The verdict: Stunning to look at, rewarding to drive and rarer than most of its competitors, the revised 2025 Aston Martin DBX707 is a pricey but worthy ultra-luxury SUV.
Versus the competition: The DBX707 easily holds its own against competitors like the Lamborghini Urus and Mercedes-AMG GLE63 in terms of performance and exclusivity, but it does exhibit some usability quirks that come with a boutique manufacturer.
The Aston Martin DBX SUV debuted for 2021 as both the company’s first five-seat passenger vehicle and its first SUV. For 2025, it’s received its first big refresh and now sports a new interior, a new multimedia system and an upgraded engine. But as you must ask with any vehicle like this from an exotic manufacturer (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Rolls-Royce and Bentley), does an Aston Martin SUV really make sense? Or is it just a cash-grab for a company otherwise reliant on a segment — specialty sports cars — that just isn’t as popular today as it once was? Or can it be both?
Well, given the success these brands have had with this idea thus far (look at Porsche), we’re pretty sure it can be both. And after some time in the significantly updated 2025 Aston Martin DBX707, we’re pretty sure the formula that’s cooked up some solid profits and development money for so many other small-volume exotic carmakers works just fine here, too.
Related: 2025 Aston Martin DBX: Fully Committed to 707, Freshened Interior
Would You Look if It Wasn’t That Color?
Let’s get this out of the way right from the start: Our 2025 test vehicle is a color Aston Martin calls Photon Lime Metallic, and that’s the perfect name for it. From some angles, in certain light, it’s lime green. From other angles, in different light, it’s lemon yellow. Either way, it’s stunning from every angle; pictures don’t do it justice. In direct sunlight, it’s positively fluorescent; it radiates like that thing Homer drops in the opening credits of “The Simpsons,” and I absolutely do not hate it. It turns heads in a way a $13K paint job should (and yes, you read that correctly, this paint is a $13,600 option). It’s a flawless paint job — no orange peel, no rippling. This Aston Martin is properly painted, and it’s refreshing to see.
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The rest of the styling is also properly Aston Martin: This is one of the best executions I’ve seen of adapting a company’s coupe styling aesthetic to a large SUV. The proportions are correct from tip to tail. The grille — the largest one Aston has ever fitted to a vehicle — looks fantastic. The optional 23-inch wheels are dramatic and imposing. The only thing I might forgo is the silly carbon-fiber trim; all carbon fiber does is proclaim you spent money on a useless decoration. It doesn’t make the DBX707 any lighter, it just makes it more expensive — in this model’s case, $35,000 more expensive. And no, that isn’t a typo, either: This Aston Martin SUV has $35,800 in carbon-fiber trim options inside and out, and that’s just daft.
Under the Hood: Why 707?
Aston Martin made some updates to the DBX’s powertrain for the 2025 model year, upgrading all versions to the 707 designation that previously denoted a higher-performance trim level. Under the nuclear-citrus hood of our test car was a Mercedes-Benz-derived, twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 that’s been heavily massaged by the Aston Martin folks, with new turbochargers and other parts that help it produce 697 horsepower and 664 pounds-feet of torque. But wait a minute — why, then, is it called the DBX707? Well, 707 is the engine’s output in the continental European measure of horsepower, called “PS” or “Pferdestarke,” which is German for horsepower. But because it’s metric horsepower, the number is 1.4% higher than the freedom-unit horsepower we use here in ‘Murica.
The DBX’s new, boosted V-8 is mated to a modified Mercedes-Benz nine-speed wet-clutch automatic transmission that drives all four wheels. An electronic limited-slip rear differential keeps things stable and helps put all that power to the pavement.
The DBX’s chassis and body construction is unique, as well; the whole thing is made out of bonded-aluminum extrusions and composites to keep weight down. There are quad exhaust tips out back, wrapped in a carbon-fiber lower valence, and carbon-ceramic brake discs sit at each wheel. The DBX707 isn’t built like a rugged off-road SUV; it’s built like one of Aston Martin’s glorious grand-touring coupes. Aston Martin says it’s all good for a 0-60 mph run of 3.1 seconds and a top speed of 193 mph. That puts it in direct competition with the Lamborghini Urus and Ferrari’s Purosangue; it provides a sportier experience than, say, a Bentley Bentayga or Rolls-Royce Cullinan, and it delivers more exclusivity than a Mercedes-AMG GLE63 or BMW X5 M. (For nearly twice the price, mind you.)
How It Works
The DBX707 doesn’t drive like a typical SUV; it feels more like a tall wagon version of an Aston Martin coupe. Steering is firm, with some heft, and provides excellent feedback. Power from the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 engine is immense, but we’re not entirely thrilled with the nine-speed automatic. It feels tuned for calmer, lazier responses, so any stab at the go-pedal — even in Sport mode — results in a half-a-tick wait while the computers decide what to do. It occasionally gets a little confused, too; letting off the gas quickly, for example, can lead to some driveline lash.
