Road Trip Like James Bond in Aston Martin’s DB12

Aston Martin has been celebrating its 110th anniversary throughout this year. With more than a century under its very expensive belt, you’d think the automaker would’ve already served all of the luxury model types. Still, the experts out of Gaydon, England, managed to coin a first for the company this summer.

The DB12, which has a base price of US248,000, will arrive on the scene christened as not only Aston Martin’s but the world’s first “super tourer,” what the company defines as an elite, immaculately styled powerhouse built for long leisurely drives. While the DB line is recognised for its sophisticated, mature lines, the Super Tourer label stamped on the DB12 puts the focus on the interior cockpit surrounding its front seats with all of the essential luxury appointments.

While there is a back seat in a modern DB model, it’s there more or less for appearances and to make insurers happier. You might be able to fit a ventriloquist’s doll back there, but that’s about it. Practically speaking, this is an ultra-luxury two-seater. Inside the cabin wrapping around the snug, contoured leather seats, the owner finds the interior focused on the driving experience.

The infotainment screen is lowered and out of the driver’s direct eye line. The HUD is clean and centred for the operator’s frequent checks. The adjustable steering wheel offers oversize paddle shifters for confident flicks, and the gauge cluster is tightly arranged as it would be for a track car. Meanwhile, a new Bowers & Wilkins 15-speaker stereo system combined with impressive soundproofing keeps your music inside and the clumsy noises of a rude outside world at bay.

The adjustable steering wheel offers oversize paddle shifters for confident flicks. Aston Martin

The car’s DB9 or DB11 predecessors were just as pretty and equally capable, but neither earned that super tourer title. According to Simon Newton, Aston Martin’s director of vehicle performance, buyers drove that evolution toward this new identity.

“The market and brand expectation are for elevated performance in addition to refinement,” Newton says. “There’s keen interest in more extreme duality of purpose, such as increasing the breadth of capability whilst preserving the grand-touring character.”

The DB12 must offer supercar performance with its indulgent comfort. Newton insists his team met those expectations by focusing on refinement when the car is on the move to overcome the pavements imperfections—while keeping the feel of driving intact.

“The car needed to exude more dynamic capabilities,” he explains. “Our philosophy was to have a structurally stiffer chassis, which would help with comfort and dynamics, then tune the suspension for additional comfort with systems capable of controlling the body in sportier driving. Every control should be predictable and easy to use. Linearity of response, including steering, braking, and throttle, was key to making a refined car easy to drive fast.”

The DB12 can’t help but drive fast with an all-new, 671-horsepower V8 engine. The car builder informs the world it’ll do 0-60 mph in a tick north of 3 seconds and top out around 202 mph. While the car keeps its voice down while idling or cruising, it lets loose a roar when the driver puts a toe down to pass mere mortals along the roadways.

Those performance numbers should put gearheads at ease if they worried about Aston Martin thrills fading away with the company phasing out its largest engines in favour of more efficient V8 units. The V12 is headed into the sunset, but Aston Martin’s in-house tuned eight cylinders achieve power and acceleration in line with previous, heavier engines.

“The high-performance V8 engines are engineered to give the best balance of response, power, torque, and efficiency for any given Aston Martin platform,” Newton explains. “A V8 engine is more efficient and allows for flexibility to match powertrain characteristics to the product.”

The DB12’s engineers employ up-to-date turbocharger technology to achieve V12 power with less weight and more immediate response.

“With our expertise surrounding V8 engines, we are able to engineer the very best combinations of turbochargers, inlets, compression ratios, and camshafts, along with in-house engine calibration, for each and every application,” Newton adds.

With the power more than ample and readily on demand, Newton’s department needed to restrain it when the vehicle was in comfort travel mode over hill and dale.

“Some technologies were a prerequisite for performance, such as the tires and an advanced ESP [Environmental Response System],” he says. “We also invested in technologies which helped define the dual character of the DB12. For example, the dampers and suspension have a greater range of performance, allowing for comfort but also immediate control of reactive, powerful damping when needed for dynamic driving.”

A well-chosen test run through the hills above Monaco put the DB12’s dynamic capabilities to the test around hairpins and past lesser cars stubbornly unwilling to clear the way. Even the occasional glut of well-heeled traffic served a purpose—confirming the cabin seating ergonomics would cozily stand up to long-haul transport.

Any weaknesses remain mere quibbles. The centre console infotainment screen is small for cars at this technological level. However, the engineers at Aston Martin want very little to distract from the driving experience. The satellite navigation is touchy, but the DB12 has the ability to update its onboard software automatically, and Aston Martin should have those wrinkles well ironed out by the time the car heads out to its first buyers.

