The $350,000-plus Aston Martin DBX sells out before anyone drives it

This brand new luxury SUV has been touted as Aston Martin’s savour and Aussies buyers have snapped them all up before anyone has even had the chance to drive one.

Aston Martin’s first SUV, the DBX, to be released in 2020. Picture: Aston Martin

Wealthy Australians can’t get enough of the new Aston Martin DBX.

The British brand has exhausted its initial allocation of its first SUV, selling out before any customers had a chance to drive the car.

Patrik Nilsson, regional director for Aston Martin says the car’s popularity is “beyond expectations”.

“We can safely say that we are sold out for this year in Australia and New Zealand,” he says.

“The job now is to get more allocation.”

That won’t be an easy task.

2020 Aston Martin DBX unveiling in Sydney.

Aston Martin is celebrating significant investment (£182m, or almost $350m) by a consortium led by Canada’s Lawrence Stroll, father of current Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll.

In an exclusive interview with Britain’s Autocar, Aston Martin chief executive Andy Palmer says his company must follow Ferrari’s model by making sure demand for new models exceeds supply.

As Palmer puts it, to “reduce our stock and start operating properly”.

Prior to Stroll’s investment, the DBX was touted as a make-or-break moment for the brand. There’s less pressure on the car today.

The DBX is sold out in Australia before anyone has even driven it.

Priced from $357,000 plus on-road costs, the Aston martin DBX shapes up as a rival to the likes of the Porsche Cayenne, Bentley Bentayga and Lamborghini Urus.

Power comes from a twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 with 405kW and 700Nm, enough to reach too km/h in 4.5 seconds.

That’s the same Mercedes-AMG sourced engine found in Aston Martin’s Vantage coupe, as well as Mercedes’ own line of performance cars (such as the popular C63 S).

Rivals from Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini all share their underpinnings with the cheaper Volkswagen Touareg. The DBX has its own platform.

The DBX does not share its underpinnings with any other vehicle.

“It’s a bespoke car,” Nilsson says.

“Which I think, and customers think, you deserve when you’re paying this kind of money for a car.

“We definitely hit the sweet spot with this.

“People were clearly looking for a good-looking SUV that drives like an Aston.”

One pre-production example of the DBX is in Australia for customer events and public display. Customer cars arrive in the third quarter of the year.

Some 60 per cent of customers in the region are new to the brand. Which is surprising, as Aston Martin set about creating the DBX because three quarters of its sports car customers also had an SUV in the driveway.

That number could be even higher today.

Kevin Wall, regional manager for Aston Martin, says many DBX customers are women who were not drawn to the looks of Lamborghini or Bentley SUVs.

Originally published as The $350,000-plus Aston Martin DBX sells out before anyone drives it