ASTON ADVANCES
The new DBX doesn’t try to be the biggest, fastest SUV on the block, and may be all the more appealing and successful for it
The DBX is the new big second-century Aston. A 550hp ‘super-SUV’ of a contentious kind, it’s not likely to be welcomed by critics and commentators across the board — although, by my reckoning, it probably should be.
And few at Gaydon will care in any case if it reproduces even a proportion of the commercial success of the Lamborghini Urus, Bentley Bentayga or Porsche Cayenne.
The DBX is not a car that seems so fundamentally alike to those polarising fast and expensive 4x4s in the metal, actually. Aston invited us to its new factory in St Athan, South Wales, for a first drive which came courtesy of a midstage production prototype in a lowprofile-keeping dark colour and with some very light disguise.
The sight of it quickly confirmed that this car might very well change opinions about how excessive and objectionable big, powerful, exotically positioned SUVs must necessarily be.
It’s just over five metres long; longer therefore than a Porsche Cayenne or a Range Rover Sport, but shorter than a Bentayga or Urus. The DBX is built around an all-new aluminium platform and carries over very little from Aston’s wider model range, powered instead by a 4.0-litre turbo V8 sourced from Mercedes-AMG but not quite the same one that you’ll find in the Vantage and DB11.
The DBX uses Mercedes’ nine-speed torque-converter automatic ’box for smoother changes. Suspension is via four-chamber air sus that can be adjusted for both spring rate and ride height, with adaptive Bilstein dampers and 48-volt ‘roll-cancelling’ active anti-roll bars. Two-out-of-those-three technologies have never been adopted by any Aston Martin before, but they’re pretty standard fare amongst the cars with which the DBX must compete. Ride height can be adjusted through almost 100mm of travel in total. What the DBX doesn’t have, interestingly, is four-wheel steering.
It’s not a stretch up to get into the DBX, and it’s not a car most will need to duck to enter either. You sit more recumbently than in most SUVs, and feel more enclosed because of the high windowline, the slim glasshouse and the fairly ‘fast’ windscreen angle — but also because door panels wrap reasonably closely around your outboard elbow.
The rich, enveloping cabin has a cosier feel than you’re expecting, then — but it’s also usefully roomy and there’s plenty space for bigger adults in the back. The boot is of a very good size and looks like it ought to swallow bulky objects like pushchairs, golf bags and dog boxes with space to spare. There will be more practical SUVs I dare say, but the DBX ought to do very well for people who’ve been waiting for genuinely usable, comfortable and versatile four-seater from Aston Martin.
Despite its only medium-high hip point and rakish screen, the car offers good forward visibility thanks to its lowish scuttle — and because you can see the front corners of bodywork directly above the front wheels, it’s easy to judge the car’s size on the road and it doesn’t feel any larger than it needs to.
When you’re using the car’s most laid-back and comfortable ‘GT’ driving mode, you’d characterise the ride and handling in similar terms to those of the last four-door GT that Aston made, the likable Rapide S. It’s a very comfortable car and a reasonably well isolated one too, even on 22in rims. The difference from the Rapide experience here is, of course, that everything happens at a foot of greater altitude from the surface of the road.
There is no doubt that, despite of its greater bulk and raised body profile, the DBX becomes tauter, quicker and more agile than the Rapide ever was when you put it into ‘Sport’ and ‘Sport+’ modes, as it squats over its wheels, gathers its powers of body control and responsiveness and takes on plenty of convincing sporting purpose.
Performance is very serious indeed and nicely flexible throughout the rev range, but not brutal or savage like you’ll find in a Urus in full cry — just as the DBX’s 4.5sec 0-100kph claim would suggest.
Although the ride is cushioned and fluent in all but ‘Sport+’ mode and over all but the nastiest surfaces, sharper lumps and bumps in the tarmac do clunk through into the cockpit just a little bit.
Steering, however, is natural-feeling, ideally weighted and linear in its pace at all times; and handling is everpredictable and intuitive, and secure yet balanced and poised, making the DBX surprisingly composed, controlled and agile for such a big, tall car. It’s even more fun on loose off-road surfaces, as some rallycross-style gravel cornering at the Walters Arena very vividly demonstrated.
All up, that makes quite the first impression, then: one of a car that’s smaller and more outwardly appealing, sweeter-to-drive and just a little bit more of a moderate than you expected it to be.
One of a super-SUV that’s been carefully considered in its design and positioning, and configured with just a little bit of willingness to judiciously compromise. And what a turn up that is.