I had the keys to a very beautiful Aston Martin DB12 for a few hours and my first thought was whether to stare at it or drive it. It is, after all, one of the most beautiful cars that I have ever seen but the winter chill that Delhi finds itself in meant I strapped myself inside the car and pushed the lovely Aston Martin start button to wake up that V8. In one of the first cars to hit Indian roads, the Aston Martin DB12 is the latest from this British brand and is a mix of a supercar along with a GT. Aston Martin calls it a 'Super Tourer' and is one of the first new cars to hit the road with a more aggressive personality.
This is the new era of Aston Martin and I have to say that they have taken the styling game further. The DB12 is an evolution of the earlier DB11 but is now mixed with a supercar look. It is lower, wider and looks meaner but with the traditional Aston Martin beauty. It is gorgeous and in this shade, it stops traffic and gets a crowd in the middle of nowhere. Driving it is like tagging along with a Bollywood star at a movie premiere in terms of the attention it gets. As for me, the DB12 is not some uncomfortable supercar as it has good enough visibility while the cabin is decent in terms of practicality (rear seats are a bit cramped though). A big change for Aston Martin with the DB12 is with the new infotainment system which brings in a touchscreen but thankfully some of the crucial drive related functions are physical buttons. That said, some of the layout of the touchscreen needs to be sorted out and the dial info is a bit small.
However, I was too busy exploring what the twin-turbo V8 is all about. The DB12 only comes with this engine but with 670 bhp- it comfortably beats others in its class for performance and feels like it. It is properly fast but importantly is not some soul-less electric car as the noise that the DB12 makes is also music to your ears. The performance is very quick and it will do 0-100 km/h in 3.6 seconds while the top speed is a very illegal 300 km/h plus. I did not end up doing these speeds but did experience its crazy performance at an empty piece of road. What is new is that it is much more enjoyable but also has enough grip to actually use that performance despite not having all-wheel drive.
The DB12 is a big car and while you need to be careful while getting out of a 7-star hotel, it feels compact when driven hard along with the steering feeling agile too. We will say that it is a much more fun car than any other Aston Martin- a supercar, even, but without the drama. I did not encounter any uncomfortable scrapes over tackling any speed-breakers and it is fairly easy to drive in traffic.
The ride though is a bit firm but I like its aggressive nature while still being more comfortable than a hardcore supercar. Can you drive the DB12 everyday? Yes, provided you are ok with the attention it gets and you can even park it in your living room to admire it when you're not driving it.
At Rs 4.59 crore, the DB12 is an experience in itself and the most accomplished Aston Martin while being closer to a supercar but also being a reasonably comfortable GT. A mix of both the worlds and for our roads, it simply makes more sense than the usual supercars.
What we like- Looks, performance, quality, practicality, driving experience
What we do not like- Expensive, rear seats are cramped
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