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Aston Martin Doesn’t Need James Bond To Save It, It Needs The DBX


Porsche did it first, years ago with its Cayenne. Jaguar, Maserati, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo all followed suit, with predictable degrees of success. 

But perhaps no iconic sports car maker needs its foray into the profitable world of SUVs to go better than Aston Martin. Tuesday night, on the eve of the 2019 L.A. Auto Show, beleaguered Aston revealed the DBX, a four-door crossover SUV set to hit the U.S. market in the second half of 2020. 

The $192,986, 542-horsepower DBX is the first SUV from Aston in the company’s rocky 106-year history. To say a lot is riding on the success of the DBX is an understatement not even James Bond would utter. 

Here’s a quick recap of Aston’s year so far:

  • There was the news that Aston was cutting its sales forecast in 2019 due to a global slowdown of auto sales. Said slowdown has left current Aston sports cars — some of the sexiest new vehicles available for purchase at the moment — gathering dust on showroom floors around the world. 
  • These same slow sales led Aston to announce earlier this month that the company posted a Q3 loss of $17.4 million. China’s performance was particularly gloomy and that’s a market so important to Aston that the new DBX made its official global debut in Beijing (with simultaneous debuts in other luxury hot spots around the world). 
  • There was the move by both Standard & Poors and Moodys to cut Aston’s credit rating to low-level junk status thanks to its cash burn and potential flirtation with default. 
  • Then there was the $150 million bond sale (good!) with a high annual interest rate (12 percent — bad!), aimed at giving the automaker enough cash on hand to see that the DBX actually reaches production and to pay down a pair of earlier loans. Should Aston pull in 1,400 or more orders for the DBX, it will have access to another $100 million of notes on the same 12 percent terms. 
  • Finally, the specter of Brexit continues to loom large over Aston, as the upheaval has forced the automaker into costly supply chain adjustments to ensure a majority of a vehicle is sourced from within Britain. 

But Aston optimists have only to look to Porsche to feel better about their woes. Porsche is practically printing money thanks to the success of its Cayenne and Macan SUVs, success which has kept alive and thriving the 718 and 911 models in a world where sports cars alone likely aren’t enough to sustain an automaker. 

The five-seat DBX hits all the right marks to make it a strong seller globally, and Aston is particularly vocal about the crossover bringing more female buyers to the brand. 

The DBX’s Mercedes-sourced twin-turbo V8 packs the aforementioned 542 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, good for a 0-60 run in 4.3 seconds. The DBX has a nine-speed automatic transmission and an electronic limited-slip differential. 

Alive with both sound and fury thanks to an active exhaust, this V8 also promises cylinder deactivation for greater fuel economy. Aston boasts that the lightweight structure on the DBX keeps its weight below 5,000 pounds (it’s roughly 100 pounds lighter than Porsche’s Cayenne Turbo). 

The interior is wrapped in leather as far as the eye can see, unless that eye is vegan, in which case Aston will offer seats covered in a material that is 80 percent wool. A 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment screen is nestled in the dashboard, and the DBX promises features like a panoramic glass roof, an adaptive air suspension, 22-inch alloy wheels, a full suite of active safety features, aluminum and composite body panels, and six adaptive drive modes. 

Not enough luxe? The Pet Package will include a portable washer to hose off Fido before putting him or her in those acres of leather. The Snow Package comes with warmers for your ski boots. 

Conspicuously absent from this list of goodies is electrification. For now, this and most other Astons remain firmly in the old-school, no-plug camp. This makes it quite the anomaly in the automotive world, as nearly every other automaker on the map — regardless of price — is diving into electrification. 

A lack of precious cash is the likely culprit here as developing EV powertrains is a frightfully expensive endeavor for even the world’s largest automakers with many billions of dollars at their disposal.

Green salvation for Aston will come first in the upcoming 1,160-horsepower Valkyrie hybrid hypercar, due in customer hands by the end of this year. Yet true EV moves don’t start until Aston’s electric-only subbrand Lagonda gets off the ground with the 2022 arrival of its SUV and sedan in 2023. 

Whether those models actually see the light of day could very well depend on the success of the DBX. Its a rescue worthy of James Bond himself. 



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