Before Aston Martin followed suit with the Bentley Bentayga, the Lamborghini Euros and the Porsche Cayenne turbo with the super SUV off its own?

And here it is the Aston Martin D B X.

If you follow the financial news, you know Aston stock value has been falling since its i p o a year ago.

So the D.

B X isn't just another new Aston.

It's a potential lifeline for the company, which is why it's pulled out all the stops.

It's based on a new platform offered initially with a more powerful version of the vantage is four litre twin Turbo AMG sourced V eight on the first car to be built in Aston's brand new factory in San Athen.

Whales failure here isn't really an option will come to all the technical details in a minute.

But first, let's catch up with Miles Nurnberg, Aston's director of design, to run a fine comb through the style Miles.

Thanks for joining us on this slightly bond esque location we've got up here, isn't it?

It's very, very nice place to be, you know, like in the studio.

I've ever been to, anyway, The D B X How important is this car?

Aston Martin?

Is it too much to say this is the car that the company's future rests on its shoulders?

In terms of growth?

Absolutely.

III is a very important car.

It's a car for in our second century plan.

So first of all, D B 11 advantages and DBS on DDE.

Of course, it's significant because, actually, it's the first time we go into this sector again.

It's not the first time.

Obviously, the Aston has flirted with the idea of an SUV there.

Waas, a 2009 Lagonda concept, famously didn't go down very well with him with the media and the public.

Are there any lessons learned from that concept to you?

Being able to reply it was very different was done for Lagonda.

It was done in a different tie.

When we come at this one, it's bean with a clean sheet of paper.

I think we started from the ground up, which were fairly young.

In those days, we we've grown up a lot and understood our brand a lot more on where to take it so well.

May I be so bold as to say off the bat, it's a much better looking car.

It's a beautiful thing, more recognizably an estimate.

And I know that's bad for the guy under.

This is nasty, but just talk a bit about the challenge of turning the Aston Martin design language.

You've worked so hard to sort of cement into something that doesn't actually sit next to a front engine, GT or way were convinced for a while that you could interpret Cassidy and I into it.

We knew, in actual fact, that probably we needed the practicality.

You know, if you if you go into the SUV market today, there is just I mean, I never see this side of the car.

I don't have to explain what you get, you know, and that's really important for the customer.

What they get on top of it, though, is they get beautiful proportion and starts and all those things, which is a nice little secret, isn't it?

Because we're here to talk about this car.

So without further day, why don't you just go through it?

You talked to design will start the front.

We'll work our way to the back.

Imagine I know nothing.

I have a set of eyes.

I mean, grill is the place to start.

The Aston Martin grilled very much recognizable.

This car is a DBS on it.

Where's the classic D B grill that you should instantly recognize from iconic D.

B five, bigger than 11 and TVs much bigger, actually, probably the largest grill we've ever put on a DVD.

If anything properly, I think about the size of a 177 grill.

We got the D.

R L lamps either side and again a row.

We started all of this adventure with Aero Aston Martin with TB 11 and it comes through with the car.

So actually within the lamp is actually a duck.

So you get on air and air blade basically running around that you were able to get this sculpture and almost horizontal surface off the wheel arches instead of coming out like a wall.

We can cut across the car and get all that sculpture is one thing I actually noticed because a lot of these super SUVs were nicknamed them have these really quite bulky front.

And so when you put the dimensions with these kind of boxy shapes around the front and rear, then it can get a bit heavy.

But this field is filled with sports cars with actually more metal above their wheels than our SUV does, which is quite amazing.

You were talking about this, this being compacts or not as much metal some sports cars about that.

But there's quite a bit of ride height here, so you haven't you could have.

I know that this has got air suspension on it.

You can go up and down is quite interesting.

You get a lower you get.

There's a certain sportiness high you get all these years, all for it.

But there's a moment in between where you get this beautiful, elegant float, and we actually partly goes with this line here that we have that runs front to back, which we call the powerboat line.

It's a constantly falling line, and along with the you know, the clearance to the ground gives this very elegant.

Of course, Aston Martin actually does make a power about these days.

Seamless.

Just back to the wheel arch.

Again, I noticed these 22 22 standard the standard.

There's two wheel styles, so this is the standard.

And then there's an option, son.

The other thing I was noticing with glass.

So my eyes deceive me.

Or is this all flush and seamless where normally you've got retreating pillars?

Yes.

So we went to a lot of effort, so we have glass, the glass all the way through.

So this this be post is actually a pane of glass also.

I mean, it's it's about reducing clutter and putting the emphasis on the right things that you want the emphasis on this nice piece of aluminium bright work and see the bottle.

The seals are actually hidden underneath the Doolittle, so you go straight from metal to glass without a big finish.

Okay, if we follow this sea pill around, you got the roof spoiler up there.

It appears to be leading to this duck tail spoiler morning.

The hint of vantage about Absolutely.

I mean, it's an SUV, but it's an SUV with a very big capital s for sports on our sports car.

The car be races.

Vantage on.

Very entertaining.

Really.

We've taken that and put it onto the back of the car to give that very unique identity to go in profile and in review, the duck tail.

When you're on an advantage, it's got a nice clean air flow on an SUV.

Normally it doesn't.

Which is why we have these two holes.

Either side to actually feed energized the flow to the to the duck tail.

