Aston Martin DB12 review. With 680bhp & monster torque, is this the Aston that beats Ferrari?

[Applause] well welcome to a new Harry's gal video and today's car is the Aston Martin db12 the replacement for the db11 which when I looked back I couldn't believe we tested 7 years ago it was back in January 2017 when I the db11 in here and it was a real step change for Aston I really quite liked it it was a proper GT car now we have the db2 oh my goodness have they wound it up compared to db11 so V8 now 680 PS way more 150 more roughly than db11 and a much more aggressive look if you look at the styling of it it's also obviously the price has gone up a little bit the 185,000 list the car you see see here £220,000 with all the options on it but it is a fantastic looking car lots of discuss on this car lots of new tech let's go and have a closer look one of the big changes with db12 is this more aggressive look much bigger Grill ason tell me that with the greater horsepower of this car they've needed to dramatically increase the amount of air it can take in to to all the radiators there's a bigger oil cooler in there as well and for the intercooler but I think the end result is a fantastic look it's what an Aston should look like it has a DBS or almost a 177 look to it the only one I question is these little tiny bits of carbon fiber sort of Splitters they look highly vulnerable to me but that's my only complaint there's also a new Aston Martin badge as well on this car and it's wider trct not that much wider at the front 6 mil at the front but there is just muscle that you see straight away when you look at that car come around the side though and Aston have made a few tweaks here you get forged wheels as standard they don't look any different but that Forge wheels are generally lighter than a cast wheel this car has ceramic brake option on it you get steel as standard just a different look to the vent here different mirrors as well I'm gutty they've changed the mirrors cuz I love the point that the original mirrors the previous generation mirrors came to these are different in that they they Swizzle around when you adjust your mirror it's not the glass that adjusts it's the whole thing that swivels and then carbon side seals down there and the intake if we this new design language that we saw on db11 and DBS air shoots down there to come round to the back yeah just one thing on the tires wheels and tires combination bigger tires on here now 325 section on here and they are AML list this is the new Pilot Sport S5 tire but AML marked so they are dedicated TI now to Aston Martin back this car is got carbon fiber all here rather than regular black I think that is one of the options on it again no big spoiler but that air rushes through here I'll open the boot in a moment and then it comes through this vent here you can't open the boot from outside but I have the key on me pop that and uh yeah I've got an umbrella that must be an option as well but you can see like a tunnel looking at that vent that's where the air rushes past and then pops out out the top of the Bonnet now the big change on db12 is the interior and it's a dramatic change and all for the better I'm not going to show you around now in detail we'll do that wait from outside but my goodness it's an improvement let's have a quick look at the engine great big Bonnet and a min and you see here this sort of intake here that takes air through here into there cuz that's got to cool the turbos you got to remember the AMG V8 in this it's twin turbo but the turbos are in the v so a lot of heat to get rid of at the top of that engine but my goodness it's in a state of tune this engine Aston tell me it's their own dedicated tune for this car it's not an AMG it is specific to them it is not exactly the same and as I say 680 p s at 6,000 RPM 800 Newton M of torque at 2750 to 6,000 RPM that is a monster amount of torque that used a dedicated ZF 8-speed gearbox which is a transactional design mounting in the back of the car and a carbon fiber prop shaft joining the two together but look at these great big castings aluminium castings top mounts here lots of bracing they say it's 7% stiffer this db12 over DB 11 but to find out all the changes Let's Take It Outside take it for a drive and this is the wow moment with db12 when you get in and you see this new interior I will light it up actually I'll just start the engine on that button there we are so you can see it just while that's warming up I still love Aston doors the way they just stay there they have this hinge that sort of angles up and it holds the door as a damper in there and it's just one of those things that I really like on anas in well dv1 dv2 they all have it yeah the engine is just warming up and yeah this is where the big change is on db12 just revolutionary interior they've gone from bottom of the class to I it's pretty close to the top of the class on what they've done here they have not done the big iPad on the dash yes there's a um screen there but it's integrated and I have genuine sort of buttons to do things useful things yeah I went I read the press release for getting in and they've sort of identified the buttons that you are going to use most often and they're not on the screen so temperature volume I can do fan uh that side heated seat buttons Lane assist you can turn it off on here parking parking cameras dampers exhaust traction control um yeah Auto Stop start is all on there heated screens fantastic to see I'm just going to turn the fan down and I can turn the fan down on this roller here how good's that I put it down to one yeah complete change no fumbling on the screen just on that roller and they're beautiful how these rollers work volume up and down temperature up and down on here so clever and just really tactile very very nice to use these are beautifully done these ones move the vents and you twist them and that's the volume coming out