You’d think at the price of an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, the car would run well and reliably.  But that’s not the experience of some owners who are complaining that the luxury vehicle has safety issues and engine problems.

A consumer association in China has started investigating numerous reports of safety hazards concerning Aston Martin’s V8 Vantage, V8 Vantage S and DB11. These models encountered various problems, including gear engagement failures, gears skipping, the engine shutting off during driving and loss of steering control, according to the association.

“Safety hazards exist in the faulty vehicles, but the technicians from the carmakers failed to tackle the problem properly after repeated repairs. The affected cars could have defects in the designing or manufacturing,” said the announcement.

“Aston Martin has been indifferent to the quality of the products,” said Yale Zhang, managing director of consulting service Automotive Foresight (Shanghai).

“The carmaker has problems in its attitude toward Chinese customers.

“It shirked its responsibility to take care of its customers,” he added.

The problems aren’t limited to China either.  I filed a lawsuit on behalf of one Aston Martin owner who bought a 2014 Aston Martin only to find that the car was inoperable due to major engine issues.  This in spite of the dealer’s claim that the car received a 102 point inspection.

Earlier this year, the British manufacturer of Aston Martin recalled around 5,500 vehicles in the United States due to problems with powertrains and battery cables, according to documents posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) website.

Since 2010, there have been 8 Aston Martin Vantage safety recalls involving the suspension, power train, speed control, and the accelerator pedal.

Considering the price of these vehicles, it should be safe to assume these are quality vehicles but the facts don’t bear this out.  They have safety problems when they run at all.