2024 Aston Martin DB12 Review // $250,000 Of Brutal Elegance

foreign Aston Martin have released the teaser images of the all-new db12 however they are quite hard to see but don't worry here at the throttle horse car report we never settled so we sent our best men across to Europe to investigate it up close [Music] oh he's so dark why did they have to make it so dark down here that's the knee that's it oh I can't see anything oh I found it oh they made the Leathers very smooth seems that's my leg oh sorry wait why is it so smooth swim shut up and help me find the car okay oh here it is oh nice wood I like it I can feel it against my face it's in like a brick headliner it's really nice oh we've messed this up still like the brick though [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you're watching throttle house I'm Thomas and I'm James this is the new Aston Martin db12 foreign [Music] this is the latest Aston Martin it doesn't have some ethereal name like virage or Valhalla or Valkyrie the DB actually stands for David Brown but the DB nameplate needs no Flair it is an institution of Elegance and power it's impossible to think of Aston Martin without thinking of DB engine at the front rear wheel drive in a twin turbocharged V8 that produces 671 horsepower propelling it all the way to a top speed of 202 miles an hour this car may not look all new but astons say it's changed enough to earn the 12. the truth is that Aston Martin bigwig Lawrence stroll stepped in and proclaimed that the already existing db11 with its dated interior and old Mercedes Tech simply wasn't good enough to justify the price so under his maple syrup Fist and watchful unnerving gaze Aston has re-torqued the bolts so to speak to produce a car that they claim is now too good to be considered a grand tourer this apparently is the world's first super tour so for the 250 Grand asking price let's see if it wears a cape shall we [Applause] call reviews track tests and quite a lot of messing about so subscribe hit the Bell [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] absolute monster the North of 60 time of 3.5 seconds betrays the absolute absurd power numbers that this car has from a twin turbocharged V8 there's no hybridization there's no electronic stuff going on and it makes 671 horsepower with 590 pound-feet of torque that's more power than the Roma that's more power than the Bentley Continental GT V8 that's more power than an me competition and yet it's hundreds of pounds lighter that makes this blisteringly quick and last time we were in a DB it was the DBS of the previous generation and that had a great big snarling twin turbocharged V12 [Music] this doesn't sound as crazy as that it grows that V8 I missed the V12 that we tried in that DBS I do miss it because even in a tunnel it was way more raucous but this still has its own tone it's think teenage Simba not adult Mufasa in terms of sound [Applause] now a 143 horsepower increase from the outgoing db11 with the V8 that's a 34 jump between generations and remember the regular db11s V12 engine yeah this has 41 more horsepower than that big numbers to achieve that they've modified the cam profiles optimized compression ratios stuck larger diameter turbochargers in there and to cope they've massively improved the cooling so yeah the db12 is V8 only but it's a bully downshifts even in Sport Plus mode are a little bit slow with the eight speed click on the paddle a second later that's not rapid in fact a Golf R DSG is quicker than that but the upshifts are nice and quick feels big it feels really big on this road the sides but it doesn't feel that heavy grand Tours shouldn't be this fun it shouldn't be this fun or composed sorry it's not a grand tourer it's not it is the world's first super tourer says Aston so even though I can do all of that if I twist this little dial here I can drop it into comfort and everything calms down the throttle mapping calms down the exhaust calms down suspension calms down and Thomas and I have been touring with this through the hills of Monaco and it's been lovely this is a crazy rear-wheel drive lion that can calm down and become a little Antelope and even in Antelope mode where everything is calm it doesn't let you forget what's in that engine there's always this sound there's always that feeling that you're in the mouth of a dragon [Music] so it may not have an s in the name but it drives every bit the DBS in fact in that sense it is a little bit familiar and that's not the only aspect that's familiar and that's because the Aston Martin db12 isn't as much a brand new car as it is a very aggressive facelift except when you look at it it's not really an aggressive facelift is it but hey at least the chassis has been increased in stiffness by seven percent by upgrading the underbody bracing and for the first time on a DB model it has an electronic locking limited slip differential and it has the new generation of adaptive dampers and it has stiffer anti-roll bars basically they took what they had and made it as good as they could because you know what it's really good around these Corners even these insanely tight European Monte Carlo rally switchbacks it's still a blast oh my god I've got the suspension in the stiffest mode right now but the ride is still quite well