An Aston for all seasons
Above all else, this is an Aston Martin. If you’ve put 158 big ones down you surely care more than a little about driving, so you’ll be itching to prod the glowing starter button. The 542bhp twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 wakes with a rumble, and the moment you set off you appreciate the absorbent ride quality and fluent steering. The DBX breathes down the road with a pliancy and flow the others cannot match. Aston’s chunky steering wheel design leaves much to be desired, but the feel it imparts is surprisingly delicate and accurate for such a large car.
The bandwidth of Aston’s SUV is perhaps its greatest achievement: in GT mode it’ll saunter and change up to an epically tall ninth gear, shutting down one bank of cylinders at a leisurely cruise, yet the AMG engine barks orders if you stab the throttle or slide into Sport or Sport+ mode, forcing the active exhaust baes open. The rear-biased torque distribution can catch you out in the wet, especially on the performance-biased Pirelli P Zero tyres (we’d recommend the optional all-seasons rubber for daily UK use). It’s not quite as comfortable and quiet as the serene Bentley but the DBX’s Venn diagram spreads wide across relaxed Bentayga and athletic Urus qualities, even if it can’t match either extreme.
So yes, it’s very much an Aston Martin, and a very good one, but it also has to succeed against the long-established criteria of the premium SUV category – living the high life on four high-rise wheels. Aston has succumbed nearly two decades after Porsche first set the cat among the pigeons with the 2002 Cayenne. But where Zuffenhausen took a 911 blueprint and set the photocopier to 140%, Gaydon has come up with a fresh, more original design.
The DBX is clearly an Aston, especially seen from the front, but this is the most practical model ever to wear the winged badge. If earlier Rapides and Lagondas were born to transport executives in corporate style – and the bastard Cygnet to fulfil urban hopabout duties – the company’s first SUV is designed for everyday family life with children and dogs, bikes and skis in tow. It’s truly an Aston for all seasons and situations.
It’s a whisker over five metres in length, yet this is the best-looking SUV of our trio by a country mile, that elegant borderline Kamm tail shimmering in lustrous Hyper Red paintwork so ripe you may want to lick it. The fast tailgate angle masks a decent 632-litre boot that’s the widest here, with a flat floor and a spacesaver spare wheel nestling beneath; buttons in the boot raise or lower the air suspension to make it easier to lug luggage in or the dog out.
It seems strange to mark an Aston for practicality over performance, but this car’s purpose demands it. You enter via those beautiful-yet-fiddly pop-out slivers of aluminium that double as door handles and slide across non-existent sills straight into brilliantly quilted, supportive seats that never quite drop low enough. The cabin is upholstered extravagantly in wall-to-wall leather – ours so orange and bright it’s quite off-putting at first – and there’s no denying the opulence: broguing worthy of a Northampton shoe maker, leather pleats on the dashboard, and soft suede grab handles that wouldn’t look out of place in a boudoir.
The choice of materials might be indulgent (and we challenge you to find a better metal paddleshift), but a few ergonomic flaws let the side down. Taller drivers can’t see the top of the dials, while the glow of the instrument binnacle reflects annoyingly in the windscreen at night. The bootlid is curiously thick, making it easy to bang your head on the chunky latch, and the old-generation Mercedes Comand rotary controller is so close to the handrest that it’s tricky to operate. The infotainment itself is fundamentally okay and an improvement on what you’ll find in a DB11, but the lack of a touchscreen may be a hindrance to some. People bemoan the weight and stodginess of large SUVs, but the DBX shrinks around you. It’s a lot of fun, spiriting a 2.2-tonne 4x4 to 62mph in just 4.5sec, yet accompanied by excellent chassis poise and sectorbest rear headroom. The only concern is that our test car has to be repatriated after an electrical gremlin – and then the replacement has a rapid-flashing indicator as if a bulb had blown, yet all turn signals are behaving normally. Can you really afford such ‘bespoke concerns’ at this price? Or would a VW Group super-SUV be a safer bet? ⊲
It’s strange to mark an Aston for practicality over performance, but this car’s purpose demands it
The Urus feels akin to attaching running spikes to wellington boots