Aston Martin DBX OFFICIAL - the Aston Martin SUV Cavalry arrives

Aston Martin DBX

The Aston Martin DBX SUV is officially revealed as a 542bhp high-riding Aston Martin costing from £158,000. And tasked with saving AML.

It’s more than a decade since an Aston Martin SUV was first mooted with a Lagonda SUV Concept, with promises of a luxury SUV to top all luxury SUVs. But it was a bit of a chunker.

But now, after endless teases and a new production facility in Wales, the Aston Martin DBX officially arrives as AML’s first production SUV, tasked with saving Aston Martin from an unhappy bottom line and allowing it to move forward with new supercars and hypercars. A story not unfamiliar in Stuttgart.

So will the DBX do for Aston Martin what the Cayenne did for Porsche?

Well, the numbers needed are far less than Porsche needed, but that’s just as well as the DBX starts at £158,000, playing at the very top end (well, Cullinan apart) of luxury SUVs. But it looks good and the specs are promising.

That it looks good is vital – it’s an AML USP – but fortunately it does, and better looking than not just the chunky Lagonda SUV, but better looking too than every other luxury/high-end SUV on the market. And it actually looks like an Aston Martin. Not that Aston Martin’s beauty is seeing their sports cars flying out of showrooms at the moment.

Inside is good looking to, with a high centre console delivering a cocooned cockpit feel, lots of leather and Alcantara, flush screens and new infotainment, with input from Mercedes, room for five, a decent boot and a full length panoramic roof.

Under the bonnet is the AMG 4.0 litre twin-turbo already seen in the Vantage and DB11, here delivering 542bhp and shoving the DBX to 62mph in 4.5 seconds via a nine-speed torque-converter automatic and an active centre differential and rear e-diff.

It all sounds jolly appealing, assuming you have getting on for £200k to spend after you ticked some appealing options. But is it appealing enough to turn Aston Martin in to a money-making machine?

With the order book now open and first deliveries in spring 2020, we won’t have to wait too long to find out.