Aston Martin Vanquish Volante review

This is a new generation of Aston Martin that we’re talking about, so interior quality is vastly improved even when compared with the old DBS Superleggera.

You still get plenty of lovely physical buttons and switchgear, but the first thing you’ll notice are the two 10.25in screens. Now, we tried the Vanquish Volante with the new Apple CarPlay Ultra that takes over both the central infotainment screen and the dial display. Aston is very proud of the fact that it’s the first carmaker to pair with Apple to offer the setup, and in our experience it all worked reasonably smoothly and only dropped its wireless connection on one occasion.

However, while it’s nice not having to leave CarPlay to perform basic functions like switching off lane-assist systems, it doesn’t feel particularly special when you’re using the everyday menus, toggles and buttons from your phone to control your circa £350k Super GT. We like Aston’s current infotainment system (even more so since they made some of the text larger) and we’d probably avoid CarPlay Ultra if we owned a Vanquish.

What about the rest of the interior?

Well, the seating position is excellent even for those over six-foot. You get a fantastic view out over that long bonnet but remain tucked under the top of the windscreen so it’s not too blowy. With the wind deflector in place, you can easily have a conversation with your passenger at decent speeds, and with the roof up the Volante is remarkably refined. Supportive sports seats are standard fit, but you can spec a carbon fibre ‘performance seat’ as an option too.

Behind the two seats (the coupe is now a strict two-seater too, remember) is a rear cross brace, underneath which is a couple of neat storage shelves and a giant subwoofer for the excellent Bowers & Wilkins stereo.

There’s a huge amount of leather inside too and plush carpets, and while you can have lots of carbon fibre on the dash and centre console, we must also make you aware that you can still spec light ash or dark walnut wood trim. This is a big V12 Aston – get the wood.

Anything else I need to know?

Here’s a welcome feature that Aston wants you to know about: you can now set up custom settings for the mandatory driver assistance systems, so with one tap of the lane keep assist button on the centre console you can turn off said lane assist and the speed limit warning.

Going away for the weekend? Of course you are. The coupe's boot was already weedy and going convertible has done it no favours: there's just 219 litres of space to play with back there. You'll want soft bags instead of suitcases, then.