Aston Martin Refines Its Exotic Family Car
4 min
The DBX, in base or 707 form, is certainly practical for everyday activities.
It’s a two-row SUV whose rear passengers enjoy plenty of legroom, separate climate controls, and heated seating. Although the carbon ceramic brakes are standard, lifestyle options include accessories for transporting pets and “event seating” to enjoy tailgate parties. The latter are amenities once seen only in the popular Range Rover—a car that now has a lot of competition.
“The average mileage driven in our SUVs is two to three times that of the sports cars we sell,” says Alex Long, a product and strategy executive at Aston Martin, which was presenting its upgraded 2025 DBX 707 in Edinburgh earlier this month. “It’s a huge ‘conquest’ car, meaning that three-quarters of the initial buyers were new to the brand. Previously they might have said, ‘I love Aston Martin, but the cars aren’t practical for me.’”
Jim Motavalli
The redesigned interior on the test car was a riot of red leather, even on the hand holds. Carbon fibre, in a process co-developed by Aston, is mostly decorative on the interior, though it’s employed for lightness in the tailgate and tailgate surround. The car lacks a head-up display, but it has just about every other modern amenity, including Apple CarPlay and an (optional) 23-speaker, 1,600-watt Bowers & Wilkins sound system that is new in the 2025 model. There is a 12.3-inch instrument cluster and a 10.25-inch central display. The bottom line for the 707 is US$249,000, putting it considerably below Rolls-Royce Cullinan territory (that one starts at US$392,000). Deliveries began in the second quarter of this year.
Aston Martin photo
The power comes from a four-litre, twin-turbo V8 obtained from Mercedes-AMG. The output is 697 horsepower and 663 pound-feet of torque, shifted by an also-Mercedes-derived nine-speed wet-clutch automatic. The bulk of the time you’re in rear-wheel drive, but power is directed to the front axle as needed, and the DBX is a capable off-road performer. Americans will also want to know that despite being derived from a long line of two-seat sports cars, the DBX can haul nearly 6,000 pounds.
Big V8s can move a lot of weight, and despite its 4,949 pounds the DBX 707 can reach 60 miles per hour in 3.1 seconds and attain 193 mph.
More than half of Aston’s current sales are of the DBX SUV, and even in Scotland—where the small car used to reign supreme—it’s apparent that the SUV is taking over the roads, Long says. North America is Aston’s biggest market, accounting for 35% of sales.
Jim Motavalli photo
The DBX was launched in 2020 and the upmarket 707 in 2022. The platform is not used on any other car. Andy Tokley, chief engineer for the DBX, says the chassis layout of the refreshed model has been modestly redefined for better passenger comfort. There’s ample rear legroom, and fully adaptive shock absorbers, air suspension, and active roll bars deliver a smooth ride. But not too smooth. The tweaks to the DBX included exhaust note tuning so that passengers hear more of that distinctive V8 rumble, Tokley says.
The DBX could be seen as Aston Martin’s best bet for an electric drivetrain, although the company is actively working with American brand Lucid on EVs and plans are somewhat delayed. Aston was to have launched an EV in 2025 but chairman Lawrence Stroll recently told Autocar that “consumer demand is not what we thought it was two years ago.” Four EVs have reportedly been designed, but it will likely be at least 2026 before we see one of them.
Jim Motavalli
Aston Martin’s portfolio includes accessible, almost mainstream, models like the DBX and exotics like the US$3 million Valkyrie supercar, of which 150 coupes and 85 Spyders have so far been built. Only 40 are left to be constructed. And in addition to the cars, well, there’s real estate. In the wake of Porsche and Bentley, the company developed the Aston Martin Residences in Miami, which had its grand opening in April.
By that time, 99% of the 391 luxury condominiums, located where the Miami River meets Biscayne Bay, had already been sold. But the US$59 million triplex penthouse with 27,191 square feet of living space is available, an Aston spokeswoman says. The 66-storey building is constantly reminding occupants of the Aston brand, whose cues adorn door handles, room number signs, and door tabs.
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At least for people who carry the APOE4 genetic variant, a juicy steak could keep the brain healthy.
