Aston Martin DB12 Review 2025

While the DB11 was a step in the right direction for Aston Martin, it fell short in lots of areas. So is its closely related yet radically overhauled successor the car the DB11 should have been all along? That's a resounding yes. Let us explain why in our full Aston Martin DB12 review. 

Like many car companies with chequered histories, Aston Martin is a company that's been reborn over and over again — and frequently so. It wasn't that long ago that we were introduced to the Aston Martin DB11 which was the first in what was dubbed the firm's 'second century plan'. And yet little over six years later, Aston Martin pulled the wraps off its successor — the DB12. 

For a brand whose models have a habit of sticking around for a bit, that seemed awfully quick. It likely had more than a little to do with the company's new owner, Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, who has grand plans for Aston. Grand plans which start with the DB12.

Yes the aluminium structure underneath it is the same as the DB11's but it's been modified and is now clad in completely different body panels. This makes for a far more cohesive design than the DB11's fussy form. 

Visually it's a more muscular coupe helped in no small part by the fact that the front and rear tracks are wider, which also improves handling. The suspension has been overhauled and there are fat Michelin Pilot Sport S5 tyres all round to ensure the front end grips like it should and the rear doesn't get too out of shape. 

That last bit is especially important as the rubber needs to tame a boisterous 680PS and 800Nm of torque from the DB12's 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 engine which is built by Mercedes-AMG and used in models such as the SL roadster. 

The DB12's interior has had a dramatic uplift, looking unrecognisable from what came before. A marked improvement it might be but it still can't quite compete with cars like the Bentley Continental GT.

That's an interesting car to compare it to as the DB12 feels like it's not trying to be quite the same thing. It's not as cosseting, seemingly preferring a sportier attitude more along the lines of the Maserati GranTurismo and Porsche 911. The relationship between this and the smaller Aston Martin Vantage is clear and that's no bad thing. 

Overall the Aston Martin DB12 is brilliant. It's certainly not the sort of thing Aston is going to have to feel compelled to almost entirely reengineer in a few years' time, much as it did with the DB11. 

The Aston Martin DB12 has had a whole lot of chassis work to distance it from the DB11, including revised adaptive dampers, new mounting points and much wider front and rear tracks. The result is a more focused, feeling more like a big sports coupe than a traditional grand tourer. It doesn't appear to glide over the road surface in the way a Bentley Continental GT does. 

That's not to say it's uncomfortable. The damping is incredibly well set-up and — for once — this is a car whose adaptive dampers we're happy using in their firmer settings without bouncing around and immediately turning back to the softest. It tracks the road surface brilliantly. 

Front-end grip is excellent and the car changes direction in a way that makes you forget all about the fact that the DB12 weighs 1788kg. Its steering is well-weighted and feels very natural. There is another way of steering the car — by using the throttle. With all that power going to the rear wheels, the DB12 can be quite feisty. 

Once you settle down the DB12 does work well as a long-distance cruiser, even if it's not the waftiest GT car out there. One fly in the ointment is that those large tyres do generate a lot of noise which the sound deadening can't tune out. 

The Aston Martin DB12's name has nothing to do with its engine's cylinder count — there's no V12 available here. That was also the case for the DB11 towards the end of its life and, in any case, we're not all that worried about the old 5.2-litre V12 getting ditched. 

It was heavy, didn't sound as special as you'd hope and — considering its displacement plus its pair of turbochargers — wasn't really that powerful.

The new V8 in the DB12, hooked up to an eight-speed automatic gearbox, blows that old engine into the weeds, kicking out 680PS and 800Nm of torque. This makes a 3.6-second 0-62mph time possible plus a 202mph top speed.

Like all V8s fitted to Aston Martin models for a few years now, this one comes from Mercedes-AMG. The versions sent Aston's way aren't identical to those fitted to the likes of the AMG GT as the the British brand specifies various tweaks. 

The exhaust system in the DB12 is also new and Aston Martin's engineers have done a brilliant job with it. Earlier models borrowing engines from AMGs tended to sound, well, rather like fast Mercedes but that's not the case here. There's a richer and more cultured burble to the V8's noise here. It's addictive. 

Straight line performance, of course, is fantastic. The DB12 feels immensely fast whenever you put your foot down, or at least, it does once the rear tyres hook up. The car feels like it's almost a little too powerful for its own good, with the rear axle seeming to struggle to get all that power down, feeling lively even with the traction control fully on. We rather like that. 

Euro NCAP won't be smashing up vehicles as valuable as the Aston Martin DB12 in crash tests any time soon, so don't expect there ever to be a star rating for this car.

