2024 Aston Martin DB12 Review: Style Is Substance

The DB11 was great. The DB12 is all that its predecessor was — but a little bit greater.

Published July 16, 2023

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Updated July 16, 2023

For many decades now, Aston Martin has been an automotive industry conundrum. The brand has incredible resonance. One can know almost nothing about cars and still know that Aston Martin means fancy. But being Aston Martin only takes you so far. The brand’s relevance peaked when the DB5 appeared in Goldfinger — nearly 60 years ago. And the decades since have been spent in persistent financial turmoil.

Car lovers retain a soft spot for Aston Martin. The brand embraces — to an extent more than most — that style is an inherent part of the substance. Sure, a more, shall we say, optimized James Bond would tear off into the Alps in an Audi diesel sedan and some moisture-wicking athleisure fabrics. But optimization is not always the point.

That said, as the new Aston Martin ownership recognizes, style can’t be the entirety of the substance. Having F1 drivers call your expensive sports car a turtle isn’t ideal. Neither is confronting $200,000-plus car buyers with dated, last-decade infotainment tech. And that is why Aston Martin is embarking on a new era with the DB12.

Aston Martin deployed rhetorical flourishes like “the world’s first super tourer” to describe its new GT car — which looks remarkably like the outgoing DB11, unless you squint. But there are some significant and decisive changes under the shell, like an upgraded V8 pumping out 671 horsepower (more than the outgoing V12), improved driving dynamics and new, proprietary Aston Martin screens and software.

What’s the new Aston Martin DB12 like to drive? Aston Martin invited me to one of their owners’ natural haunts, the Monaco-adjacent French Riviera, to find out.

aston martin parked by a mountain — Testing a car in its natural environment is important. And the Aston Martin DB12’s is absolutely stunning.

The Aston Martin DB12: What We Think

Aston Martin did the sensible thing with the DB12. Most people loved the DB11 — but for a few quibbles. Aston Martin addressed those quibbles — and added enough power to make you not miss the V12. The result is a phenomenal GT car that hits the sweet spot Aston Martin wants to inhabit between the hard-edged track performance brands like Lamborghini and stuffier luxury outfits like Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

The DB12 is pricey. And yes, my practical self would opt for a mid-range Porsche 911 with $100,000 or so in cash stuffed in the frunk instead. But Aston Martin targets the buyer who does not need to concern themselves with practicalities.

aston martin db12 parked by a french roadside — The DB12 looks a lot like the DB11 — that’s not necessarily a drawback.

The Aston Martin DB12 is a joy to drive

Our drive route simulated a typical Aston Martin owner day. After breakfast, we departed our swanky hotel and charged up the twists and turns of the Route Napoleon to our chef-prepared four-course lunch in the mountains. My colleague and I made a wrong turn while digesting and enjoying the scenery, lost time doubling back and then ended up trapped in a queue for about an hour heading down a mountain behind a rather deliberate Renault Clio on our way to a Michelin-starred dinner.

The DB12 was quite well-suited to that sort of driving — both the exhilarating and the boring. The meaty AMG-derived 4.0-liter V8 provides 671 horsepower, an abundant reservoir that’s impossible to fully tap on public roads — we certainly didn’t approach the listed top speed of 202 mph. Highway passing, though, is effortless. The DB12 also has an excellent eight-speed automatic gearbox, tuned to a middle ground between laser-precise shifts and clunky, momentous old-school movements. The grip, on dry tarmac with the new Michelin Pilot Sport 5S tires, proved unshakeable. And the DB12 did not drive as big as it was, staying nimble in low-speed corners.

One upgrade over the DB11 was adding a wet mode. According to Aston Martin, that wet mode allowed engineers to dial in the other modes more aggressively. You get a broad and customizable (but not overwhelming) range of driving characteristics from the modes, with a fair amount of differentiation between them. I settled into a good rhythm with the middle-tier Sport mode. If I had not been testing the car, I might have slipped that suspension into the GT (basically Comfort) mode; the roads weren’t quite smooth enough for the Sport+ suspension setting. But it was still tolerable.

I found the DB12 steering to be direct and responsive. It was probably a touch light by modern sporty car standards. But I preferred that to wrestling with a car over a long drive. It felt a bit wide for some of the French roads. However, we made it through unscratched.

aston martin db12 rear three quarter angle — The DB12 has a wide stance, but it made it through the narrow French roads unscathed.

Aston Martin modernized the interior

Aston Martin’s technical tie-in with Mercedes has been vital to the company’s recent success. One could argue it’s the reason the brand still exists. But it has also meant relying on Mercedes’s electronics architecture and — by agreement — not getting the latest MBUX system. The DB11’s infotainment setup was very much dated; it still used a wonky trackpad and click wheel even in 2022.

The DB12 is the first Aston Martin to get a new proprietary infotainment software — a revolution compared to what came before, if not to competitors. The display is sleeker, quicker, devoid of touchpad and integrated neatly into the dash. You get a customizable digital instrument display; I enjoyed a setup with traditional gauges and navigation (either from Aston Martin’s system or Google Maps) displayed between. Aston Martin can now make software updates (and plans to do so before production to add things like larger fonts).

The DB12’s leather is high-end — and copious. There are physical buttons for vital functions; the ones you use most often are knurled and tactile (others are haptic). The DB12 also gets a new Bowers & Wilkins 15-speaker sound system, which Aston Martin decided to showcase with a curated playlist of generic ’90s bangers (sup, Rembrandts?). The playlist was the only thing that felt dated and off-putting about the experience.

aston martin db12 interior — The Aston Martin DB12 looks like a modern car interior — which is a major upgrade.

Come on, there has to be something wrong with the DB12?

Okay, fine. If I must split hairs, the DB12 infotainment screen sits a bit low on the dashboard. I get it. No one drives an Aston Martin to fiddle around with the infotainment system. But when I had to do something vital on the touchscreen — like checking out how far away the next roundabout was — it required me to look further away from the road than in other cars.

Comfort-wise, the seats were okay — not “this is the most expensive car I’ve ever driven” plush. After a solid 10-hour stint in the car, my chronic upper back problem acted up at its usual time in the afternoon, but I had no new lower back issues. Having a better handhold in the passenger seat would also be nice. Even if the DB12 isn’t a car for trackwork, the individual to your left still wields a 671-horsepower Aston Martin.

aston martin db12 front wheel — The DB12 may have some minor issues. But they don’t distract from it being a thoroughly excellent car.

What are some Aston Martin DB12 rivals?

The two main rivals for the Aston Martin DB12 are the Ferrari Roma and the Bentley Continental GT. Both start for around $250,000. The DB12 offers more power than the Roma’s V8 (611 hp) and the Continental GT’s 12-cylinder (650 hp). You could also throw an upper-trim Porsche 911 in there as another credible option at that price point.

For a (relatively) affordable alternative to the DB12, I’d look at the Lexus LC 500, which starts a little under $100,000. It feels just as fancy inside. Its 5.0-liter V8 sounds just as majestic. You lose about 200 horsepower. But the times you would employ the full 671 hp in the Aston are few and far between.