Road test review: Aston Martin DBX

Sunday, 20 March 2022

Watch as Alex Goy puts Aston Martin first-ever SUV, the DBX, through its paces off the road and on the track. (Video first published August 2020.)

ASTON MARTIN DBX
Base price: $330,000
Powertrain and economy: 4.0-litre turbo-petrol V8, 405kW/700Nm, 9-speed automatic, AWD, combined economy 13.8L/100km, CO2 316g/km (source: RightCar).

Aston Martin was a bit late to the luxury SUV game, but hit it in style with the DBX.

Vital statistics: 5039mm long, 1998mm wide, 1680mm high, 3060mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 491 litres, 22-inch alloy wheels.
Safety: Not tested.

The DBX’s design is attractive, but it is never what you would call elegant.

We like: Serious performance, sharp and accurate responses, looks great from the right angle.
We don't like: Not as ultimately involving as it could be, last-gen infotainment tech.

Don’t worry about the colour – you can have whatever you want inside your DBX.

Aston Martin may have been late to the SUV market, but it came in hard with the focussed DBX proving its worth (even on a racetrack) when it launched. Does that justify its hefty price tag though?

OUTSIDE

The DBX brings unprecedented room and practicality to the Aston Martin range. But still packs serious performance.

Depending on the angle, the DBX can look utterly fantastic. Or a bit awkward.

**READ MORE:

The DBX’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 comes courtesy of Mercedes-AMG. And it is quite the powerhouse.

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* Aston Martin reveals its $330k SUV, the DBX

The fat tyres and gaping exhausts leave you in no doubt of the DBX’s intentions from the rear.

It packs all the expected Aston Martin styling cues stretched over an SUV form, but not all of them work – the big chrome-accented slash behind the front wheels seems a bit like a tacked on afterthought, while I personally swing between loving the rear end’s complex arrangement of lines and hating them, again depending on the angle I see them from.

The DBX makes for a compelling package if you are after exclusivity, luxury and sheer performance.

However, there is no arguing about the DBX’s fantastically purposeful stance, particularly from the rear, with its wide tyres and gaping drain pipe-sized exhausts, while the Aston face works surprisingly well on an SUV.

In general the traditional Aston Martin styling works as well as probably could be expected on an SUV too, and the overall package is rather handsome, but it’s never quite flowing or elegant, like an Aston should be…

INSIDE

Okay, let’s start with the searingly obvious – the Oxford Tan interior colour of our test car is, shall we say, a lot to take in. I certainly didn’t hate it, but could have done with less of it, to be honest – the headlining and carpet in the same colour was overkill…

However, you can safely disregard that from your thinking if you are considering one, because the seriously vast array of interior options that can be had with the DBX mean you can almost literally have it any way you like. From sober and serious to… well, almost orange like this one.

Away from the colour, the interior is, as you would expect, a beautifully crafted place. Not as hand-crafted as the likes of the DBS, perhaps, but still a wonderfully well-built place.

There are a few clangers in here, however, with some materials looking and feeling decidedly down-market in a few small places (that plastic surrounding the instrument cluster looks like the little corrugated cardboard cupholder you get on a takeaway coffee, for example, and doesn't feel much more expensive than that either), while the infotainment system is decidedly last-generation, with no touchscreens in sight.

Which is not a surprise, because it literally is generation-old Mercedes-Benz stuff. That said, while it is old Benz gear, it is still leagues ahead of Aston’s previous efforts in infotainment. So, that’s an upside. I guess.

UNDER THE BONNET

More Benz bits under here, of course. By which I mean, all Benz bits under here.

Much like the Vantage and the V8 DB11, the DBX uses Mercedes-AMG’s thoroughly excellent twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8. And to good effect too.

The V8 pumps out a solid 405kW of power and 700Nm of torque, which is good enough to propel the DBX to 100kmh from a standing start in 4.5 seconds. Which is not exactly bad for a 2.2 tonne SUV.

However, it is all very muted and civilised inside the Aston, and while noticeably louder on the outside, it never reaches the raucous bellowing heights it does in actual AMG vehicles. One doesn’t need too much noise breaking into the orange serenity of the interior, apparently.

ON THE ROAD

Again, for a 2.2 tonne SUV, the DBX is deeply impressive on a winding road. While the ride is firm, it is never intrusive and remains impressively comfortable at all times, even when absolutely demolishing corners.

While the steering is brilliantly accurate, the chassis superbly composed and sharply responsive, and the brakes are staggering good, the sheer size of the DBX still keeps you at arm’s length from the truly involving drive of something like the admittedly smaller Porsche Macan GTS (which is less than half the price and… gulp… fractionally faster).

But there is still something very special about the DBX as it barrels along at a rate something its size just shouldn’t be able to, and while it may not be as viscerally involving as something like the DBS or Vantage are, the superb surety and composure of its responses are deeply impressive and satisfying.

VERDICT

The Aston Martin DBX is a thoroughly superb SUV that has all the right ingredients for greatness, even if they don’t quite all mesh together into a perfect package.

Everything it does “wrong” is actually easy to overlook in the grand scheme of things and if you need an Aston Martin SUV, then you will be very happy indeed with the DBX.

However, if you just want a fast super-SUV with excellent dynamics, then there are some possibly more compelling options out there – Mercedes-AMG’s own GLE 63 that packs the same engine (but with 450kW/850Nm) is around $100k cheaper, while things like the Audi RS Q8 is ‘only’ $248,900.

But if you want something with brand exclusivity, luxury and sheer speed, you really only have three choices – the Bentley Bentayga that starts at $359,000 for the V8, the $369,000 Lamborghini Urus and the DBX. And the DBX looks pretty damn compelling in that light.