FIRST DRIVE： 671bhp Aston Martin DB12 Volante – World’s Most Beautiful New Car？

How many truly beautiful new cars can you buy right now? And I don't mean like strikingly incredible mad looking cars like a Lambo Revuelto or Pagani Utopia or even like you know clean handsome stuff like most Mazdas or Volvos. I mean genuinely knuckle-bitingly beautiful classically elegant cars. You see there's not as many as you think are there? And that means this the new £199,000 Aston Martin DB12 Volante from the rear three quarter angle especially might just be the most beautiful new car in the world. Anyway thanks for watching like and subscribe to Top Gear and goodbye. Okay we're not actually going to leave it there but don't you agree that the drop top DB12's most important job and the most important job of any super cabrio is just that to look stunning. What it's like to drive, how practical it might be or how well the roof works all play second fiddle because the most critical thing is for this to be a goddess among cars. And judging by the reaction from most people as I've trundled through Wales on my way here today I'd say job done Aston Martin. Yes obviously we're in Wales because as you can see we've now got the roof up and it's tipping it down with rain whereas the shots you're looking at from the outside of the car it was beautifully sunny about 10 minutes ago so we could put the roof down and the drone up so forgive the continuity but it does mean I've had plenty of seat time in the Volante with the roof on and off. So while I've been unable to have the wind in my hair I've been thinking more about that question at the top. How many truly beautiful new cars are there? I mean the Jaguar F-Type was once but I think they kind of spoiled it with that facelift and that new Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale is a bit of a miss for me. Ferrari Roma that's what the Roma is gorgeous apart from that grille. And speaking of spoiling the moment it seems a little bit vulgar to now start talking about horsepower and cylinders and reducing this car to stats and numbers. I mean you don't stand and look at York Minster and wonder what it costs to heat or retile the roof do you? You just think wow how did human beings create something that stunning? So we could just leave it at saying the DB12 Volante is more than fast enough and though it hasn't got the evocative note of the V12 yeah that AMG twin turbo V8 is you know a good engine to welcome into the cabin when you can put the roof down. You'll miss them with a good electric. If you're the sort of person who wonders what the Mona Lisa's bra size is then I can tell you that the DB12 Volante's four litre twin turbocharged V8 develops 671 brake horsepower and 590 foot-pounds of torque. It arrives at the back wheels only via an eight speed automatic gearbox which is a nice smooth cruiser but just delays the downshifts a fraction of a second too long when you're pulling on the paddles. It'll roar from 0 to 60 in 3.6 seconds and hit a top speed of 200. You're not even listening anymore are you? You're just gazing at that car in that scenery. Oi snap out of it because well I'm gonna puncture the mood a little bit here there are a few flaws in this cabin which is yes dramatically unrecognisably better than the one you got in the DB11 but there are some flaws specific to taking the roof off. I mean the text in some of this touchscreen is absolutely microscopic it's like a 200 mile an hour eye test in here. Then there's this centre console now yes Aston Martin if I could take my hands off the wheel right now I would applaud you for going with buttons and not hiding everything in the screen but please could you not make most of the buttons out of glossy piano black plastic because when the sun does eventually come out and I think we're going to get the roof down in a moment all those reflections beam into the cabin and you can't see what any of these do and the back lighting on the buttons isn't bright enough that you can even tell. I mean is the lane assist actually off? Is the traction control off? Am I in manual mode? I've no idea. Right I'm gonna risk it now you don't actually need to pull over to drop the roof in the DB12 you can do it up to 30 miles an hour but I just like turning around and watching it and seeing in the mirror all those motors and tensioners it's brilliant. There we go we've got a bong and we've got the roof off. Now the only reason I was doing that nitpicking a moment ago is because in almost every other respect this is a well thought out cabin for a soft top. I mean the simple fundamentals matter. The heater is it powerful enough? Oh yes absolutely it's like a furnace in there and because I've got physical knobs to turn the fan speed up and to muck about with the temperature it's just adjusted perfectly instantly and that matters. So does having very very powerful heated seats. These are much better than the ones in the Ferrari 812 GTS. There's some sensible consumer advice for you and it's got a really nice heated steering wheel. It doesn't have the kind of Mercedes patented air scarf thing you know that vent that sits in the headrest here and kind of coughs warm air down your spine but I just don't miss it. In fact I'd much rather be in here than in a Mercedes SL. I mean would you rather swan around in this cabin or in a Mercedes SL? Because to me this looks like a laptop surrounded by hair dryers. Whereas this is exquisite a 670 horsepower hair dryer but it has been you know well thought out well engineered for a soft top. The roof eight layers so it's very well insulated when you've got the top in place it cruises very quietly nice and cozy and like I said the roof mechanism will work in a 30 mile an hour headwind that allows you the opportunity to just get it up and down a little bit more often which yeah as you can see that's the name of the game in Britain and underneath the structure feels stiff it doesn't flop about you have to hit a pothole pretty hard before you notice any flex and yeah look it's 2024 convertibles shouldn't be flexing and flopping about especially not 200 grand ones but you know even an Aston Martin occasionally has dropped the ball on that sort of thing in the not too distant past so it's good to know that they're really getting on top of it they're really getting on top of everything that really feels like this company is actually going places and I know yes it's got a German engine in the front it's got Canadian billions behind it but the people who build this thing the people who set it up to drive with this perfect sweet spot between sort of Ferrari flightiness and agility and sort of Bentley suet pudding luxury they're all Brits and the people at the factory are Brits I've been there I've seen the passion that they put into stitching this sort of thing and into making the switch gear have the correct click and they've done a magnificent job and they've always had that passion but they've never quite had the funding they've always been kind of building the next car to save Aston Martin whereas now it's just so great to sit and talk to you whatever the weather and not have to think there's a buck coming at the end of this sentence you can just say this is a properly brilliant Aston Martin Volante and I don't have to say however obviously it's not perfect here's the rear leg room for instance there's still no button on the boot lid that I could find to actually open it and when the key finally does pop the boot lid the space inside is pathetic like pretty much all soft tops the visibility with the roof up is like wearing a balaclava back to front and personally I do miss the more melodic soundtrack of the old V12s even though losing all that weight from the nose has really helped out the handling and while it is still very beautiful was it just me who thought that the old DB11 was actually a little bit prettier at the front this is the thing about the Brits you see I don't think we are the grumpy nation some make us out to be I think we're a nation of optimists why else would we buy more cabriolets than any other country in Europe and that's why companies like Aston Martin engineer the roof to come down in 16 seconds or less because that may well be the length of the average British summer and you need to make the most of it