First Drive: 2021 Aston Martin DBX Review

Here it is, at last, after much digital chatter, gossip, strong opinions for and against, multiple disguised outings (including a run up the hill at last year’s Festival of Speed, presented by Mastercard), the departure of Aston’s charismatic CEO, and trials and tribulations for Aston Martin’s share price and future. Yes. it’s Aston’s SUV: the DBX. Never has the answer to the  question “Is it any good?” meant so much to a car company. 

Someone unkindly asked on Instagram if this was the new Ford Puma, while someone else commented “Is that a Megane back end I see?”. As the Bentley Bentayga, and to some extent the first Porsche Cayenne proved, it’s very hard for a high-end performance-car brand to design a luxury SUV that people like. Public opinion is largely against the ethos of a sporty SUV in the first place. Trying to cram in a sense of grace and pace into a large family car with a raised ride height is proving nigh-on impossible for every single car maker. So let’s not be too harsh on the DBX, for it is by no means the worst offender out there. The Aston is more reminiscent of a Porsche Cayenne or Macan, with its sleek front end and LED-styled rear, than the more boxy Bentyaga and Rolls-Royce Cullinan. The style shouts performance rather than practicality.

There is a full-length glass roof, good range of sumptuous paint jobs available, including a striking burnt orange (Golden Saffron) and the familiar Aston Martin Stirling Green, which has an elegant grey lustre. If you want to be more sporty than elegant, you can opt for the carbon pack with black carbon-fibre panels along the wings and a “dirty” carbon badge on the bonnet.

Pity the chief engineer tasked with trying to build an SUV that is fast, quiet, comfortable, capable of towing heavy loads and traversing grass, snow and mud, while going round corners quickly without tipping over but also with some movement built in to stop travel sickness (see the first Bentayga for that…). Oh, and it should be as fuel efficient as possible without diluting any of the brand’s performance credentials.

Luckily for Aston Martin, they have one of the world’s most accomplished engineers on hand: Matt Becker. The performance, and especially the handling, of the DBX, are therefore pretty awesome. Power comes from the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine that has seen plenty of service with Mercedes-AMG as well as in the DB11 and Vantage, and ramps up to 550 horsepower and 700Nm of torque, which means you could comfortably tow a trailer with a DB5 behind your DBX, but also means you can trundle easily at 4mph up extreme slopes while off-roading (who the hell is ever going to off-road in an Aston?).

More important to customers is how the DBX handles. As usual, Porsche provides the benchmark with its Cayenne and Macan SUVs, and Aston has easily matched its German competitor here. We did a couple of lockdown laps at Silverstone and the DBX was astonishing: composed, light (2.2 tonnes) and sharp but neat through the corners, with power feeding the rear wheels unless required temporarily for traction at the front. There are various drive modes – GT (normal), Sport and Sport +, which allows you latitude to let the rear slip quite far, but not so much that the car starts to roll. 

Like everyone else, Becker has used active anti-roll bars controlled by a 48v electric motor but unlike many others, he has built in a degree of body roll instead of zero lateral sway, because it’s what SUV occupants expect.

Importantly, Becker has also used Aston’s own Vantage to benchmark the DBX, which sounded ridiculous when we first heard it, but, believe it or not, the DBX feels not dissimilar to Aston’s two-door sports car when you’re behind the wheel: light, compact, precise and quick. Which is quite astonishing.

We haven’t been fans of Aston interiors since the start of the company’s second-century plan, with the launch of the DB11. Too many surfaces, competing cuts of leather, oddly angled plastic air vents and changes of direction among the shaping, lines and stitching. 

One thing to be thankful for, however, is the height of chief designer, Marek Reichman, because his 6ft-plus frame means his DBX interior comfortably seats five very tall adults. There’s also no clumsy sill to step over to get inside, and the doors open wide so the comfort quotient is high (also, a small but significant thing: the electric windows operate unbelievably quickly and quietly, which counts for more than you’d think). Boot space at the back is decent: the electronically lifting tailgate reveals a wide but not terribly deep space.

The DBX gets a Mercedes infotainment system, updated but not the brand-new MBUX system now being rolled out across all models from the A-class upwards. Which is a shame, because that would punt the DBX to the top of the SUV tree for connectivity. However, the updated system, which is accessed via the touchpad or screen, competes well within luxury circles: by and large performance brands have been caught short in this sphere, mistakenly believing that their customers are more concerned with powertrains and performance than technology. So compared with the previous-generation Bentley Bentayga and anything from McLaren or Ferrari, the Aston system is fine. Apple CarPlay is standard, and the satnav is clear and helpful. Also standard is LED ambient lighting and, thankfully, 360-degree cameras because the car’s size and shape need a bit of getting used to.

Drivers are now used to the concept of the luxury, performance-based SUV, so the Aston Martin DBX presents less of an aesthetic and sensory shock to the system than it would have done five years ago. Indeed, shareholders and brand loyalists will be crossing their fingers and toes that the DBX is a huge sales success and provides the financial salvation required to keep Aston and the St Athans workforce afloat. 

The good news is that only Porsche’s offerings compare favourably with the dynamic prowess of the DBX, which is truly excellent, and provides a more engaging driving experience than even the visceral Lamborghini Urus. Those looking for a holistic luxury experience from their SUV, however, will probably favour the elegant leather, wool and veneer-clad new Bentley Bentayga, or perhaps even the new Mercedes GLS with that fantastic infotainment system.