Aston Martin DBX Review & Prices

Think of the Aston Martin DBX as James Bond wearing wellies. Sophisticated, stylish, but also ready to get axle deep in mud if that’s what it takes to complete the mission.

The DBX is the first Aston Martin with four-wheel drive, and the luxury brand’s first SUV. Lack of experience hasn’t held Aston Martin back, because whether it is on- or off-road the DBX is superb to drive.

There are two versions of the DBX to choose from. The standard car comes with a twin-turbo V8 borrowed from Mercedes-AMG in Germany. It puts out 550hp for a 0-62mph time of 4.5 seconds. If you’ve watched Mat’s video review you’ll know that he managed an even quicker time.

Like a Bond film trying to outdo the previous movie, there’s now an even more powerful version called the DBX 707. It also uses a twin-turbo V8, but with power increased to 707hp and the 0-62mph time cut to just 3.3 seconds. That’s astonishing pace for a luxury SUV weighing well over two tonnes.

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If you’re merely rich rather than a billionaire, the ‘ordinary’ DBX will do just fine, thank you. Few cars are so adept at mixing thrills with luxurious comfort. You could say the DBX leaves the driver stirred but not shaken, if you don’t mind stretching the Bond analogy to breaking point.

The big Aston is equally at home on the motorway or blasting down a twisting country road. The air suspension delivers comfort over long distances, and the double-glazed windows help to keep the cabin quiet. There is a little wind and road noise, but otherwise the DBX is as hushed as a country house library. Switch the suspension to a sportier setting and the DBX will cover ground with pace and poise, resisting lean in corners and changing direction with precision and agility.

You can take charge of the nine-speed gearbox for yourself using paddles behind the steering wheel, but the gearbox isn’t as responsive as the PDK auto in the Porsche Cayenne.

Compared with, say, a Range Rover, the DBX has clearly been developed for a sporty drive on the road. What you might not expect is that it can handle itself off-road too. Choose one of the two off-road modes and the air suspension will lift to give more ground clearance, and a hill-descent system is fitted to keep the car under control on a steep slope. All-season tyres strike a good compromise between driving on Tarmac or mud, although performance tyres are also available if you have no intention of getting those 22-inch alloys dirty.

Inside, the Aston’s cabin mostly lives up to the dramatic exterior. The majority of materials are high quality and the driving position is spot on – you sit high above the ground but low to the floor, to give the view out of an SUV but the sporty feel of a true Aston Martin.

There are one or two cheap-looking materials if you go looking for them, though, and the infotainment system is dated. It’s borrowed from Mercedes but it’s not the current generation fitted to high-end Mercs.

Space is plentiful, whether you are travelling in the front or the back. Despite the sloping, coupe-like roofline there’s enough headroom for tall adults, and the finish in the back is just as good as in the front. There’s enough width to the cabin to sit three abreast in comfort, despite the bulky transmission tunnel.

The boot is large, too, with no load-lip and folding rear seats if you need more space.

Clearly, this kind of luxury and performance is never going to come cheap, and running costs will be huge. But if you are in the market for a DBX or the likes of the Ferrari Purosangue or Lamborghini Urus, that probably won’t put you off.

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Clearly, nobody with the means to seriously contemplate Aston Martin ownership is going to be put off by the price. Other rapid and luxurious SUVs like the Bentley Bentayga, Porsche Cayenne and Lamborghini Urus have high prices too, although of these it’s the Porsche which is affordable for the rich as well as the super-rich.

Which DBX is more worthy of your money? The regular DBX does everything the DBX 707 does, just at a slightly slower pace. It’s more than quick enough, so to our way of thinking it’s better value. On the other hand, if you have too many zeros at the end of your bank balance and you want to know what 707hp feels like, who are we to put you off?

Enormously quick without compromising on comfort, but urban manoeuvrability is a bit of an issue

In town

There’s a feature that’s not available to DBX buyers that would really help around town – four-wheel steering. Some big 4x4s turn the back wheels as well as the fronts to shrink their turning circle, but not the DBX. That makes the car feel its size in a narrow car park. It could take you a couple of attempts to reverse into a bay.

Until you’re used to it, you may also find yourself wondering where the gearlever is. Instead of a conventional shifter, or the column-mounted stalk Mercedes uses, there are buttons on top of the dash to shift between ‘drive’ and ‘reverse’. We can’t really see any advantage over a regular stalk or lever.

Set the air suspension to its softest setting and the big Aston copes well with speed bumps and potholes. There’s still a firm and sporty edge to the ride, but you’re not jiggled around by every imperfection in the road surface.

The auto gearbox changes gear smoothly, so you can waft around using just a small portion of the throttle travel to keep up with traffic.

Some buyers will be disappointed that there’s no plug-in hybrid version – at least not yet. This would allow the Aston to complete town journeys with no exhaust emissions using the near-silent efficiency of electric power.

On the motorway 

The DBX is a very quiet and comfortable car on the motorway. It has features you don’t find in other Aston Martins, like adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist, both of which make long journeys more relaxing. So long as you keep your hands on the wheel you can let these systems hold a safe distance to the car in front and take care of staying in lane.

The engine and gearbox are very responsive, so you’ll be up to 70mph in no time. Given that even the standard car is capable of 180mph, the UK motorway limit is little more than a brisk walking pace for the DBX.

On a twisty road 

Turn off the motorway and onto a winding country road, and the DBX behaves like a true Aston Martin. It’s right up with the Lamborghini Urus and Porsche Cayenne for driving thrills.

The Aston is at its best in sport mode, which adds some weight to the steering and sharpens up the suspension and throttle response.

Although it’s a 4x4, Aston has set up the DBX to send most of the power to the rear wheels most of the time, so the handling balance is spot on. Maybe the steering could give more feedback, but it’s very precise and body roll in corners is kept in check.

