Aston Martin DB11 review

There are efficiency gains from the move to turbos, but you’ll need to drive like your grandma to hit the V12’s claimed 25mpg (or nearly 29mpg in the V8). But that’s missing the point – owning a big GT like this is about feeling special and the DB11 is brimming with sense of occasion.

On the right road it can turn in a virtuoso performance, but the rest of the time it swallows countries whole or isolates you from traffic jams and cracked-up surfaces on the commute. It is, whichever way you measure it, a sizeable step on from the DB9 it replaces.

The boot, however, is both small and oddly difficult to use. You have to crouch right down and lever things in carefully, and you'll have to use carefully chosen bags or cases if you're taking it on a long trip. There is an umbrella strapped into the boot, mind, so there are some concessions to practical life.

If we must talk money, then neither V8 nor V12 is a bargain. The former, at a whisker under £150,000, is the cheaper way into a DB11 by almost 30 grand, though in markets outside of the UK its 4.0-litre engine size will widen the gap far further. In the UK, Aston expects sales to split 50/50 between the two engines. The Volante convertible only comes with a V8, for now at least.