Aston Martin DBX (Aston's New SUV) | Page 5 | FerrariChat

Aston Martin DBX (Aston's New SUV)

Discussion in 'British' started by Astrid.Didier, Nov 19, 2019.

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  1. ryalex

    ryalex Two Time F1 World Champ
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    #102 ryalex, Jun 24, 2020
    Last edited: Jun 24, 2020
  2. F2003-GA

    F2003-GA F1 World Champ
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    Definitely the best looking SUV on the market - IMO
     
  3. gtjoey

    gtjoey Formula Junior

    Aug 12, 2014
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    And its about 60 grand 100,000 mile 10 year warranty and never break.
    The DBX is 210,000 WITHOUT the bells and whistles or really 265,000.
    In this new world...…...if you like to be tar and feathered have at it!
     
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  4. NeilF8888

    NeilF8888 Formula 3

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    I have read quite a few reviews calling the DBX the new benchmark in SUV handling and drivability.
     
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  5. dgoldenz94

    dgoldenz94 Formula Junior

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    Should be a great car in 3 years when it's $75k.
     
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  6. Bluebottle

    Bluebottle F1 Veteran
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    OK, so maybe this is the best looking SUV, and the best handling SUV, but will someone tell me what is the point of an SUV?

    Surely this is not going to be used off-road like a Land Rover? So wouldn't an estate car / shooting brake / station wagon / whatever you want to call it, be better? It would have the space of an SUV and the handling of a saloon / sedan, which would be superior to an SUV, and with 4WD (becoming more common in high performance saloons) and the ability to raise the ride height enabled by air suspension (now the norm in luxury saloons), it could have as much off-road / poor weather capability as 99% of owners are ever likely to need (the other 1% can buy Range Rovers).

    I just don't see the point of these absurd vehicles (although I can see why AML is building one - THEY SELL!).
     
  7. tomc

    tomc Two Time F1 World Champ

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    Our motivation...
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    The pooch in the back of our California.
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    Now in the back of the Cayenne SUV.

    We like our Cayenne for hauling the dog around and road trips. Very comfy. We've gone off road in it, especially since the start of the pandemic, exploring the ghost towns of Texas. Handles it quite well. Fun car. It's not a Ferrari, but our Porsche SUV serves its purpose...T
     
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  8. tomc

    tomc Two Time F1 World Champ

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    Good video. Very informative.

    T
     
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  9. NeilF8888

    NeilF8888 Formula 3

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    The grey DBX in this video looks great!


    Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat
     
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  10. Bluebottle

    Bluebottle F1 Veteran
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    From yesterday's Sunday Times:

    The Aston Martin DBX is an all-new car that will compete in a sector of the market where the company has never been before. And to make that strategy even riskier, this SUV is being built in a brand new, untested factory and being launched into showrooms that have seen significantly fewer customers since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Other small motoring manufacturers around the world — Lamborghini, Bentley, Ferrari and so on — are owned by big car companies, so they have access to all the latest technology and are cushioned to a certain extent from any virus-related problems. Whereas Aston Martin’s owners include a man who made his fortune by selling trousers.

    He and a consortium of other businessmen have invested £500m in Aston, which sounds a lot, but that’s roughly what Renault would spend on a new heater knob. And the money arrived, as did the new boss — poached from Mercedes-AMG — when the DBX was pretty much finished.

    It was therefore designed on a shoestring by a company whose share price was wearing margarine trousers on a slide into oblivion. Plans to make the DBX all-electric were shelved early on, and the proposed fitting of a new V6 hybrid postponed, so it has ended up with a 4-litre Mercedes engine and lots of Mercedes kit that was bang up to date — about 10 years ago.

    After such a difficult birth, I was not expecting it to be any good, but if I say that here you will be very angry with me, because not liking an Aston Martin in this country is illegal. It’s like saying you don’t like the Queen. You just do. You were born that way.

    So. Here goes. The first thing that surprised me about the DBX is its size. It’s like Richard Osman, who you see sitting behind his desk on Pointless in the evening. You assume that because he’s a man, he must be man-sized, but he isn’t. He’s taller than a telegraph pole. I had the DBX for five days, and in all that time I assumed it was the same length as a Porsche Macan. But in reality it’s almost 2in longer than a Range Rover.

    It’s much lower, though, and perhaps that’s what makes it so handsome. Well, that and the pillarless doors and the huge 22in wheels. And the optional bonnet blades. And, best of all, the colour. It was very definitely black. But when the sun came out, it was a dark green. It was wonderful.

    I was also taken by the seemingly endless ways of tailoring your new DBX. You can choose what colour badge you’d like and what sort of stitching you have on the seats. There’s even a Pet Pack, which gives you a rear bumper protector and a partition. And a Snow Pack.