the vent only disappointment I think is just they're quite small the dials in there but I mean the crucial information Speedo is a digital thing revs you almost don't notice but they're they're quite small it's that big sort of screen in the middle that you can obviously operate on here yeah another thing this is uh this is I think is a little bit of uh Mercedes on here tiny little things htic controls here to change what you want to look at they're passible and better than Ferrari Roma but that's the only bit of sort of modern bit of tech in here that I'm not quite sure about but it's pretty minor yeah you've got I notic there's a a glove box here and the thing I haven't seen in years look at that proper manual with lots of pages and detailed goes on I don't how many pages hasn't got actually Pages listed but yeah have genuine manual which is nice to see it's bit of a throwback what else have we got in here I'm looking just at the extras I say I haven't got list of the individual extras but just seeing what there is in here yes Saturn Twin carbon fiber so the carbon fiber dashes of it around the cabin is optional on here heated steering wheel so somewhere I don't know how to turn it on and off actually and the 16 way adjustable heated ventilation seats the seats is the Sports Plus seat when it does grip it's not Uber sporty it's not like around my shoulders but it's a nice seat adjustment is all down here and yeah you get I don't think there's anything else to note on there yeah no um and then in here is where your phone lives I think another slight disappointment it's not a disaster is yeah cable to put your iPhone or phone in to get that to go to carplay Android whatever yeah a little space in the back isopix I can see in the back I squeezed Charlie in the back of it my son Charlie who's the same size as me he was looking to report me to child Cy by doing so cuz they're quite hard back the seats he said it was pretty tight back there you can get home from the pub or something like that and you might yeah there is a certain size of kid who you'll be able to squeeze in the back if you want to justify this you're going to buy this car as a 2 plus two but it is tight back there so I think that's it just round the cabin for now let's put it into drive disappear off go find some better roads forgot when I set off I didn't actually turn off the Speed um recognition sensitivity here we are so you have to go assistance on here and then speed limit change audio warning and I go off to that so it's quite easy to do and I do like the way the lane assist button is on here but yeah just it's absolutely not a criticism of Aston Martin we're going to have to do this on all 24 cars it's it's nothing to do of as it's all to do with European regulations the worrying thing I want to research is there is torque it will actually go compulsory and you will not be able to turn it off sometime in 25 that would the way the systems work at the moment that would almost put me off buying a car full stop whatever it is if I can't turn it off because they are not for fit for purpose at the moment I cannot see how they could make that compulsory in all cars but let's see there's some mad people uh in Brussels and they like deciding these sort of crazy things now yeah it's there's a little bit more noise from this car it's not crazy noisy but it with the aluminium construction now that one I'm not sure I have turned it off and I've had this before I think I've turned it off and I don't I cannot tell what that is it's almost like a there you go I have no idea is that warning me it's going to change to 60 who knows anyway kick down yeah wi those turbos off you forget all about the speed warnings Etc but the thing you will notice if you come out of a db11 into db12 is the extra chunk of horsepower and torque 800 Newton M of torque is enormous more than my Pagani Z used to have and that was a Tor monster we just you know I can't believe the power we have in cars today but um it does perform particular well 3 and 1/2 to 60 and 202 mph so yeah proper headline figures and it's it's there because it's twin turbo it's always got that torque 2750 you've got Peak torque all the way to 6,000 RPM and with eight speeds in the automatic gearbox yeah you get a proper move on in this car I'm go to sport so I'm going to go to sport just to go down my little bit of road if I want to put it into manual then I press that button and I got an indicator there I'm in fifth in fourth it's quite short gear in this car put it in it's a very serious car this one right I'm just going to tweak it back back what have I got I put it back into GT mode does handle it the bumps I mean it is I'm sure without having a db11 here I can't tell but I'm sure it is stiffer setup than db11 it's uh a more sport it's a tighter control on the dampers but I I've got plenty of options and I have individual mode as well is just a little testing bump here and here yeah yeah no it is it is pretty stiff riding compared to for a GT but as they say it's a Super GT down here no deflection I'm just foring a little bit of camber but nothing like a GT3 or anything what I would expect it to behave like really sporting angry db12 has a different character to db11 it's not nearly as laidback another little testing bump down here as well see how it cops yeah it cop with that one better actually just pop it up into sport around here yeah it's very responsive on the throttle for a turbocharged car yeah quick very quick car you need self-control when you're driving this car yeah just around there every now and then you feel the weight of this car it's not that lightweight I did weigh it and it went 18820 kilos wet but then you got to consider that some like Bentley Continental GT the V8s that's nearer to 2.2 tons so yeah big difference over that car I think the car that's just underneath is perhaps the thari Roma which is probably about 100 kilos lighter