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Aston Martin DBX review: the SUV with the spirit of a sports car

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

All political careers end in failure, wrote Enoch Powell, and running Aston Martin has a similar career path. Think of its former chief executive Andy Palmer sitting at the breakfast table with his boiled egg and soldiers and The Telegraph propped against the teapot as he reads about this new Aston DBX SUV, which he helped bring about before he was cast out on his ear.

“While saving Aston Martin was a recurring chore for all its owners, making money was optional,” said Gordon Sutherland, former Aston Martin owner, in 1996 when he was 88 years old. Shrewd advice, which should perhaps be heeded by the incoming owner, billionaire Lawrence Stroll, and his chief executive, ex-Mercedes-AMG boss Tobias Moers.

Perhaps the famous winged badge induces an incurable, almost magical, optimism among owners and management. Everyone thinks they can cure Aston, but they can’t – it’s like the English Patient.

For now, then, this is the line in the sand; the DBX; a new car, with a new chassis, built at a new factory in St Athan in Wales, by a new workforce. It’s first in a new line of cars, which will eventually see hybrid, plug-in hybrid and all-electric drivetrains and the relaunch of the Lagonda badge as an all-electric marque.

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

It’s large. At 5.1 metres long and 2.2 metres wide, it’s not far short of the gargantuan Bentley Bentayga, but it doesn’t look it. The over three-metre wheelbase and 22-inch wheels give terrific proportions and off-road agility, if not quite the mud-plugging abilities of a Land Rover.

There’s some clever design misdirection, with a DA (duck’s arse) rear hatchback and the snouty, curvaceous front end, which shorten the looks. Occasionally the details are fussy, though; the fuel filler flap is a horribly flimsy plastic, the perforations around the exhaust outlets are pure superfluity as are the fussy bonnet vents, which look as though someone’s rammed a high-tech bread board in there.

Opinions differed on the black badging, which replaces more traditional enamel and chromium and has been cast to appear as if it has picked up road dust; I quite liked it.

The interior feels well appointed and nicely designed, though there’s a feeling of Mercedes cast-offs on the dashboard, where the TFT screens for the instrument binnacle and centre console aren’t the last word in graphic clarity.

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

Nor are the control systems of the best, the centre glass panel isn’t a touchscreen and instead there’s a confusing combination of knurled wheel underneath a touch-sensitive pad, although since you have to touch the latter to activate the former, it gets fairly contradictory, fairly fast.

There’s wit, though. Set the following distance on the smart cruise control and two little silhouette DB5s appear to help you. There are four USB sockets, three 12-volt charging sockets and Apple Car Play is standard, but Android Auto is not. Options come in a series of 11 packs, from Essentials through Interior Protection, Touring, Event, Field Sports, Snow and even Pets – though Herbie my Labrador didn’t get a chance to test that one.

Our test vehicle had a number of packs fitted, including various exterior carbon-fibre trim options of dubious distinction and shocking price, which pumped up the standard car’s £158,000 basic price to £199,040. I’d dump all that, but the Alcantara headlining (£1,494) is delightful, as is the sports exhaust for the same price.

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

The driving position is first rate and the steering wheel is pleasantly thin and wrapped in soft leather with fixed gear-change paddles behind and then the indicator stalk, which is a bit of a stretch away – and the indicator repeater sounds like the goblin cobbler trapped behind the facia.

The rear seats have ample space for six foot-plus passengers and fold 40:20:40 per cent to give an almost flat base. The boot, with its powered tailgate, is deceptively large at 632 litres, with an additional 62 litres under the floor.

Standard safety equipment includes forward collision warning and autonomous emergency braking, along with blind-spot monitoring, lane-keeping assistance and departure warnings.

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

Under the bonded aluminium-and-steel structure is a largely Mercedes-AMG drivetrain; a 542bhp/516lb ft, 4.0-litre, quad-cam V8, with two turbochargers nestling between the banks of cylinders.

The transmission is the Mercedes nine-speed automatic with a conventional torque converter running into a centre multi-plate, oil-bath clutch pack which is progressively controlled with a hydraulic pinion directing up to 42 per cent of the engine’s torque to the front wheels when required.

At the rear there’s a similar device to progressively lock the rear wheels together. All other wheel slip and traction aids are performed with the brakes, which are formidable six-piston calipers at the front and swinging-arm calipers at the rear.

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

Performance is formidable. Despite weighing 2,245kg, the DBX will sprint from 0-62mph in 4.5sec, race to a top speed of 181mph and deliver 19.8p,g while emitting 323g/km of CO2. It’ll seat up to five in comfort and, should you choose to do so, it’ll even tow up to 2.7 tonnes and wade in water up to half a metre deep.

Most other testers got three hours in the DBX, but we begged 36 and aimed to keep the engine running as much as possible. Before that we got a brief drive on a rudimentary but tough off-road course, where the DBX proved itself to have enough traction to tackle and restart on acutely inclined gravel tracks, crank itself over at steep angles and descend again using the hill descent control. You’d be unlikely to go off-roading in a DBX, but you might tackle a rough track, where it will be more than capable.

“We started with the benchmarked cars and immediately came to appreciate what an incredible job they’d done,” says Matthew Becker, Aston’s vehicle dynamics supremo. His highest praise goes to the Porsche Cayenne and we’d concur.