    You can also have a safe under the front passenger seat and a gun cabinet in the boot. So one thing is for sure: while the price of the DBX is £158,000, by the time you’ve spent a week or two on the configurator it’s going to be way more than that.

    High prices have been a problem for Aston in recent years, because the interiors of its cars never really felt special enough. That certainly isn’t the case with this SUV. It’s very good, chiefly because the manufacturer has ditched a recent move towards the square steering wheel and reverted to something circular. Some may criticise the ageing Mercedes infotainment system but, actually, it’s from a time before all these systems got far too clever for their own good. It works well.

    What doesn’t work so well is the way you use buttons to select the gears. If my memory serves, we first saw these on a Ford Fiesta concept car back in the early 1990s, and I remember thinking at the time: “Wow. These don’t work at all.” They still don’t — they’re too far away.

    What also doesn’t work very well is the way the leather has been stitched so the seams are visible. As one reviewer said, it looks like botched plastic surgery, and it does, but there’s another problem too. One of these seams, on the centre console, digs into your arm as you drive along and is very annoying.

    But it’s not as annoying as the bumpiness of the ride. When I read that the DBX was fitted with 48-volt active anti-roll bars, I assumed it would glide along like a hovercraft. But it doesn’t. Partly because of the big wheels, I suspect, it crashes hard into potholes, which makes it a bloody nightmare in London, and on the motorway it literally wobbles. If you try to sing in this thing to pass the time, you will get a very clear understanding of what’s meant by vibrato.

    I cannot understand how this has happened. Aston must know that the people who will buy this car are likely to be in their fifties and sixties, and that people in this age group are long past the time when sleeping on the floor is an acceptable end to the evening, no matter how good the party was.

    Sure, the DBX is a fast and rewarding car when you are in the upper echelons of the rev range and the differentials are busy whizzing power to whichever wheel is best able to handle it. But nobody who wants an SUV wants to drive like this. They’d gladly put up with a bit more lean and a bit more understeer if it meant they could relax on the way home from work, rather than getting an idea of what it might be like to drive on a road made from corrugated iron.

    Off road? I don’t know, to be honest, and you never will either, because although it has all the right tech to deal with the rough stuff, it sits on fat, fast, low-profile tyres, so the instant you show it a field of wet grass you’ll know you’re going home on foot.

    This is all very worrying because I’m heading to the point when I have to tell a nation of Aston fans that the new car is not much good.

    However, I genuinely have a problem with most of the boutiquey SUVs that have come along in recent years. The Bentley Bentayga is a lot better-looking after its recent facelift, but it’s still no beauty. The Rolls-Royce Cullinan is wilfully awful to behold. The Lamborghini Urus doesn’t quite have the courage of its convictions. The Maserati Levante is pointless. The Jaguar F-Pace is good, but in a different, lower league, and the Alfa Romeo Stelvio serves as a constant reminder you should have bought the Giulia Quadrifoglio instead.

    So, when you look at the competition, the DBX starts to make sense. And it continues to make sense right up to the moment you remember the car that started this particular ball rolling 50 years ago: the Range Rover. The first is still by far the best.
    I have not driven the DBX, but, if I had, I suspect I would concur with that last statement. Land Rover should be justly proud: imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,. even it is a flawed imitation.
     
  11. tomc

    tomc Two Time F1 World Champ

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    I didn't really go ga-ga over the exterior color, but I tend to like unusual or bright colors.
    I thought the interior color was very nice; kind of a mix of the F interior colors rosso and bordeaux.

    I will say one thing, though, the AM configurator blows away the online F configurator...T
     
  12. tomc

    tomc Two Time F1 World Champ

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    Wow, that's a big thumbs down...T
     
  13. amenasce

    amenasce Three Time F1 World Champ
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    It does looks great, esp from the side.
     
  14. ryalex

    ryalex Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Bentley Bentayga is a lot better-looking after its recent facelift, but it’s still no beauty - No beauty? I think it's the best version of the chassis, and the interior is wonderful.
    Rolls-Royce Cullinan is wilfully awful to behold. - it's brash and gigantic but I love it... it's like a previous gen Range Rover remixed by RR. They should have made it in 2006.
    Lamborghini Urus doesn’t quite have the courage of its convictions - I find it repulsive and deformed. Seems to drive great, but I haven't tried it.
    Maserati Levante is pointless. - Agreed. The back seat is offensively small for an SUV. Barely seems Ghibli sized, let alone QP.
    Jaguar F-Pace is good, but in a different, lower league - Jag reverse engineered the base Cayenne and rebuilt it with the sole purpose of leasing them for cheaper. Several friends have had them, no one buys out the lease or gets a second when the lease is up.
    Alfa Romeo Stelvio serves as a constant reminder you should have bought the Giulia Quadrifoglio instead - I don't think this is as harsh, the Giulia is the best small sedan... Stelvio is not really that big though, so the niche it fills is somewhat narrow. They could make an actual full size with the same powertrain.
     
