (surely) forthcoming Vantage V-12 will be. Gimme a ring when that comes around, all right?

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