Is it as much fun as an Aston Martin Vantage? No. But then a Vantage is nothing like as comfy or practical as a DBX. And if your twisty road turns into a twisty track the DBX is surprisingly capable in the dirt.

Plenty of room and a decent boot, although the rear visibility isn’t great

Aston has combined elements of sports car and SUV with this car’s driving position. You’re much further from the ground than you would be in any other Aston Martin, but quite low to the floor in a sporty and supportive seat. So, you get a much better view of the road ahead than you do in a supercar but the vibe is more sports car than 4x4.

There’s plenty of adjustment to the seat and wheel so drivers of all shapes and sizes can dial in a comfy position. Both the seat and wheel move electrically, and lumbar adjustment is standard. There’s a memory function so if you share the driving you can return to your ideal position at the press of a button.

The DBX 707 has even sportier seats, which may be a little too figure-hugging depending on your build.

Big door bins have space for a large bottle, and there’s a pair of cupholders and some more storage under the armrest. Beneath the centre console there’s more storage, large enough to stash a handbag.

Although the view ahead is good, thick pillars and the small rear windscreen are a pain when reversing parking. It’s just as well that a surround-view camera system is standard, along with front and rear parking sensors.

Space in the back seats

You really want to be in the driver’s seat of a car like the DBX, but whoever sits in the back will also enjoy the ride.

Despite the sloping roof, there’s enough headroom for adults, and lots of legroom to really stretch out. There’s plenty of space under the front seats for passengers’ feet, and although there’s a big transmission tunnel the car is wide enough that three in the back won’t be too much of a squeeze.

The rear doors open nice and wide, which makes life easier when fitting a bulky child seat. As you’d expect, there are ISOFIX fittings in the two outer rear seats.

Boot space

You get lots of space for your Louis Vuitton luggage in the boot of the DBX. With a capacity of 632 litres, you can squeeze in more posh bags than in a Bentley Bentayga (584 litres) or a Lamborghini Urus (616 litres). aBut it is smaller than the 770-litre boot of a Porsche Cayenne.

There’s no load lip, so it’s easy to lift heavy items inside. The space is luxurious as well as practical, with deep carpet and a leather luggage cover.

A through-loading hatch will come in handy for skis on the annual run down to St Moritz, and the rear seats fold if you need more space.

The cabin is luxurious and inviting, but the infotainment system feels dated

The Aston Martin’s cabin is a really inviting place to be. There are swathes of leather everywhere you look, and you can upgrade the wood and leather at extra cost if you want something even more special. As Mat says in his video review, it’s like being sat inside some bespoke luggage.

If we’re being picky, there are one or two places where the quality of the finish isn’t quite so good. The surround for the digital dials looks out of place, and the window switches don’t belong in a car with a six-figure price tag. What’s more, it’s odd having buttons on the dash to change gear rather than a gear lever or a column change. But these minor let-downs don’t detract from the overall impression of luxury.

The design looks stunning, with a curvaceous dash and the evocative Aston Martin badge sat in the centre of the steering wheel. You just know that you’re going to enjoy driving this car before you’ve even started the engine.

Like the V8 under the bonnet, the infotainment system is borrowed from Mercedes, with some Aston Martin graphics to disguise the parts-bin raiding. Unfortunately it’s not the current generation of Mercedes infotainment, so it lacks the drama and eye-popping graphics of the latest and greatest twin-screen displays you find in Merc’s luxury SUVs. It’s a bit fiddly to control, too, and the screen doesn’t always respond promptly when you touch it, so it’s definitely one of the weaker aspects of the interior.

Fortunately, not every control is hidden in a maze of touchscreen menus. The air conditioning controls sit below the screen, and having actual buttons rather than on-screen buttons makes for much easier adjustments while you’re driving.

Other systems, like the adaptive cruise control, can be controlled through buttons on the steering wheel.

A plug-in hybrid is expected to join the range in the future, but for now the DBX lives up to every gas-guzzler cliché. This is an enormously thirsty car with high emissions.

Go for the standard car, and you can expect around 19.8mpg and carbon dioxide emissions of 323g/km. Use all the performance, and economy in the low- to mid-teens is more likely.

Despite its greater power, the DBX 707 has a similar appetite for unleaded to the regular car, burning through a gallon every 19.9 miles and emitting the same amount of carbon dioxide.

The car is in the highest band for first year Vehicle Excise Duty, although that’s included in the on-the-road price so it’s not something you really notice. Likewise, if you run the DBX as a company car, it sits in the top benefit-in-kind tax band.

For five years after the first year’s VED expires, cars costing over £40,000 attract an extra charge of £390, bringing the annual cost to £570. Obviously the DBX costs far more than £40,000 so owners will have to put up with this extra car tax.

Euro NCAP hasn’t tested the DBX (or any other Aston Martin for that matter), but there’s no reason to think badly of the DBX’s safety standards.

Safety kit includes driver, front passenger, knee, front thorax and side curtain airbags. There are ISOFIX mounting points in the back to fit a couple of child seats safely and securely.

There’s a lot of clever tech to help the driver included in the price. Adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, blind spot warning including lane change warning, lane departure warning and lane keep assist are the highlights.

In terms of security, every DBX comes with keyless entry and remote central locking, as well as an alarm and immobiliser.

Aston Martin is a very exclusive brand, which is another way of saying Astons don’t sell in enough numbers to feature in many reliability and owner satisfaction surveys.

However, Aston Martin doesn’t have a strong reputation for reliability, and parts and servicing costs are expensive. But we’re judging by anecdote rather than hard data, here – you may well buy a DBX and enjoy trouble-free ownership.