Aston Martin DBX

A busy month for our Aston SUV confirms its excellence at playing the GT

ACOMBINATION OF GOOD WEATHER, A lifting of some restrictions and a flurry of activity from the industry has seen evo’s Fast Fleet cars pressed into more action in the last month than some managed throughout 2020. And the DBX has seen its fair share of that action.

Bedford Autodrome, Snetterton, Silverstone, Hethel and Goodwood have all had a visit from JYD, so too Aston’s Gaydon HQ (where it crossed paths with the one-off Victor). It’s even had its first run to an airport, and the main thought I had following our initial drive in the DBX – that it is Aston’s best GT car – has only been confirmed further.

There are core attributes that go a very long way to back this up. Ergonomically it offers you a blend of feeling an integral part of the car without the sense of being fixed rigidly in place with no room for adjustment. The latter is fine when you’re heading for the braking zone at Copse, less so when you’re faced with a three-hour slog around the London orbital.

Cabin noise is quieter than I remember from last year’s launch vehicles, and some of this can be attributed to ever-tightening noise and emission regulations. There’s still an all-exhaust-flaps-open burble when the 4-litre goes through its cold-start procedure, but once that is complete, serenity descends. Thereafter any blare or roar from the V8 and its exhaust is authentic and natural, if a little muted thanks to the double-glazed windows. And do you know what? I don’t miss the fake, ‘over the top noise for the sake of it’ noise that certain other cars generate. It all seems a bit unnecessary to me.

Where the DBX also continues to impress is in how agile and nimble it is when you need it to be. Yes, it swallows miles, people and their belongings without blinking, but it’s when the route becomes interesting that you have to remind yourself of the type of car it is and that it shouldn’t really be able to do what it’s just done. Which invariably is grow a pair of horns and monster a challenging road with a level of competence, precision and agility that a car of its genre has no right to do.

Without fail in any other performance SUV you point it down a good road once and tell yourself not to bother doing so again, so underwhelming are the majority at utilising their performance in a credible fashion. Where they once perhaps impressed, the DBX simply embarrasses them into retreat.

DBX life is all rosy, then, but there have been some other discoveries this past month, too. The rear luggage shelf doesn’t retract so needs removing and storing if you need to load the boot with a photographer, a dog crate or anything else bulky. And staying with the boot, it took me the best part of four weeks to find the internal release for the tailgate, hidden away as it is in the (very useful) centre console storage tray.

‘It has a precision and agility that a car of its genre has no right to’

I’ve also asked Aston Martin if I can fit a set of the lighter Sport design wheels to help the low- to medium-speed ride, which can be caught out on surfaces you’d expect it to smother. As the driver you tune into the frequency, although there are times when you can be surprised by an unexpected jolt, but passengers pick up and comment on it early in a journey.

With nearly 4000 miles now covered, the V8 is well run-in, with economy improving on longer runs to settle in the mid 20s (short runs are its nemesis and getting out of the teens is a pipe dream). I’ve also discovered that when the fuel range drops so low it no longer registers a ‘0’ but you keep going for another 20-odd miles, 90 litres can be added to the 87-litre fuel tank…

Stuart Gallagher (@stuartg917)

Date acquired April 2021 Total mileage 3917 Mileage this month 2340 Cost this month £0 mpg this month 21.9