2022 Aston Martin DBX Straight-Six Variant Gets Thumbs Up From Chinese Reviewer

Without further beating around the bush, the DBX Straight-Six variant was launched in November 2021 to attract a plethora of new customers that wouldn’t have considered the British automaker before. Just like the AMG-sourced V8 of the regular DBX, the straight-six powerplant in the base model comes from Deutschland in the guise of the Mercedes-Benz M256.

This lump is a 48-volt mild hybrid that features an integrated starter-generator unit and an electric auxiliary compressor whose role is to minimize turbo lag. Rated at 435 ps and 520 Nm (make that 429 horsepower and 384 pound-feet of torque), the M256 is nothing to write home about, especially in a vehicle with the footprint and heft of the AM DBX.

Be that as it may, the Chinese reviewer in the following video is much obliged to report that it’s perfectly fine in this application. You can further see the inline-six engine willing to rev, resulting in OK-ish acceleration and OK-ish induction and exhaust sounds. I, for one, am surprised how AM and MB managed to integrate the M256 so well in the DBX even though an esteemed marque such as Aston Martin is far better suited to larger engines.

Over in the Middle Kingdom, the six-cylinder model is listed with a 100-kph (62-mph) acceleration time of 5.4 seconds, a top speed of 259 kilometers per hour (161 miles per hour), and a starting price of 1,898 million yuan that converts to $299,100 at current exchange rates. The DBX V8, by comparison, is just around $63,000 more expensive before extras.