According the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census almost 1.4 million women in Australia do more than 30 hours of unpaid work each week. This is despite the fact that since mid-2017 there has been stronger growth for women in full-time employment compared to part time employment and the large dip of women’s workforce participation during typical child-bearing years (late 20s to early 40s) has become less noticeable.
This dip reduction has been attributed to women being less likely to have children, or having fewer children, resulting in less (or no) time out of the workforce for childrearing. But I have another theory to explain it, the tendency for working mums to be ‘doing it all’. Raising children like we don’t have a job/career and working like we don’t have children, modern mums are next level secret service agents; Double O Mums!
A Double O Mum requires a vehicle that will cater for all of her needs, ferrying the children to and from various activities, shopping, the commute, and weekend adventures. This vehicle also needs to have a good stereo for when you just have to turn up the music and have a good cry, because doing it all is tough and we all need to acknowledge that, and one such vehicle that is up for this mission is the Aston Martin DBX.
As the leader of your family operations and driver of the DBX your operating environment is crucial and here the DBX excels. To start with you are surrounded with divine smelling leather on the dash, door trims, steering wheel and seats, with black Alcantara trim on the roof. To keep you warm or cool under pressure the front seats have heating and ventilation, the former works well, but the latter wasn’t as good and a bit noisy when in use. The beautifully comfortable front seats have power adjustment for recline, forward/back, seat cushion height front and rear, 2-way lumbar and three memory positions to save that perfect driving position once you find it.
The cabin is quiet and a couple of the interior details I particularly liked were the shape of the door handles, the glove box release button and the fixed panoramic sunroof. Every Secret Agent needs a tidy workspace and the DBX cabin obliges with two cup holders with grippy sides, a key slot holder at the front of the centre console, reasonable sized drink bottle storage in the front door cubbies and a large storage ledge under the centre console.
The infotainment screen in the DBX is not a touchscreen, so no messy finger marks on it, and you direct it using the rotary controller with your palm resting on the lux leather pad. Or you can use voice control, which is activated by pressing the button on the steering wheel with the microphone on it, but I found the voice control only worked well for making phone calls.
From a technology point of view, the DBX has Apple CarPlay only and to connect and charge your phone there are two USB ports, one 12V and an SD card under the arm rest. The Aston Martin Premium Audio system will do the job when you need that aforementioned good cry with the media sources available being AM radio, FM/DAB, Bluetooth, USB or memory card.
The rear seats in this DBX are just as well appointed as those in the front with heating and cooling plus multiple rear air vents located centrally and in the B pillars. Rear passengers have digital temperature and air speed controls and below these there are two USB ports. There is ample head and leg room for two adults to comfortably sit in the rear seats and the centre seat can be folded down as an arm rest with grippy cup holders in the front of it and drink bottle storage in the door cubbies for slim bottles. For your junior agents there are two ISOFIX/three rear tether child seat restraint points, but only enough room for two car seats to be installed due to the seat width.
Walking towards the DBX with an arm full of shopping bags is no problem. This SUV has gesture open and close for the tailgate, so simply swipe your foot and the tailgate opens as if by magic. You can also open/close using the button under the tailgate, on the key fob or in the cabin, where it is located under the centre console near the storage ledge.
The DBX can be raised and lowered from a button in the boot to make it easier to lift items into the boot, which is large enough for the weekly shop or a pram and the small shop. If extra space is needed the 40:20:40 split fold rear seats can be folded down from the boot. There are four tie down points plus rails on the boot floor, two lights, one 12V outlet and a space saver spare tyre under the boot floor. The rigid leather cargo cover is beautiful to look at, but a little impractical as it doesn’t retract and although you can lift it up there is no way to secure it there.
Safety of course is high on the list of priorities when you are a Double O Mum and the DBX comes with many Active Drive Assistance features. These include Auto Emergency Braking, blind spot warning including lane change warning, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, rear cross traffic detection and adaptive cruise control (ACC). A small detail that made me smile was when I adjusted the distance between vehicles using the ACC the vehicles used on the driver’s dash display were DB5s.
The Aston Martin DBX has no ANCAP safety rating, but does come with airbags for the driver, front passenger and knee, front thorax and side curtains and rear thorax airbags (not UK / EU / South Africa). You also get auto lights, auto wipers and a 360o view reversing camera with 360o parking sensors in addition to a standard rear/front view camera.
The DBX is perfect for an undercover secret agent, its elegant exterior design conceals the potency you have available at the squeeze of the accelerator. The all-wheel drive DBX is powered by a Mercedes-AMG sourced 4.0 litre, bi-turbo V8 engine with 405kW of power and a whopping 700Nm of torque. The V8 engine has plenty of get up and go with impressive aural indications of speed as you accelerate the DBX from 0-100km/h in 4.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 292km/h, if you ever find yourself in a high-speed chase on an autobahn. If you feel the standard DBX is not quick enough then I suggest you look at the DBX707, which will cover the 0-100km/h sprint in a blistering time of 3.3 seconds! Keep an eye out for my review of the DBX707 in the coming months.
The nine-speed automatic gearbox can be ‘manually’ controlled using the large column mounted metal paddle shifters and my tendency for aggressive gear changes meant I used 16.2L/100km of Premium Unleaded Petrol for my time with the DBX, while the official combined fuel economy is 12.4L/100km.
The DBX has a drive mode for every situation you will find yourself in, from comfortable every day driving in GT mode or if you are need a bit more responsiveness from the DBX, then Sport or Sport+ will be required, but just be careful in Sport+ the ESC (traction control) is turned off. You also get Individual mode that allows the driver to adjust the suspension, steering, drive and exhaust system to their personal preference. The digital driver’s dash changes its look depending on the drive mode selected, like a Double O Mum who goes from the school run to black tie at the pull of a hair band, and the central display can be configured depending on the info you require.
I did say the DBX has you covered in EVERY situation because this luxury SUV is not afraid of getting its 22-inch gloss black wheels dirty. Off-road drive modes available of the DBX include Terrain and Terrain+ and you can also manually raise and lower the DBX from buttons on the centre console. I had the opportunity to test the DBX off-road some time ago and I was immensely impressed by what it could do on standard road tyres!
All new Aston Martin vehicles come with a three-year unlimited kilometre and an extended warranty can also be purchased. The service interval for Astons is every 12 months or 16,000km whichever occurs first and a major service is completed every four years.
In all seriousness though being a modern mum is tough, so the vehicle you drive needs to be one less thing to be concerned about and I think Aston Martin DBX is the right blend of luxury, sportiness and practicality for the Double O Mum.
The Aston Martin DBX is priced from $374,698 plus on-road costs and this particular Lightning Silver DBX has a number of optional extras fitted. You can design your DBX using the online configurator or visit your preferred Aston Martin dealer for more information.
| Pros | Cons |
| Luxury appointments for front and rear passengers | Voice control not up to standard |
| The entertaining V8 engine | Rigid cargo cover |
| Surprising off-road capabilities | No ANCAP safety rating |
Photographs by Driven Women Magazine.