The level of standard-fit safety equipment is healthy, including forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping assistance, blind-spot assistance, rear cross-traffic assist, door exit assistance, a driver attention monitor and hands-off detection.

Unsurprisingly, you can't tow anything with the Aston Martin DB12. If you want something from this marque that can then point yourself towards the Aston Martin DBX SUV which is rated to haul up to 2700kg of braked trailer weight. How's that for a versatile two-car garage?

Although it's pitched as a grand tourer, you might want to pack light if you're heading off on a road trip to Monaco with the Aston Martin DB12 Coupe. Its boot space is a mere 262 litres, around 100 litres behind a Bentley Continental GT's luggage capacity and marginally less than in the back of the Ferrari Amalfi.

Opt for the convertible-bodied Aston Martin DB12 Volante and it reduces further to 206 litres with the roof up, dropping to 162 litres with the soft-top folded away.

You could always use the rear seats for additional storage as you're unlikely to have anyone sitting there given how cramped they are. The DB12 is billed as a 2+2 rather than a full four-seater, like a lot of its rivals but good luck trying to install a pair of bulky child seats back there. That said the Maserati Gran Turismo does much better in terms of rear passenger accommodation. 

We've no complaints about the front area of the cabin which feels roomy and includes some small but handy storage areas plus a couple of cupholders.

Although the DB11 was in itself a sizeable step forwards from the dated DB9 in terms of interior quality, it was still a little behind rivals. The Aston Martin DB12 takes an even bigger leap onwards, justifying its lofty price tag with better fit and finish and premium-feeling materials.

It still doesn't feel quite as well sorted inside as a Bentley Continental GT does and — as we often do in modern luxury cars — we're going to moan about the abundance of glossy 'piano black' plastic trim inside which shows scratches conspicuously. 

The Aston Martin DB12 uses 10.25-inch touchscreen for its infotainment system — it's not bad but it's far from the best out there. It's responsive to touch but a lot of the text and icons are displayed too small, an issue which is also present with the digital instrument cluster. The menu layout isn't the simplest and the screen is mounted low, far below your eyeline. 

The navigation works okay but it's inevitably not anywhere near as good as something like Google Maps, which you can mirror onto the screen from your smartphone easily enough. Originally only Apple CarPlay connectivity was offered but Android Auto compatibility is now offered as well thanks to a software update. 

On the plus side you don't have to use this for the climate controls, with the temperature and fan speed of both climate zones altered using satisfying-feeling rotating knobs just under the screen. 

The Aston Martin DB12 Coupe costs £185,000 while the convertible DB12 Volante is £199,500. Except no Aston Martin customer will pay just that. There are costly options aplenty even before considering what Aston Martin's Q personalisation department will assist you in parting with for bespoke levels of finishes. 

It's a similar story with the DB12's rivals, many of which have even higher starting prices. There's the Ferrari Amalfi, from which parallels can be drawn from the DB12. It too is a heavily redesigned version of its predecessor, the Ferrari Roma, which started from over £212,773 when it was still on sale. The Amalfi will almost certainly cost more. 

The now hybrid-only Bentley Continental GT costs over £220,000, again that's before you get carried away with the personalisation side of things. 

On the other end of the spectrum, if you're not too snobbish about the badge on the front of the car, the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 Coupe is more focused to drive, uses a very similar V8 to DB12's and undercuts it by £20,000. It's not as powerful, though. 

If you're looking at buying something like an Aston Martin DB12, running costs are unlikely to trouble you all that much but we might as well point out a few of the bills you might be expecting.

One of those is £620 in annual car tax costs from years two to six of ownership because unsurprisingly the DB12 is comfortably beyond the £40,000 threshold for the government's Expensive Car Supplement. 

It's also in insurance group 50, the highest of the lot and Aston Martin main dealer servicing isn't going to be cheap.

The DB12's 23.2mpg WLTP Combined cycle econy figure is one you're unlikely to ever match should you use that V8 properly, while replacing those massive Michelin tyres is going to be several pretty pennies. 

As is typical for high-end cars such as this, the Aston Martin DB12 is not offered with different trim levels, with buyers instead given a dizzying array of options and expensive personalisation possibilities through the company's Q programme. The standard specification of the car includes:

• 21-inch forged alloy wheels
• LED headlamps with automatic main beam
• LED tail lights
• Adaptive dampers
• 12-way electrically adjustable seats
• Ambient interior lighting
• Keyless entry/starting
• 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Apple CarPlay/Android Auto connectivity
• 11-speaker sound system
• Wireless phone charging
• 360-degree parking camera