Upmarket performance SUVs get plenty of criticism, with any PH review likely to harvest a roasting in the comments. Yet there are some things that these mega-expensive posh-roaders are really good at. Aston’s invite to drive the lightly revised DBX707 involved collecting it from the company’s Gaydon HQ and delivering it to central Edinburgh later the same day – a 350-mile journey which gave the chance to become reacquainted with its key talents.
The greatest remains the long-legged cruising ability that comes from the combination of effortless performance and a pliant chassis. The turning-up that led to the punchier 707 variant – which is going to be the only DBX going forward – didn’t turn it harsh. Low-speed ride quality over urban bumps has a bit more of an edge than in the original version, no surprise given the test car’s 22-inch wheels, but even in turned-up form the DBX remains a car that can shrink a long journey better than almost anything else. Only the 4.0-litre AMG V8’s thirst for 98-RON, and the corresponding need to briefly escape the intimate embrace of the sports seats, prevented a non-stop run north.
This is a quality that Aston’s lower and more traditional Grand Tourers have long possessed, of course. But there is definitely something about sitting higher and above the fray that de-stresses things further, especially when dealing with more-stop-than-go traffic on the M6 north of Birmingham. If there’s a better way to sit in a jam, I’m struggling to think of it.
But the DBX707’s other superpower is a less-acknowledged one, rising to the fore only after I’d turned off the motorway and was crossing the Scottish Borders. Normally I’d take the A701 from Moffat to Edinburgh via Broughton, one of the finest roads in the world. But for the DBX707 I mixed it up with a long way round route that started with the A708 from Moffat towards St. Mary’s Loch. This is another spectacular piece of tarmac, but also a very lumpy one, with the first dozen or so miles a brutal test of suspension compliance over savage crests and dips. I know from previous experience that anything low and sporty is likely to catch and ground if driven at anything other than a very prudent pace.
But the DBX707 is pretty much impervious to topography. Its combination of generous wheel travel, pliant air springs and no-nonsense adaptive dampers dealt with the rollercoaster without breaking a sweat. This is a car that doesn’t try to fight a road, rather rolls with its punches – but not with its corners. The 48-volt anti-roll system is another kind of black magic, minimizing body lean even at the same time as the suspension battles with up-and-down stuff. The forces involved must be enormous, on Aston’s numbers the DBX707 weighs as much as two MX-5s. But it makes it all seem much easier than it doubtless is.
In the softest GT mode, there is a little bit of extra movement to be felt at speed. It’s not floatiness in terms of any lack of discipline, rather the sense that the DBX707’s body keeps moving for a beat longer than is strictly necessary from the point of control if not comfort. But putting the adaptive dampers into their Sport mode lashes it down better without turning it harsh, even when digesting an all-roughage diet. Few DBX707 buyers are likely to throw their cars over a sand dune, or down a Baja trail, but the anti-gravity impression is reminiscent of the one delivered by the Ford F-150 Raptor R I drove in the US last year.
I never drove a pre-facelift DBX707 on the A708, but I’m sure it would have felt pretty much identical. That’s because mechanical changes are slighter than Rishi Sunak’s chances of popping Champagne corks on election night. For the record, steering calibration is now lighter in GT mode, the exhaust note has been revised to give more muscular noise when delivering high torque at low revs, and the various active systems have been tweaked, mostly so that intervention arrives earlier and more subtly.
But the core experience is basically unchanged. The V8 sounds savage and angry when extended, moody and bass-heavy at lower commitment. Torque is huge across the board, with more than enough to offset occasional kickdown hesitation as the gearbox tries to work out which of its nine speeds to opt for. There is also a very slight surge sensation when moving away from rest, likely caused by auto’s use of AMG’s wet clutch system rather than the torque converter of the axed non-707 DBX. But the basics remain on point, with the DBX707 steering accurately, gripping hard and feeling hugely stable at speed. The vast carbon-ceramic brakes, which are standard, bite hard and are easy to modulate. Yes, the DBX’s behaviour is obviously defined in large part by its size and weight, especially when thrown at tighter turns. But despite all-wheel-driven traction, the handling balance can still be turned very back-endy with the throttle. It’s a playful elephant.
So, with more than half the review covering off what’s unchanged, I should probably turn to what Aston has spent its development cash on - the DBX707’s new interior. When boss Lawrence Stroll talked to journalists earlier this year he admitted that the outgoing DBX’s cabin – and especially its clunky, outdated UI system – were the top cause of complaint from buyers and (more importantly) would-be buyers. Which is why lots of effort has been put into moving it to the new Aston Martin UX system that we’ve already seen in the DB12 and Vantage.
And this definitely isn’t just a stuck-on touchscreen. The DBX has been given a full teardown with a completely new dashboard – a major investment for a four-year-old car. The basics are very similar to the layout of the sports cars, with what is essentially the same centre console with switchgear flanking a stubby new gear selector which replaces the old P/R/N/D buttons on the outgoing car, plus a rotary drive mode selector with the stop/start button integrated into it. In front of these is a wireless charging pad, with a 10.2-inch touch-sensitive screen in the centre of the dashboard.
Okay, so not really ‘round of applause’ territory in terms of cutting-edge automotive technology, especially given the number of manufacturers now offering wall-to-wall high-definition screens. The DBX707 has physical roller controls for heating, fan speed and volume, a touch-sensitive area for seat heating and ventilation and then shortcut buttons to allow the damper stiffness and exhaust mode to be adjusted separately from the dynamic modes. Less good is the shiny black finish of the plastics, which seems to be all the rage at the moment, but which will soon be covered in fingerprints unless you drive wearing gloves.
The touchscreen has a sizeable binnacle and is laid back at an oblique angle which means it suffers from reflection when bright sunshine hits it from some directions. The UX system is running Aston’s own Unix-based operating system, which delivers the basics in a workmanlike manner. There are some shortcut icons to one side, but navigating between other functions means going in and out of the home screen; a bit of a faff when swapping between CarPlay and something else. My 15-year-old daughter, a connoisseur of such things, reckoned it looked and worked much better than the clunky PCM system in our 2009 Cayman, but wasn’t as slick as the one in the 2020 family Skoda Superb, if that helps to place it in the UX-verse. But compared to the first DBX’s old Merc-based system, with its awkward turn-and-click control wheel, it feels like it comes from a different century. Or, in short, the revised DBX707 has got better in one key area - and stayed almost exactly the same in every other regard. Which is all it needed to do, really.
Specification | Aston Martin DBX707
Engine: 3,982cc V8, twin-turbocharged
Gearbox: nine-speed automatic, wet clutch
Power: 707hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 663lb ft @ 4,500rpm
0-60mph: 3.1 secs
Top speed: 193mph (limited)
Kerbweight: 2,245kg
MPG: 19.9
CO2: 323g/km
Price: £205,000
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