Aston Martin DBX review

Usefully, the DBX (we’re talking 707 here since that’s the only one you can now buy) has five drive modes – GT, Sport, Sport+, Individual and Terrain – so the air suspension system has a decent chance of dealing with whatever you throw at it. On A-roads and motorways it’s a companionable cruiser. There is a little bit of big-wheeled thump thanks to the standard 22s (23s are optional and forged) and it’s not quite as ‘magic carpet’ as a Bentayga particularly around town.

But there’s an impressive lack of wind noise in the facelifted 707 and less vibration and fidget transmitted into the cabin than we found before. It feels expensively damped. We also saw up to 25mpg on a long motorway run from Gaydon to Edinburgh. Not actually too painful.

Does it put all that power to good use?

Well, it reveals overtaking opportunities unavailable to more mortal vehicles, and the noise is nicely judged; a muted grumble in the more socially-acceptable ranges, a bassy bellow with a hard-edged buzz when you reach for the faster arcs of the rev-counter and the exhaust valves. The way the Merc-sourced 4.0-litre makes torque and power has been modified to better suit the DBX’s characteristics, and it’s pretty much spot-on. Similarly, when surfing around the nine-speed auto seems to manage perfectly well. You don’t really notice it, and that’s a compliment.

When you want it to be, the 707 is insanely urgent. It’s got huge mid-range shove and top end punch. It’s a very, very fast machine: 0-60mph in 3.1 seconds, 193mph top end.

But can the chassis keep up?

This is the best bit: the 707 feels like it could handle even more power. Driven on track the 707 feels wild, the chassis eager to send as much power as possible to the rear axle (100 per cent of the power can now go back there in the sportier modes). It’s a hoot, but a controllable, capable one. On road there’s a huge, seemingly never-ending amount of grip that allows you to corner at speeds that really shouldn’t be possible in a 2.2-tonne SUV. On a B-road this thing can scare you like a supercar. Again, another compliment. 

Stick it in Sport mode and the air suspension hunkers down, the exhaust flaps open and you get a proper manual mode for gear changes with long and slender paddles behind the new steering wheel.

What about steering and stopping?

It’ll do that too. The steering that feels so stable on a motorway suddenly becomes sharp with genuine feel, and stamping on the massive carbon ceramic brakes brings things back down to sensible speeds in quick time. 

In its most extreme mode, there’s a defined sharpening of the responses, and the active centre transfer case can vary drive from 47/53 front-to-rear to 100 per cent rear-wheel drive, with the electronic diff in the back then pushing torque from side to side between the rear wheels on demand. There’s also brake-actuated torque vectoring, and a 48-volt electronic anti-roll control (eARC) system replacing traditional anti-roll bars. Now this could make the DBX feel a bit stilted and digital, but it doesn’t. There’s a little lean, a little oversteer, and a feeling that whoever set the car up arranged it so that it felt like a real GT car... albeit one that’s levitated a foot above where it should be.

Can it do off-road?

More capably than you might imagine given that wheel and tyre combo. Dropped into Terrain mode - which raises the suspension 45mm from standard ride height, tweaks the various differentials and throttle maps and generally sets the cars up for lumpy country - it really can potter across some properly muddy geography. It’ll wade to half a metre (there are breather pipes on the diffs), manage hillocks and rock scrambles and generally mountain goat itself about.

No, most owners won’t do it, but like most expensive and pointless things, it’s nice to have the element in reserve. After all, not many supercar owners test their 200mph capability, but that’s not to say that they don’t like the bragging rights.