Aston Martin DBX S review

From £210,545

Lavishing more of everything onto their SUV worked before, so guess what Gaydon’s gone and done now…

No matter how much we eulogise about lightness, ‘less is more’ and a moderate amount of power being enough, it seems that for many buyers more is still more.

When Aston Martin introduced the 707 version of the DBX super-SUV, it expected to offer it alongside the standard one, but buyers overwhelmingly proved willing to pay extra for the hardcore 697bhp version over the 550bhp option. So much so that when Gaydon gave the DBX a mid-life update last year, it dropped the base model altogether – no point in making something that people aren’t buying.

It’s only logical, then, that the firm would further capitalise on that strategy of ever ramping up performance. Enter the new Aston Martin DBX S, which takes the 707 (which is now the standard DBX) and adds even more power and aggression.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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The 707’s 697bhp (707PS) was already the most power that the cross-plane 4.0-litre Mercedes-AMG V8 made anywhere (not including the flat-plane-crank Black Series version), but Aston Martin’s engineers were able to extract even more by way of some bigger turbochargers (still twin-scroll), taken from the Aston Martin Valhalla supercar.

The result is 717bhp, with a bigger rush higher up in the rev range. The 0-62mph time remains unchanged, at 3.3sec, but I’m told that’s a conservative figure for the standard car. Spec all the lightweight options and your S should go a bit quicker.

Yes, you read that right: this 2245kg SUV is available with a range of lightweight options that can get that figure down to a gossamer 2198kg. Chief among those are the new 23in magnesium wheels, saving about 5kg of unsprung mass a corner, and a carbonfibre roof, which saves another 18kg over the standard panoramic sunroof.

The chassis has been revised as well. Everything starts with the steering rack, which gets a 4%-faster ratio. A bit of extra articulation was liberated at the same time, thus reducing the turning circle slightly to 12.0m. It’s no London taxi, but this does lend credence to chief engineer Andy Tokley’s argument that the DBX doesn’t need four-wheel steering. While that would make it more manoeuvrable, the additional compliance in such a system is detrimental to direct and predictable handling, he says.

To support the more immediate steering, the air springs, adaptive dampers, and electronic anti-roll control (eARC) system have been recalibrated, particularly in the sportier modes. The eARC doesn’t just stem roll for the whole car but, by doing so more on one end of the car than the other, can make it more agile or stable as desired.

INTERIOR

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Inside, the S upgrade is mostly a trim exercise. After all, the DBX received some big interior changes last year, primarily a transplant of the DB12’s much more attractive and bespoke dashboard. It really does look the part, and the materials are suitably high-end – although the gloss black surfaces are just as annoying here as they are in a Citroën C4.

My test car was running Apple CarPlay Ultra. Unlike normal CarPlay, which displays your media and navigation apps in a segregated system, Ultra takes over the car’s whole digital environment, including the car’s settings menus and digital instruments. It works pretty well but gives everything a colder, slightly generic feel compared with the Aston Martin interface. Thankfully, it’s possible to still use that and normal CarPlay.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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It has been a minute since I drove a 707, so I wouldn’t dare make any direct comparisons about how the two versions drive. In isolation, though, I’m not fully convinced.

The new, vertically stacked exhaust pipes emit more volume than on the 707. It does sound immense, with all the dirty muscle car woofle you could wish for from a high-performance V8. I love the quality of it but find there’s rather too much quantity, even in the most civilised GT mode. Of course, the more-is-more customer who the DBX S is aimed at will disagree.

While I don’t doubt the presence of 717bhp and the veracity of the 3.3sec 0-62mph claim, the way it’s delivered makes the performance harder to access than one might hope for. Although the 4.0-litre V8 is a responsive thing in most applications, that’s eroded somewhat when boosted to this level. It feels quite old-school in both the amount of lag and just how high up the rev range the real shove is delivered. While that adds to the theatre, it also interrupts your flow on a good road.

RIDE & HANDLING

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We have previously described the DBX as quite playful, but that character didn’t fully come to the fore on this drive, at least not on the tight, twisting Majorcan roads of the launch. Somewhere wider and more open might have been a better stage for this big SUV to shine.

The laggy throttle response carries some of the blame, because by the time enough power reaches the rear axle to excite it, you’re often already clear of the corner.

Aston Martin has jumped on the custom ADAS mode bandwagon, where you configure the bings and bongs once, then load that setting with one physical button. Good on them.
Illya Verpraet
Road Tester

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the balance, it must be said. The front end bites willingly and gives you strong confidence through the steering, which is quick but linear and reassuringly but not cloyingly weighted.

Once you have figured out how to engage the stability control’s Track mode (hold the button but not for too long), that mostly stays out of your way as well, making the most of the four-wheel drive system’s strong natural traction.

The air suspension largely behaves the same as on the 707 in GT mode, with bigger changes in Sport and Sport+. The trouble is that GT mode is all you really need or want on the road. The air suspension-typical hollowness that’s moderately present in GT and makes the ride slightly restless is amplified to an unpleasant degree in the more aggressive settings. Body control isn’t at all lacking in GT mode anyway.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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With its extra power, fettled suspension and general extra grrr, you might expect the DBX S to carry a significant price premium over the 707, but not so: they cost the same: £210,000. Naturally, there’s a lengthy options list to get stuck into that includes those magnesium wheels for £15,000. Aston Martin wouldn’t give us the prices for some of the other equipment, such as the carbonfibre roof and lightweight polycarbonate honeycomb grille, which is rather unsporting, but if you have to ask etc…

VERDICT

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This price parity puts the S in an interesting position, because rather than an upgrade to the 707, it’s more like an alternative. The S feels a bit like an easy-win development that might just entice a few more potential buyers to stick their head in the showroom. The fact that it is slightly more powerful than a Ferrari Purosangue will be just the ticket for some, even if the upgrades are relatively marginal.

Illya Verpraet

Illya Verpraet Road Tester Autocar
Title: Road Tester

As a road tester, Illya drives everything from superminis to supercars, and writes reviews and comparison tests, while also managing the magazine’s Drives section. Much of his time is spent wrangling the data logger and wielding the tape measure to gather the data for Autocar’s in-depth instrumented road tests.

He loves cars that are fun and usable on the road – whether piston-powered or electric – or just cars that are very fit for purpose. When not in test cars, he drives an R53-generation Mini Cooper S.