The designers here kept many of DB11’s lines and flair intact, while lowering the car’s profile and smoothing out the bonnet and haunches. Aston Martin

Finally, Penta’s test vehicle lacked a massage seat option. Admittedly, that would add weight to the machine, but it’s a feature that’s fair to expect in a grand touring, US$200,000-plus ride.

None of those minor complaints detract from the car’s beauty. The designers here kept many of DB11’s lines and flair intact, while lowering the car’s profile and smoothing out the bonnet and haunches. The final effect is unmistakable and eye-capturing.

Like its supercar and hyper-luxury competitors, Aston Martin will lean into hybrids and complete electrification in the near future. Though the automaker recently put its legendary V12 engines to rest, it must please driving enthusiasts everywhere to know that the V8 lives on in the DB12.

Berkshire began liquidating its big stake in the banking company in mid-July—and has already unloaded about 15% of its interest. The selling has been fairly aggressive and has totaled about $6 billion. (Berkshire still holds 883 million shares, an 11.3% interest worth $35 billion based on its most recent filing on Aug. 30.)

The selling has prompted speculation about when CEO Warren Buffett, who oversees Berkshire’s $300 billion equity portfolio, will stop. The sales have depressed Bank of America stock, which has underperformed peers since Berkshire began its sell program. The stock closed down 0.9% Thursday at $40.14.

It’s possible that Berkshire will stop selling when the stake drops to 700 million shares. Taxes and history would be the reasons why.

Berkshire accumulated its Bank of America stake in two stages—and at vastly different prices. Berkshire’s initial stake came in 2017 , when it swapped $5 billion of Bank of America preferred stock for 700 million shares of common stock via warrants it received as part of the original preferred investment in 2011.

Berkshire got a sweet deal in that 2011 transaction. At the time, Bank of America was looking for a Buffett imprimatur—and the bank’s stock price was weak and under $10 a share.

Berkshire paid about $7 a share for that initial stake of 700 million common shares. The rest of the Berkshire stake, more than 300 million shares, was mostly purchased in 2018 at around $30 a share.

With Bank of America stock currently trading around $40, Berkshire faces a high tax burden from selling shares from the original stake of 700 million shares, given the low cost basis, and a much lighter tax hit from unloading the rest. Berkshire is subject to corporate taxes—an estimated 25% including local taxes—on gains on any sales of stock. The tax bite is stark.

Berkshire might own $2 to $3 a share in taxes on sales of high-cost stock and $8 a share on low-cost stock purchased for $7 a share.

New York tax expert Robert Willens says corporations, like individuals, can specify the particular lots when they sell stock with multiple cost levels.

“If stock is held in the custody of a broker, an adequate identification is made if the taxpayer specifies to the broker having custody of the stock the particular stock to be sold and, within a reasonable time thereafter, confirmation of such specification is set forth in a written document from the broker,” Willens told Barron’s in an email.

He assumes that Berkshire will identify the high-cost Bank of America stock for the recent sales to minimize its tax liability.

If sellers don’t specify, they generally are subject to “first in, first out,” or FIFO, accounting, meaning that the stock bought first would be subject to any tax on gains.

Buffett tends to be tax-averse—and that may prompt him to keep the original stake of 700 million shares. He could also mull any loyalty he may feel toward Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan , whom Buffett has praised in the past.

Another reason for Berkshire to hold Bank of America is that it’s the company’s only big equity holding among traditional banks after selling shares of U.S. Bancorp , Bank of New York Mellon , JPMorgan Chase , and Wells Fargo in recent years.

Buffett, however, often eliminates stock holdings after he begins selling them down, as he did with the other bank stocks. Berkshire does retain a smaller stake of about $3 billion in Citigroup.

There could be a new filing on sales of Bank of America stock by Berkshire on Thursday evening. It has been three business days since the last one.

Berkshire must file within two business days of any sales of Bank of America stock since it owns more than 10%. The conglomerate will need to get its stake under about 777 million shares, about 100 million below the current level, before it can avoid the two-day filing rule.

It should be said that taxes haven’t deterred Buffett from selling over half of Berkshire’s stake in Apple this year—an estimated $85 billion or more of stock. Barron’s has estimated that Berkshire may owe $15 billion on the bulk of the sales that occurred in the second quarter.

Berkshire now holds 400 million shares of Apple and Barron’s has argued that Buffett may be finished reducing the Apple stake at that round number, which is the same number of shares that Berkshire has held in Coca-Cola for more than two decades.

Buffett may like round numbers—and 700 million could be just the right figure for Bank of America.

Road Trip Like James Bond in Aston Martin’s DB12

When will Berkshire Hathaway stop selling Bank of America stock?