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

First impressions are of shrink-to-fit comfort and long legs as the miles speed by. The seats are comfortable and supportive, though I can pinpoint the exact moment when they became uncomfortable, which was four hours and four minutes. A coffee stop and a refuel found them to be comfy once more.

With full air suspension on three-chamber bags, the ride should be good and so it proves, to the extent that I’d call it sensational if it weren’t for the unforgiving nature of the Pirelli P-Zero tyres, which are the summer tyre option. The more sensible softer-sidewall choice (though the same size) is Pirelli all-season tyre, which rides much better. As it is, you can feel the air suspension puffing to absorb the road shocks while the tyres rattle you around like an annoying toddler kicking the back of your chair.

With motorised anti-roll bars, the temptation would have been to banish body roll entirely (as do German rivals). Cornering with such a setting is amazing, but uncanny and makes passengers nauseous. Instead Becker and his team have allowed a bit of roll on initial turn-in, which firms up progressively as speed and side force increase.

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

Turn in fast to a corner and the front rolls slightly, then the motorised roll bar slows the rate of progression. In the softer GT driving mode, it’s exhibited as a slight mismatch between front and rear suspension rates as if the long, stiff body is acting as a lever (which in a way, it is), but switch to the Sport mode and that impression is banished. Sport Plus is an unruly setting, really only suitable for a racing circuit.

It’s a classy combination, informing the driver as much as the well-weighted and intuitive-feeling steering. The steering ratio is fast, but the car never feels darty, just natural and intuitive to place on the road. On narrow north Devon roads, you can put the nose exactly where you want it, helped in part by the vision to the front and side, though over-shoulder views are obscured by the body kick up behind the rear-door pillars.

The engine is a work of art. Not just in its hand-built origins at Mercedes-AMG, but the software changes that make it quieter, with better harmonics and less brutality. The throttle map allows you to accelerate gently or pretty fast, but if you are rash enough to mash the pedal, the effect is like a match flaring in a ship’s magazine; the turbos explode into life, the exhausts rasping and bellowing as the scenery is sucked into the grille.

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

Jekyll and Hyde it might be, but it allows you to drive the DBX as a gran turismo, or a sports car. Well, one that’s high off the ground and weighs 2.25 tonnes.

In 36 hours, I covered well over 650 miles in this most important car; motorways, A and B roads and unclassified tracks, fast and slow, with endless coffee and fuel stops – it averaged 18.1mpg. The DBX proved a faithful and rather charming companion. Just leave those “hot” turbos alone and it’s a gentle giant, capable of crossing counties or countries quietly and with great refinement.

Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey
Aston Martin DBX - tested August 2020 - Max Earey

It’s easy to come over all aerated about the profligate state of the luxury SUV market and while we can suggest station wagon and shooting brake alternatives until we’re blue in the face, they don’t sell like SUVs.

Aston Martin is hoping to sell such tiny numbers into this huge global phenomenon and in the process support British jobs and British suppliers and save itself – should we really begrudge it that? Aston didn’t start the SUV trend and it’s pretty late into it but, make no mistake, the DBX is a very worthy addition to the genre.

THE FACTS

Aston Martin DBX

TESTED 3,982cc twin-turbo petrol V8, nine-speed automatic gearbox, four-wheel drive

PRICE/ON SALE from £158,000. On sale now

POWER/TORQUE 542bhp @ 6,500rpm, 516lb ft @ 2,200rpm

TOP SPEED 181mph

ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 4.5sec

FUEL ECONOMY 19.8mpg (WLTP), on test 18.1mpg

CO2 EMISSIONS 323g/km

VED £2,175 first year, £475 next five years, then £150

VERDICT The luxury SUV market is controversial but nonetheless lucrative. It’s saved the bacon of such sports car makers as Porsche and Lamborghini and now Aston Martin has joined in. The DBX is swift and it rides beautifully (as long as you choose the right tyres) and it’s right up there with the best in its handling. There are a few faults and it cannot hide its Mercedes-AMG drivetrain, but for those with the wherewithal it’s a contender, although whether it can save the company is another debate for another time.

TELEGRAPH RATING Four stars out of five

THE RIVALS

Porsche Cayenne Coupé Turbo, from £104,729

A 542bhp, 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 provides the motivation for this weird-looking SUV. It’s shorter than the DBX but somehow looks bigger. It’s certainly quick (177mph) and 0-62mph in 3.9sec and Porsche engineers threw the kitchen sink at the chassis to make it handle and ride. Hugely competent, strangely unlovable, but it’s worth recalling that the Cayenne is the car that saved the company.

Lamborghini Urus, from £159,925

Largely Audi-derived drivetrain for this madly fast and aggressive looking SUV, which has almost doubled production for the Santa Agata-based firm. Somehow they’ve squeezed 641bhp out of the 4.0-litre biturbo V8 running out to all four wheels via an eight-speed gearbox. A scarcely believable 190mph is the result, with 0-62mph in 3.6sec.

Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S Coupé, about £122,000 (est)

Getting 604bhp from its mild-hybrid, 4.0-litre, twin-turbo V8 gives 174mph and 0-62mph in 3.8sec. This is based on the same technology as the DBX, viz: a nine-speed automatic transmission and Haldex clutch-type 4x4 system, active air suspension and roll stabilisation and various driving modes with a Race setting on the S model. The WLTP economy is 24.5mpg with CO2 emissions of 262g/km.

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