Aston Martin has had a shaky few years. From canceled models to new leadership and some much-maligned tech and ergonomics, the 111-year-old British company has been struggling to cement its place and purpose in the modern world. The recent cars have been gorgeous and in many ways great to drive, but up against more fully realized competitors the sparkle starts to dim.
Hopefully all of that is starting to change, with the 2024 DB12 leading the charge. A major update of the outgoing DB11, Aston says the DB12 is 80 percent new, with nearly every aspect of the car being overhauled to provide both greater comfort and better performance. It’s described as a super tourer, with Aston calling it “a class-defining car of unmatched elegance and sporting character.” And thankfully, that’s more than just marketing speak — in droptop Volante form, the new DB12 really is excellent.
Full disclosure: Aston Martin invited me to come out to Santa Monica so I could drive a DB12 Volante for the afternoon, letting me choose which spec I wanted and setting me loose with a full tank of gas and a suggested route through the Malibu canyons. They also gave me a hat and some great artisanal popcorn.
The DB11 was a striking design when it first came out, and it still looks modern now, but it has definitely aged quicker than some of its competition. The DB12 rectifies that, despite still sharing the doors and rear fenders. Its front end has a much larger mouth — Aston says there’s 56 percent more open apertures — and the swept back headlights look phenomenal. I wish the rear end got as much of a restyling, as the only real change is new taillight internals that echo the Aston badge’s wings, which are pretty cool. This is also one of just a few soft top convertibles that looks just as good with the roof up as it does down.
By far the biggest and most welcome upgrades are in the cabin. Almost every single thing you see has been totally redesigned, and it’s vastly better than the DB11, the interior of which soured quickly. The DB12’s materials and build quality feel a lot more up to par for the price point, and there’s a nice mix of different types of finishes. I really love the new steering wheel, and there are lots of useful physical controls in the center console, including roller knobs for climate functions and audio volume that feel really nice to spin. I don’t mind the tiny tab-like shifter, either. There are still some weird annoyances, like the fiddly seat controls found at your knees on the transmission tunnel and the thin sun visors that don’t swing out, but the list of niggles is much shorter and less important than before.
Aston finally ditched the super outdated, no-touchscreen, Mercedes COMAND–based infotainment in favor of a new system that’s been developed in-house. The well-integrated 10.3-inch central touchscreen is mounted super low in the dashboard and at a steeply raked angle, which looks phenomenal and is likely better for driver distraction, but the positioning does make it a pain to use at first. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, and the new software is responsive and attractive, though the small fonts can be tough to read and a lot of the menus can be dense. Still, it’s a massive improvement over what Astons used to have, and as an owner I think I would get used to it quickly. The 10.3-inch digital gauge cluster looks good too, but I wish the information it presents was more customizable.
Can I just gush about this spec for a moment, too? The Aston PR team always does a great job speccing its press cars, but this DB12 Volante is really somethin’ else. I’ve been saying for years that brown is an underrated and excellent color family for high-end luxury models and sports cars, and it’s finally starting to come on trend along with golds and bronzes. The Magneto Bronze paint ($5,500) is absolutely stunning, and it pairs well with the 21-inch Satin Platinum wheels ($2,600) and Bronze brake calipers ($1,800). The smoked taillights ($1,400) are a nice touch, and I’m glad that it has all the lower body exterior trim finished in gloss black ($3,100) instead of carbon fiber, which I think is getting really played out.
It gets even better on the inside. Pretty much everything you see is covered in Copper Tan Metallic leather ($3,300 for color and $10,100 for how much of it there is), and the seats have fantastic brogue perforations. There’s bronze and brown contrasting stitching throughout ($2,900), matching tan seatbelts ($1,000) and matching tan carpets ($2,300). The best option is the Dark Walnut open-pore wood ($3,300), which is found in thin strips that wrap around the center console and dashboard, and huge panels on the door cards. I’m not usually big on a full-tan interior, but this DB12 looks perfect.
There is one weird bit of this spec: the lovely suede headliner is a shade of beige that doesn’t match anything else on the interior, and it throws the whole thing off when I’ve got the top up. The top is super well-insulated at least, if you were blindfolded you’d never guess you weren’t riding in a hardtop coupe. It takes just 14 seconds to open or 16 seconds to close, and the operation works at up to 31 mph.
So I’ve established that the DB12 Volante looks the part and feels the part, but how is it to drive? Luckily, from behind the wheel is where the DB12 really makes its mark. The sole engine option for the DB12 Volante is the same AMG-derived twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 as before — and the V12 option has been dropped from the coupe as well — but it’s gotten a host of upgrades to further distinguish it from its Mercedes counterparts and give it a ton more power. New components include bigger turbochargers, modified cam profiles, optimized compression ratios and a greatly improved cooling system that’s 34 percent more powerful. Total output is now 671 horsepower and 590 pound-feet of torque, increases of 168 horsepower and 92 lb-ft. That also means the DB12 has 94 more horsepower than the Mercedes-AMG SL63 that uses the same engine, and it’s only 44 hp off the outgoing V12-powered DBS.
All that power is still sent to just the rear wheels through a ZF 8-speed automatic transmission, which now has a shortened final drive ratio and is tuned for quicker, punchier shifts. From a stop the DB12 Volante will hit 60 mph in 3.6 seconds according to Aston, half a second quicker than the DB11, and it’ll now hit a top speed of 202 mph, up from 187 mph. My butt dyno says it’s gotta be even quicker in real life; the engine pulls hard whether you’re exiting a corner or merging on the freeway. Even in the standard GT drive mode a squeeze of the throttle provokes immediate downshifts and a surge of power, and in Sport+ the exhaust is raucous without being too much. This DB12 has the optional carbon-ceramic brakes ($14,500), which save around 60 pounds and give the car immense stopping power with no fade and no squeakiness or grabby operation around town.
The car’s structure and anti-roll bars are stiffer than before, and new adaptive dampers have a 500-percent greater bandwidth than before for better control and more noticeable differences between drive modes. The ride is lovely when cruising around town, a huge improvement over Aston’s other offerings, and in the canyons there’s minimal body roll. And there’s none of the flex, twist or shudder that can be present even in high-end convertibles.
The DB12 has four-stage stability control, an electronic rear differential and brake-based torque vectoring that definitely make a difference on tight roads, though sometimes the way the systems behave is unpredictable, especially when accelerating mid-corner. At least the steering is well tuned with great feedback and it’s easy to make small corrections, and the DB12 is a lot more nimble than a car of this size has any right to be. Still, the super long hood and wide fenders can make it a bit sketchy in tighter corners and parking lots alike, and I’m always aware of the DB12’s near-4,000-pound heft. This is the first car I’ve driven with the new Michelin Pilot Sport 5 tires, which are extremely grippy but still allow for some tail-out playfulness, and there’s almost no road noise.
Given how comprehensively the DB12 has been upgraded, it’s not too much more expensive than the car it replaces. Before destination or other fees the DB12 Volante starts at $265,000, about $32,000 more than the DB11 Volante and in the same realm as the Bentley Continental GTC droptop. This particular Volante comes in at $323,700, and it’ll surely be easy to spec one that’s even more expensive. That’s a lot of scratch, but the DB12 feels worth it.
This is finally a genuinely special car both to drive and to live with, one that exists without any major “buts” or caveats. Aston has already unveiled the new Vantage, which has undergone a similar transformation, and extensive facelifts to the DBX and DBS are rapidly approaching. The tides seem to be turning over in Gaydon, and the automotive world is better for it.