Once you start driving aggressively, though, the DBX707 responds beautifully. It’s easily as engaging as its competitors, but in the grand-touring style of luxurious vehicles. It’s quick, but it doesn’t beat you up even in Sport mode, and the ride and handling balance prioritizes comfort over sharpness, which is really what you want in an SUV. Despite its equipment, this isn’t a track monster; it’s meant for powerful, sophisticated street-motoring duty — and, let’s be honest here, to be seen in. Nobody paints a car this color not to be seen in it.
Just like the experience of operating the multimedia system (more on that in a moment), however, the experience of driving this beast is not without its quirks, most of which have to do with the fact that the DBX is largely engineered for foreign markets. What does that mean? Well, take its advanced driver-assist systems. They’re designed for the U.K. market, which means it includes a feature that reads speed-limit signs and beeps at you if you exceed the posted limit. Every time. You can turn it off, but it doesn’t stay turned off — you have to turn it off every time you start the engine. Same with every other safety system, including a too-sensitive lane departure steering assist feature that’s always buzzing at you. An Aston Martin representative told us they’re working on a software release (hopefully coming in late 2024) that will make “off” the default setting for this speed-limit annoyance. Let’s hope that’s happening, because it is annoying to the point of being a deal breaker — if the sticker price hasn’t already put you off, that is.
Oh, and California-dwelling readers? Your state is currently considering legislation to make speed-limit systems like this required in new cars sold in the state by 2030. Write your congressperson now, because you do not want this — you seriously don’t.
A Beautiful Interior
Aston Martin made a lot of changes to this SUV’s interior for 2025, mostly having to do with the electronics. Just like the powertrain, some of the DBX707’s electronics are borrowed from Mercedes-Benz, but it’s a lot less obvious now than it was in the previous version of the car. Only a few switches really give it away now, including an awful touch-sensitive thumb square on the steering wheel. There’s a new 10.25-inch touchscreen front and center, which honestly feels a little small these days, but we don’t mind it because it means Aston Martin hasn’t given in to the generally German trend of “technology equals luxury;” it still sees screens as visual control aids, not design elements. A 12.3-inch digital dash display gets new graphics, as well; it’s reasonably reconfigurable, the graphics are big and easy to read, and it looks good.
The artistry of the DBX’s interior really grabs you. It’s comfortable, yes, but so much care went into the shapes on the dash, the deep-blue “Dark Knight” leather upholstery with lime-green piping, and the stitching on the seats and doors. The materials throughout the interior are incredible, including metal speaker grilles for the Bowers & Wilkins audio system. It’s all just stunning to behold. There’s also plenty of room up front and in the backseat, despite a bit of a transmission hump in the center of the rear footwell.
But as nice as it is, it’s not perfect. The new multimedia system is better than the last one, which was clearly just a reskin of the old Mercedes-Benz Comand system, but there are still some quirks with the electronics. The multimedia home screen information display, for one, is tiny, in spite of all the screen real estate Aston Martin had to work with. Why is it just a little square of hard-to-read information surrounded by dead space? And maybe I’m just quibbling, but you try changing satellite radio channels using that awful Mercedes-sourced thumb-square — every time you want to change the channel, it starts at the beginning of the list, not where you are on the station roster. If you’re on channel 36 and want to go to channel 40, you have to scroll, scroll, scroll all the way from channel 1, every time. It’s little things like this that show the new electronics could have used a little more development and testing before their rollout.
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Sticker Shock
So what price does this kind of posh, sophisticated, luxurious and unique driving experience command? The DBX707 starts just north of $250,000 and can very easily be optioned up to the level of my test car, which stickered at $350,500. That’s right, the 2025 DBX707 I drove had $100,000 in options, including crazy stuff like a $12,300 Bowers & Wilkins audio system, the previously mentioned $35K+ for carbon-fiber trim and the (admittedly lovely) $13,600 paint job. Of course, you can just as easily option up its competitors in the same way, so it’s not out of line for what you’re getting here.
Is it worth it? Well, the exclusivity of the Aston Martin DBX707 suggests it is. Aston Martin only sells about 3,000 of these a year, so it’s highly unlikely you’ll see another one at the country club or valet stand. It certainly makes a statement; fun-to-drive and beautifully sculpted, it’s a worthy addition to a garage that maybe already has an Aston Martin sports car inside, but is now in need of some family-hauling capability. Is it going to make you look and feel like a super spy when you roll up to the Burger King drive-thru? No, but it’s still going to make you feel special.
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