It was only a matter of time - wasn’t it? Bentley built one, Rolls Royce built one, even Lamborghini built one! Now it is Aston Martin’s turn to put their hand to a 4x4 and offer an alternative in the incredibly desirable luxury SUV segment.
And here it is, the DBX. It starts from a substantial £158,000 - which is £20,000 cheaper than a Bentayga V8 and about £100,000 cheaper than the Rolls Royce - but a quick look around the cabin and you’ll immediately be able to tell that this thing is worth every penny.
The interior is stunning. The cabin is dripping with expensive and luxurious materials and leathers, all beautifully crafted and stitched together. Aston has told us that the cabin layout took 6 months of rigorous testing before they settled on the perfect button placement, ride position and instrument layout. As you’d expect, the level of detail is almost unparalleled in the industry.
Regarding the exterior, we’ve only been treated to pictures of the DBX donning bright and ugly camouflage, but the front grille is immediately identifiable and the silhouette does look promising too. We’ll have to reserve our final judgement of the DBX’s appearance until we see it with a fresh lick of elite-tier paint. We’ll have to wait a couple of weeks before we see the final product in all its glory as the DBX will be unveiled in Beijing - which is a place of huge importance as the DBX must manage to make a name for itself among the Chinese audience.
Under the bonnet, we know that Aston will be using a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine which they have borrowed from AMG and it will push out 542 horsepower and 516lb/ft of torque, which is more than both the Vantage and the DB11.
No actual performance figures have been released yet, but we’re told that it will do the Nurburgring in under 8 minutes… which is the most arbitrary of metrics for a luxury SUV but it’s nice to know. You can also expect a top speed over 180 mph which is also pretty useless for most buyers in the UK but it’s probably cool to tell your friends about, I’d imagine.
Interestingly, the DBX will be put together in Aston Martins new production facility at St Athan, Wales. The site was previously an RAF base and has only ever been used to build prototypes to date, but the DBX alone has created 200 new jobs at the site with another 550 jobs likely to be created once the DBX is in production.
What do you reckon? Another British icon from Aston or just another drop in an ocean of 4x4s? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below as always...