3 min
Must even steak be politicised? The American Heart Association recently recommended eating more “plant-based” protein in a move to counter the Health and Human Services Department’s new guidelines calling for more red meat.
Few would argue that eating a Big Mac a day is good for you.
On the other hand, growing evidence, including a study last month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that eating more meat—particularly unprocessed red meat—can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s in the quarter or so of people with a particular genetic predisposition.
The APOE4 gene variant is one of the biggest risk factors for Alzheimer’s.
You inherit one copy of the APOE gene from each parent. The most common variant is APOE3; the least is APOE2.
The latter carries a lower risk of Alzheimer’s, while the former is neutral. A quarter of people carry one copy of the APOE4 variant, and about 2% carry two.
APOE4 is more common among people with Northern European and African ancestry. In Europe the variant increases with latitude, and is present in as many as 27% of people in northern countries versus 4% in southern ones. God smiled on the Italians and Greeks.
For unknown reasons, the APOE4 variant increases the risk of Alzheimer’s far more for women than men.
Women’s risk multiplies roughly fourfold if they have one copy and tenfold if they have two. Men with a single copy show little if any higher risk, while those with two face four times the risk.
What makes APOE4 so pernicious? Scientists don’t know exactly, but the variant is also associated with higher cholesterol levels—even among thin people who eat healthily.
Scientists have found that cholesterol builds up in brain cells of APOE4 carriers, which can disrupt communications between neurons and generate amyloid plaque, an Alzheimer’s hallmark.
The Heart Association’s recommendation to eat less red meat may be sound advice for people with high cholesterol caused by indulgent diets.
But a diet high in red meat may be better for the brains of APOE4 carriers.
In the JAMA study, researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute examined how diet, particularly meat consumption, affects dementia risk among seniors with the different APOE variants.
Higher consumption of meat, especially unprocessed red meat, was associated with significantly lower dementia risk for APOE4 carriers.
APOE4 carriers who consumed the most meat—the equivalent of 4.5 ounces a day—were no more likely to develop dementia than noncarriers. (
The study controlled for other variables that are known to affect Alzheimer’s risk including sex, age, physical activity, smoking, alcohol consumption and education.)
APOE4 carriers who ate the most unprocessed meat were at significantly lower risk of dying over the study’s 15-year period and had lower cholesterol than carriers who ate less. Go figure. Noncarriers, however, didn’tenjoy similar benefits from eating more red meat.
The study’s findings are consistent with two large U.K. studies.
One found that each additional 50 grams of red meat (equivalent to half a hamburger patty) that an APOE4 carrier consumed each day was associated with a 36% reduced risk of dementia.
The other found that older women who carried the APOE4 variant and consumed at least one serving a day of unprocessed red meat had a cognitive advantage over carriers who ate less than half a serving, and that this advantage was of roughly equal magnitude to the cognitive disadvantage observed among APOE4 carriers in general.
In all three studies, eating more red meat appeared to negate the increased genetic risk of APOE4.
Perhaps one reason men with the variant are at lower Alzheimer’s risk than women is that men eat more red meat.
These findings might cause chagrin to women who rag their husbands about ordering the rib-eye instead of the heart-healthy salmon.
But remember, the cognitive benefits of eating more red meat appear isolated to APOE4 carriers.
Nutrition is complicated, and categorical recommendations—other than perhaps to avoid nutritionally devoid foods—would best be avoided by governments and health bodies.
Readers can order an at-home test from any number of companies to screen for the APOE4 variant.
The Swedish researchers hypothesize that APOE4 carriers may be evolutionarily adapted to carnivorous diets, since the variant is believed to have emerged between one million and six million years ago during a “hypercarnivorous” period in human history.
The other two APOE variants originated more recently, during eras when humans ate more plants.
APOE4 carriers may absorb more nutrients from meat than plants, the researchers surmise. Vitamin B12—low levels have been associated with cognitive decline—isn’t naturally present in plant-based foods but is abundant in red meat.
Foods high in phytates (such as grains and beans) can interfere with absorption of zinc and iron (also high in red meat), which naturally declines with age. So maybe don’t chuck your steak yet.
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