  15. Scudmsl

    Scudmsl Formula Junior
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    This has created a bit of a conundrum for my wife as she attempts to replace her 2017 MB GLE63S, which sounds absolutely fantastic in Sport+ mode. Unfortunately, there is no clear winner (at any price point). All of the aggressive pops and gurgles are gone in the current offerings due mostly to EU noise/GPF regulations. Yes, the tech is better and the engines more powerful, but the driving emotion (even for an SUV) is the unfortunate victim. Trying to narrow down to the new GLE63S, X5 M Competition, and possibly the Cayenne Turbo...other options are too big or too small and each of these options have their own strengths and weaknesses. Might just have to wait it out until the Purosangue arrives...assuming Ferrari can figure out the sound.
     
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  16. ryalex

    ryalex Two Time F1 World Champ
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    My bet says that it sounds like the Roma, or Portofino... would be miraculous if it shows up with NA V12. Since the competitor Urus is V8TT I assume they're just going to match it.
     
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  17. boxerman

    boxerman F1 World Champ
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    An suv is a Modern day wagon In terms of practicality, a minivan without the stigma. They also have luxury and cachet.

    on modern trafficked roads there are no dynamic drawbacks to a car given the speeds possible. With pothole and poor infrastructure their ground clearance is a plus.

    their performance is way past we’re most drivers can or will go.

    yes many suvs suck. Range rovers have atrociously brittle and hard ride. Porche SUV’s give terrible ride and so so handling. The wealthy are too fashionable and stupid to notice. Lexus SUV’s and cars are marshmallows to drive.
    But the Aston by all accounts has good ride decent handling and plenty of power, like a good Korean suv, just very upscale.
    That the Aston is great at what it does may be lost on the wealthy who just buy status, and in that regard Aston struggles against competitors.

    but bmw but a brand on a car that drives better, maybe Aston can do so in our upscale suv world.

    baicaly SUV’s work for what people want in a vehicle, space,all weather, high ride height for comand view which the fairer sex loves. They’re also easier to get in and out of for older boomers.
    what’s not to love in a can do everything lux vehicle.

    Dynamically like all modern vehicles they’re more than adequate for road conditions and we’ll beyond the road performance requirements of 99.9989%
     
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  18. boxerman

    boxerman F1 World Champ
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    Poor ride is a sin in any SUV. No reason for that.
     
  19. NeilF8888

    NeilF8888 Formula 3

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    How would he know about the DBX ride quality when the writer admits he has never driven the DBX.


    Sent from my iPad using FerrariChat.com mobile app
     
  20. boxerman

    boxerman F1 World Champ
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    couple of brit mags have said it’s poor. That may be a function of the optional giant wheels When rested.

    ive never understood why thee is this desire
    For big wheels, they add unsparing weight and destroy ride. Run flats make it all even worse. I guess consumers don’t see the linkage.
     
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  21. WilliamB

    WilliamB Formula Junior

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    I do not understand why brands introduce a new car (or update) taking on board 'out-dated' equipment! The DBX 'infotainment' system is what Merc is not using anymore in their latest cars. Likewise, it looks like Maserati Levante's system continuously has been from a previous generation, in comparison with their competitors. Is this a way to save cost? What other motive could there be?
     
  22. NeilF8888

    NeilF8888 Formula 3

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    Other manufacturers don’t want to sell competitors their newest product and smaller manufacturers can’t afford the r&d on every component so are left no choice but to buy earlier generation products. That could change for Aston Martin now that Mercedes will own 20% in exchange for suppling technology.


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  23. BMW.SauberF1Team

    BMW.SauberF1Team F1 World Champ

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    It looks like a Macan GTS to me...just way more expensive.
     
  24. plastique999

    plastique999 F1 Veteran
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    Good points .... I always wondered why my wife loves to daily the G4x4. She loves the high seating and feels safer up top with a good view.
    Agree the SUV’s, a majority driven by soccer mom’s (at least here in SoCal) is all about status, not practicality.
    Branding the soccer mom’s is half the battle. Problem is Aston is/was marketed by 007 ... so a that’s going to be a challenge in making a mom feel like 007.
    Shame because that is why I buy the brand, elegance and 007.
    Maybe when the new 007 movie comes out with their female lead, their sales will rise.


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