But that also keeps the rest screen perfectly clear.

You get a lot off circulation on the back of SUVs, and because of the heart cut off here on the air, flow down there keeps really down type of rare white.

And I like this Carbon fiber finishes.

Yes.

Yeah.

So these are an option.

You can say they have an option on the assault perforated things.

Something else using the vaunted as well.

So let's have a look at the interior.

You go and you hop in the passenger seat.

I'm driving.

Okay?

Yeah.

All right.

I read somewhere that it took you six months to decide that the exact position of the driver's seat.

What took you so long?

Longer than that?

We did a huge amount of testing, basically because we're going to sector on DDE.

You know, you've got to have the practicalities.

You've gotta be able to get in and out.

But also, the minute you get in it and sit in it, it has to feel like an Aston Martin.

We were insistent to get that right.

We couldn't get to the end and go and sleep with you.

Our cause it'd feel caused it.

But you've got space across the dashboard.

You feel like you've got that You got all this nice storage below was going to say so this floating center console.

That's pretty much what we talking about here.

Right?

So you get you get the race center console, you feel these, get this kind of corporate field.

But then you've got all this space under here.

Yeah, these are quite sporty seats as well.

Are they d be 11 related.

They are very much Stevie.

11 related.

And again, that's where our sports car learning came in.

We've got a seat we've already designed.

That's good.

GT sporting long distance.

See for why not use it again?

Why not use it in an SUV?

Great.

And there's, um, amazing materials.

And here it smells amazing.

I've just said before we turn the camera on that, I love this color.

What's that?

Hard.

Just so I know Ohara Town.

But also, how can Tara headlining Yeah, guitar for the whole line?

First time anyone's done it.

I mean, that was again.

What?

Pushed together like leather speakers?

Yes, they love the perforation.

Seven.

Find where Again?

A bit like on the outside, We're reducing detail but actually adding czar graft into it.

So we're actually using leather for the speaker grill patterns to get this more seniors.

The broke throughout the car reduce the number of sweet lines to create a beautiful bit of graft.

And, of course, we've got driving modes down here.

So get sports ball plus G t.

But Hill descent control because it's Nessie V right on a couple of modes I was reading about to rain and terrain.

Plus who in their right mind is gonna take their Aston Martin on 22 inch wheels off road?

You gotta be a madman, right?

Well, there will be some.

There will be some, but I think you know, with all the SUV's, it's that ability.

What you're after, it's the ability to escape, to go where you want to have that freedom, right?

So that's the design.

But the way this thing drives.

Is Justus crucial to do justice to that Aston badge?

How then have Aston set this car up to cope with 540 to brake horsepower and £516 feet of rampant V eight, capable of not 62 in 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 181 miles an hour?

The first thing is an all new bonded aluminium platform with the same technique the Aston uses on its sports cars.

The advantages of that are it's very stiff and quite like.

This car weighs 2245 kilograms, which is about 45 kilograms more than a Lamborghini earth but up to 150 kilograms less than a Bentley Bentayga with the engine.

The other thing to mention is that low Aston won't confirm that an all electric de Vieques is coming.

This platform can be fitted with batteries and motors.

Somewhere down the line, the brakes of steel, not carbon ceramic and there's air suspension is standard, which could raise the car 45 millimeters in terrain and terrain plus mode or lower it by 50 millimeters In sport and sport plus 30 millimeters at motorway speeds on up to 50 millimeters, lower in access mode to help you get in and out and for loading the boot.

And just like the Bentayga and Earth, there's adaptive dampers on a 48 volt anti road system should keep this car unnaturally flat in corners.

All that power is sent to the wheels over and nine speed automatic gearbox and a four wheel drive system that sends about 53% of the talk to the rear axle in normal running but can send almost 100% of the power to the rear axle when required.

If you've seen a video of a prototype of this car tearing up a Welsh rally stage, you'll know it's not shy of going sideways.

And switchboard exhausts on exactly mute now because the D.

V X is a car where uber luxury supposedly meets active lifestyles, there's a couple of cool features I wanted to show you.

If you're prepared to sacrifice your spare wheel, then under the brink floor here you can have fully waterproof ***.

That's where you throw your Wellies and your wet suits and your waders, and then you simply close the boot and you're back to leather lined luxury.

You leave the dirt in the damp behind you and the other ones around here when you're getting in the back door, even if the rest of the car is caked in grime and mud, this sale section here will be nice and clean and dry so you don't get dirt on your Italian chinos.

Aston knows not many of its customers will want to fang there d be ex around on a rally stage.

A much more lucrative strategy is to sell this car on its lifestyle benefits, hence 11 optional accessory packs.

These include a snowpack with a ski bag, roof mounted ski rack and snow chains, a touring pack with a four piece luggage set and saddle bags for the rear arm.

Rest, a pet pack with a bump of protector, dog partition on portable washer from muddy paws and even an aluminium gun, cabinet or picnic hamper.

Prices for the D.

B X start from around 155 grand, which actually isn't that shocking when you consider the 265 grand Rolls Royce Cullinan exists on, especially on this car is pretty hard to fault, actually, from the huge performance to the physics defying chassis AIDS.

My concern is that, unlike a few years ago, the competition for the D.

B X is now numerous on really quite strong.

Is the super SUV market already oversaturated?

Breast and sake?