I got a call last week from my buddies at Aston Martin to come by and check out the DB11. So Saturday morning my wife, Honey, and I stopped by to see what the second centenary car was all about in person.


My first impression is that the car is definitely better looking in person than all the photos. This was the actually the Geneva introductory car that everyone has seen in photos before. It is painted in a beautiful Saffron Orange (which is more like an pearlescent, metallic orange). This truly is a stunning color, but I actually think it would be better suited for a Vantage. In my opinion, the DB11 is better suited for one of the myriad of beautiful (albeit "boring") gray paint jobs available. It just seems to suit the car's character, class and sophisticated looks more.


The interior is very nice and roomy. Interestingly, the fact that the tech is now on par with most luxury cars makes it feel a tad more common, if that makes any sense. Being that this is the original show car, it has had a bit of a rough life and the interior reflects that. I often think that demo models, like the display mobile phones at your local Best Buy, are a means of accelerated wear and, thus, a good predictor of weak spots in a design. As such, a few items inside had suffered from pre-mature ageing including the plastic center console open/close switch, The driver seat adjustment panel and the subwoofer cover between the seats, and the bonnet release (actually a pair of wire cable loops). Hopefully, Aston will take note of these.


The center armrest storage is rather large and deep, but it was hard to gauge its full size since the lid was stuck about 1/3 of the way open and the broken switch prevented me from opening it further. Notwithstanding, I still can't comprehend why the car does not have a proper glovebox. Is there really that much stuff concealed behind the passenger knee bolster? You would think that criticism of the previous glovebox that could barely fit the car's owner's manual would have resulted in a larger one being put in the next generation; but you would be wrong. The solution, it seems, was to remove it altogether.


The other thing that struck me as really odd was the rain sensor on the windshield. It sits below and to the right of the rear-view mirror (in LHD cars) such that it isn't visible from the driver side. However, the large, oddly-shaped black plastic box is in plain view of the passenger and is connected via a plastic "tunnel" to another large plastic box in the center next to the header rail. Hopefully this doesn't make it into the final production car because it is just flat-out ugly.


The other elements of the car you have seen in a ton of photos and reviews so I won't bore you with them. Overall, I think it is a stunning car and it should do very well in the market. In my conversations, it was revealed that the new Vantage replacement will be even more of a stunner, but I'm not allowed to say more than that.


I’m sure you have already seen plenty of pictures of this particular DB11 on the interwebs, so I'm only including one with Honey posing beside it because, honestly, who would rather see me in a photo than her?


Enjoy. J

 

I was at the dealership getting my DB9 serviced at the same time. I remember seeing you there. Here are some more pics of the amazing next gen DB.

 

I agree that the DB11 looks better in real life than in many photos, and also that classic "Aston colors" flatter it more.
I think one of the reasons is that the curves of the car tend to distort more in photos that employed a wide-angle lens, resulting in slight bulges that just leave a vague feeling that something isn't quite right. And I think less dramatic colors hide the distortions a bit.
Here's a shot I took in Newport Pagnell back in May. Standing relatively close to the car forced me to use a wider-than-neutral setting on the lens, and that just leaves the DB11 looking a little less balanced than we're used to with AM products (the 6speedonline formatting is likely to distort it even more than in my photo).



I was pretty convinced that my DB9 has never been excelled in terms of elegance, but when I took an undistorted photo of the DB11 and placed it next to a same-scale, same-angle photo of mine, I was shocked at how clean and balanced the DB11 looked, and how my gorgeous DB9 actually looked a bit "heavy," particularly below the beltline.

 

I saw this same DB 11 in Carmel this past August. In person it is a very beautiful design from all angles.
Karl,
No Aston Martin is going to stand up to your wife, it is not a fair comparison. You are a lucky man.
Ron