damped it's a bit choppy but it's not as bad as the DBS was that we just drove in California it's not shaking me to pieces and it doesn't feel like there's iron in the dampers but you know what the most impressive thing of all is that the car just it kind of feels a lot lighter than it is the car feels very sharp the steering is a bit dead doesn't weight up enough even in the hardest mode [Music] but the front end is so accurate doesn't feel heavy a tremendous amount of grip from those new Michelin Pilot Sport fives or whatever they're called it's the new generation of the PS4s combination of the chassis stiffening the damping this limit it's a differential in these tires means that uh it is immediate confidence getting in this car yes we cruised with it yes it can be very quiet and soft and a grand tour but honestly this is feels it feels like the maximum version of this chassis it it feels like they have maxed out what this thing can do it feels like they've had enough time to just make it perfect for what it is basically what I'm saying is that if you ask me the question Hey Thomas are you having fun driving an Aston Martin db12 on the Monte Carlo rally stage in sunny Southern France the answer is yes I am thank you for asking after I'd had my fill of Grand Touring my way through the French mountains James called me and told me to meet him in the square of a nearby Town unfortunately he didn't tell me how difficult it was going to be to get there sorry excuse me sorry at least the locals were enamored with the db12 instead of annoyed it's not a bad spot you picked you know picturesque it definitely is that it was a bit of a pain getting in here yes but you get the juxtaposition of the newest Aston Martin with the oldest French town this is really cool speaking of newest Aston Martin yes how am I supposed to know that this is a db12 um well there's not that many ways but let me point one out to you okay because the friendly people of France only know because of the license plate then it says to be 12 yes yeah but if you have a Keen Eye and you are a huge fan of the previous generation you know that that one had a clam shell this one does not right so there's a line here there's a line there instead of it which has given them room to make a nice big grill and modernize this a little bit I'm not sure that I like that bit though oh it's best because okay it looks half DBS but I don't want that because I like the smaller Grill on the db11 listen I think it's a great looking car I'm not saying it's bad looking but I just like this like the classic kind of Aston Grill what are you doing where's the other side I always forget are you opening the hood I just want to have a look now that's a bit of that's a bit of a bummer is that the hood used to be like really cool it would clam shell open and now and now it's just a normal hood on a car right if I'm sure looked good when it was open but yeah engine that's a Mercedes engine hand bill in Great Britain actually hold on back up it's not hand built the engine is not hand building great button the car is assembled in Great Britain and that's just where the pack happens to be that's where the plaque physically happens it's very cheeky Luke Wesley I you're I'm sure you're a great dude but you did not hand built this AMG Luke windsley no no doubting what his favorite cheese is otherwise this looks they've redesigned the look of the engine bay and if you actually compare them back and forth the ducting for the intakes is slightly different and there's a few things that are different from the previous one but otherwise yeah it's not it's not that different it looks like there's a potentially a bit of room in there for a bigger engine at some point yes but they have said well they've said that the db12 is only going to be in V8 form and that the DBS 770 was the last DBS was that was that bird poo there just a minute ago it upset me because it's now it's on this hyper red paint which is otherwise beautiful I'm just a bit concerned that we're going to get food I've been put on before it's not fun no metaphorically or I don't know both I guess yeah so we anyway we've got the hyper red yep um we've seen it in some fascinating colors yes there's the iridescent Emerald that we saw at the launch event with gold wheels it looks awesome there's satin illuminite silver that's my favorite one yeah and I love that that actually looks like a different car to me that now looks like a db12 in the silver right this I've seen so many dbs's in this exact color combo just to me yeah so the car doesn't look that different but this is this is an exercise in what happens if you only fix the things everyone wanted you to fix pretty much it was already a beautiful car yes and the biggest issue we had with this was the interior this is a big question let's let's take a look yeah okay is it Daisy she likes nice cars okay this is completely different completely different yeah and it was so needed because we sat I remember in the DBS we sat in it now this old interior for 400 000 US Dollars it felt so unacceptable and what did we say and we said that the Continental GT from Bentley stops this even being in consideration and now they've changed it yeah it's new this is so not only is it obviously updated in terms of tech but