uh just that much more aggressive but this has more Tor than that probably time for some likes and dislikes with this car well dislikes it's a bit of a weird one it's it's an observation rather than a fundamental dislike is the aggression in this car it's full on it's not a messy it's it's not a relaxed Cruiser at all it has a real aggressive nature but you can't calm it down quite as much as perhaps you would like to in db12 I think of db11 it doesn't have to be the ultimate sports car that's the race car that's the Vantage coming up in the range as a new one arriving so it's almost too aggressive for its own good the small dials in front of me I'm a big fan of heads up I wish it was offered on here there's not a lot of information to be had I love the little oil pressures and those sort of things but you don't get it anymore I don't like the design of the mirror I think it's a retrograde step because they were exceptional on db11 DBS and stuff they had a poter they had almost a Pagani look about them and I'm gutted that they've gone now let's come down to these old tested beds here and it's short geared I'm into third and it sounds like second but I know it's only second I just quick to get second rounds here yeah that's short yeah it goes quiet when you deploy or 680 horsepower wow yeah um yeah you need well you don't know if I need ceramic brakes but I'm quite grateful them on this car because you do build speed very [Applause] rapidly [Applause] sound isn't great is it I mean it's a V12 noise it sounds busy but it doesn't have that sort of Glorious Bellow of the V12 but I'm afraid it's all particulate filters and all the rest of the gumin they have to stick on these turbocharged engines but it doesn't have that real deep Bellow of a V8 that you'd like it to have and the steering it's good it points in it's it's got a bit of information but it is slightly inert I'd like a little bit more coming through it I'm sure it had more in previous iterations I wonder if all the latest 2024 nonsense departure has numbed it a bit they've had to add more electrical resistance I don't know that's me just speculating so let's move on to the light oh my Lord the looks the the it looks fantastic it's exactly what I want an Aston to look like I if I own this I would be so so proud I would park it outside my office window bedroom window kitchen window so I could stare at it just wonderful finally on Aston that is just glorious to look at and it will make sense that big grill interior what a difference what a game changer is it's not revolutionary but it has a quality feel to it and I do wonder if Lance stroll has orchestrated this he does understand luxury does understand what this car to stand for and I presume the stamp he always said the one thing you want to do is change an interior and it's a great thing you know I've sat in too many cars with a big iPad now that isn't the way to go this is the way to go it feels like a I like we enjoy mechanical watches and things we not don't all have apple watches this is what I want my GT this car is going to live for decades to come and I want this sort of interior into it usable as well well all the controls all thought about the screen is you know fact it has Apple play it's great I don't care about the nav not being quite right so big thumbs up for that another I like well the level of performance in this car it's nuts it is an aggressive very fast Coupe now that torque that 800 new M makes itself felt a lot the only trouble it is you've really got to have some self-control over it you can't give it full boot all the time and you'll be using the stability control be cutting in quite often and it's it's fairly untrusting but it's got a lot of work to do especially if it the rain turns wet as it's just starting a spit with rain well let's try it around here I'm going to keep it in third rather than yeah wow it's amazing what they can do with engines now you use a 4 liter engine 680 horsepower huge number of horsepower per liter so in conclusion yes a very different Aston from DB1 a real stepper integration in speed and the way it goes down the road it's it's a it's very interesting its positioning cuz it the when I drove the Ferrari Roma I was surprised how aggressively fast that car is this is as well and I suppose that's the target car and then you've got the Continental GT and that is a slightly softer edge of the four-wheel drive the extra weight but a wonderful interior and I just love the way this Aston sort of fits between the too it's fighting for pole position between those three cars that feels very good for an Aston Martin and I look at the range now of Aston and I've never really thought about buying an Aston I could own any of them now a DBS glorious every time I've had one in EAS dbx really surprising you don't want to like this performance SUV nonsense and then you live with it and you think this is really very very nice very usable and now we've got this db12 and again stunning to look at revamped interior goes like crazy it's it has a Feelgood Factor off the freaking scale that's what I want from Aston Martin and I know we have the new Vantage coming I have seen the Vantage I've done a video on it but all information on that is embargo to the 12th of February but all I will say now it fits the mold of the modern Aston very well and the characteristics they're bringing out so I wish them well ason I think they have improved I ignore all the nonsense on share price whatever doing the product is what counts and right now they're terrific to own so there you go there's my conclusion on the new db12 I hope you enjoyed this video if you did well keep watching keep subscribing more videos coming along very soon [Applause]

Channel: Harry's garage

Views: 389,331

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Id: A-jYWLehd6M

Length: 22min 40sec (1360 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 04 2024