Aston Martin DB12 (2023 - ) review

Ach, since when did secret agents care about running costs? They’re prohibitive, of course, given we’re talking about a large, heavy sports car with a big V8 petrol engine built for speed above all else. Suffice to say, we are firmly in the luxury goods market here. Depending on what you want from your high-performance car, however, the Aston could be construed as value for money, because although supercars will give you better bragging rights in terms of acceleration figures and other stats a grand tourer generally gives you more space, though see below on what we think of the boot space. You’ll be comparing this car with a Bentley Continental GT, Audi E-Tron GT RS, Ferrari Roma and maybe the fastest version of the Porsche Taycan. Watch out for residuals, given Aston values have a tendency to fall off a cliff.

We drove a pre-production model in France on the international launch, and the new sat-nav kept glitching and dying, which will be of little interest to the 99 per cent of the population who use their smartphone’s maps but annoying on a car costing this much. Fingers crossed it’s fixed before sale. The DB12 is based on the DB11, which was an all-new car from Aston and outperformed its DB9 predecessor for reliability. With components from trusted supplies like ZF for the transmission and electronic supplies from Mercedes, we’d hope the DB12 continues to perform well here.

Aston Martin has included in incredibly reassuring range of safety features in the DB11 as standard - we shared a car with a racing driver on the launch and can vouch for the quick reactions of the brakes from the comfort of the passenger seat. Even more powerful carbon ceramic ones are available if you regularly drive this hard! Thankfully the traction control is also sympathetic to driver exuberance, and even Sport mode holds your hand through the corners and clears up after you. You get connection to emergency and breakdown call functions in the car, parking sensors and camera, forward collision warning, auto braking, adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning, an alert for reversing out into traffic and blind-spot warning. This is all included which is great, given even many expensive cars make you pay extra for features often fitted as standard on vehicles costing a fraction of the price. Thank-you, Aston Martin.

There’s loads of space for two adults, as is fitting for a grand tourer designed to traverse continents before lunch. Forget the two tiny upright rear seats, unless you specifically have children aged six to eight years - younger ones in car seats won’t have space for their legs to stick out, older kids’ legs will be too long. The boot space is surprisingly small, too, for a car this big, with packing space for two weekend soft bags only. But up front it’s lovely, with plenty of width in the deep-set cabin, a variety of storage options and comfy electric seats that can be heated or – as an option – cooled according to the climate of where you live.. The head-spinning mixture of upholstery fabrics and patterns in the DB11 has been replaced by a simpler, more elegant design across the dash and doors in the DB12 as well, which is a relief. Saying that we were perturbed to see the seat squab fabric already starting to sag in our car, and there was slight bunching of the leather on the steering wheel where it met the stitching. Some might see this as the charm of individual craftsmanship on a low-volume car. We’d feel a little aggrieved.

Finally, Aston Martin is providing touch-screens in its cars. But this is where its independence from a larger group spells trouble, given it just can’t compete on tech with competitors such as Porsche, Bentley and Audi, who have access to kit from the wider VW group of which they are part. Here the screen is small, thez graphics aren’t very pretty or very good. However, we recognise most drivers just connect their smartphones and Aston includes wireless Apple CarPlay in the DB12, which is a relief. What is exceptional is the Bowers & Wilkins audio system, with sharp high- and low-end sound, even when the engine is at full chat. The car’s app is pretty good too, telling you useful stuff like fuel levels, where you’re parked, when the next service is due and whether the car is unlocked.

Where’s the six-star button? Given the size and weight of this GT the DB12 is incredible on the move and under pressure. It is sharper, quicker, neater and more satisfying to drive by a country mile than the DB11 (which was no slouch) and the Bentley Continental GT. There are five drive modes, comprising Wet, Comfort, Sport, Sport Plus and everything off. Sport and Sport Plus produce cheek-wobbling acceleration from the twin-turbo, 4.0-litre V8, which delivers 680 horsepower, 800Nm of torque and 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds. The sound is fantastic, the gear changes vanishingly fast and that long, flowing bonnet stretches down the road. But the brakes and traction impress the most. We set the horses free on a few bends in the south of France and the car gathered up after us with no fuss or sweaty-palm moments. When you’re zinging along a flowing road, in the moment, you could forgive this car anything. Even a dodgy touch-screen.