visually I think it's a huge like this is just a good looking steering wheel now it is good right yeah this though I believe is they're all new it's their first all-new Aston Martin infotainment yeah it's so this is a pre-production model so we can't fully comment on how well this stuff works because it's a bit laggy for us so the caveat is that in terms of the rest of the car it's all as final it's the software and the infotainment is four updates away from final apparently we've been told how do they know it's four I don't know how do they know it's four yeah we tend to it up a couple of times so you know it's probably the fourth one we'll get there yeah we'll get there eventually but they're still all things that are no doubt not going to change that are rubbish which is sat nav like yeah when we were in the canyons yeah the roads meshed to the to just a blob but for it has carplay and the old one didn't have it at all right which is crazy so the the stuff that is going to be the same is the materials which are obviously top-notch it's very nice stitching everywhere the stitching up here this is all leather this is a very satisfying little no it's good they've finally shown where men can have to put their finger yes thank you James to open the mirror to open the mirror because otherwise you just have a full slider and then you don't know we don't need any more details for me yeah okay um anyway so this these are all really nice controls except for this manual button and I know button it's not like it barely clicks and speaking of this I didn't mention this when I was driving the car but even in manual mode it will auto up shift which is in my opinion absolutely unacceptable for any performance car actually as it turns out it only Auto upshifts from first to second gear every gear after that it will hit the limiter but you're right the touch the buttons here are all apart from the manual button the volume is so satisfying all of these are nice have you have you changed the modes oh the modes no and when you click a mode 470 minutes later something happens on one of the screens yes it is at the moment it's like at the moment quite laggy the puddles are very nice they are perfect they come exactly match the kind of grand tour sorry super tourer super tour super tour in nature of this what was I thinking as do the seats they're very comfortable heated ventilated yeah the seats are fine they're basically they're a touch narrow what they're you know I got lots of Headroom you've said that in a lot of cars I should stop eating pizza no don't stop it was delicious so this has the bowels and Wilkin sound system which is an extra which is maybe is a bit you know cheeky because Aston Martin should probably become already with the best sound system but this is 15 speakers I think the standard one is like an 11 speaker system it's great this is a we're there this is it we're finally there this is where we found this is absolutely in the modern world this is a fantastic car to drive they've taken this platform and I think I already said this they've maxed it out yeah if you compare it to something like four up days later they've maxed it in four updates yes yes so if you compare something like the Roma the Roma is a disaster inside yes it looks fantastic when the screens are off and it drives well in many ways yeah and the Continental is still a Touch Above This in Grandeur inside in Grand Jury yes but not in coolness we've been over this the coolness is here non-quantifiable it's unquantifiable but it's definitely a thing it exists all right it's a tangible thing that doesn't exist you remember do you remember the DB the DBS was no spots there's no spot for the key yes there is still no spot there's still no spots it looks formed it looks perfect yeah being put in somewhere why can't I just like put it you know what I mean anyway very few issues I have this car I mean there's a few things here and there but to me it drives DBS level of performance now yes but it's very quick but it's not DBS price so this is currently anyway I'd say the the grand tour tour oh sorry super tourer to get if you don't want the Bentley yeah and if you have a egregious amount of money I agree for many always found it found it of money and taste with the new db12 we think that's still the case even if you exercise aston's ridiculous level of customization and attempted to make garish color combos oh and did we mention the optional epic looking performance seats no idea the Comfort level but still look at them okay fine maybe the hardened seat with the magenta exterior and bubble gum brake calipers isn't how weed spec are db12 but the changes they've made mean that no matter your choice of color this car now has the full range of athleticism and livability that a modern GT deserves so whether you consider the db12 to be just an updated db11 or an entirely New Generation it doesn't really matter because it's become a very desirable car indeed has its existence founded an entirely new class of super tour well how about we wait and see if a new version of the DBS comes along whatever it may be called thanks for watching

Channel: Throttle House

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Id: HV7XsvlqRdc

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 04 2023