2024 Aston Martin DBX707 Review: The Fast, Furious, Forever Car

There’s a problem with crossovers that even some luxury models can’t surmount. Their jack-of-all-trades compromise tends to gut them of any clear purpose. But they’re popular and profitable enough that even esteemed automakers like Aston Martin can’t overlook them as cash cows; status symbols for the undiscerning. The 2024 Aston Martin DBX707 didn’t have to be exceptional to turn a buck. And yet, Aston Martin made it that way anyway.

The DBX707 is simply a superb luxury SUV made better by a darling of a V8 and everything needed to balance it. There are few vehicles on the planet as pleasurable for boiling away miles as fast as you dare, whether you’re in the driver’s seat or a passenger. It’s the kind of car that you can earnestly see yourself living with for decades, to the point where people start to call it a classic. I think they will one day, despite its foibles.

There are predictable small-production problems, like instances of poor design, lapses in body build quality, and some aspects of the driving experience that aren’t especially well-calibrated. I don’t think the DBX looks especially good from most angles, either. But from behind the wheel, I don’t give a damn and neither would you, because there are no intrusive thoughts that 697 horsepower can’t banish.

Aston Martin’s first crossover, the midsize five-seat DBX, has already proven itself a remarkable tourer, so let’s instead hone in on that 707. It signifies the 707 ps (or 697 hp) of its retuned 4.0-liter AMG V8, now with more responsive ball-bearing twin turbochargers that add 155 hp and 148 lb-ft of torque, for a total of 663 lb-ft. Both travel through a new wet clutch (instead of the regular DBX’s torque converter) to a nine-speed automatic transmission with a shortened final drive for quicker acceleration and an E-LSD rear axle that can take 100% of the torque. Together, they drag the 0-to-62-mph time down from 4.5 to 3.3 seconds and elevate the top speed from 181 mph to 193.

Naturally, Aston upgrades the rest of the chassis to match, starting with enormous carbon-ceramic brakes. An altered booster and hydraulics squeeze the six-piston front calipers and four-piston rear on 16.5-inch and