Aston Martin DB12 S Volante: Can a $300K Convertible Be the Rational Choice?
We don’t need to tell you the Aston Martin DB12 S Volante is achingly beautiful. Drive it, and you discover that it’s also absurdly powerful and enviably luxurious. And yes, it’s eyewateringly expensive at $319...
We don’t need to tell you the Aston Martin DB12 S Volante is achingly beautiful. Drive it, and you discover that it’s also absurdly powerful and enviably luxurious. And yes, it’s eyewateringly expensive at $319,000. Yet what if we told you it was also a rational purchase?
Granted, it’s not the three-year-depreciated Toyota Corolla that Dave Ramsey might tout. But on its own elevated plane—one where 200-mph droptops comfortably seat two and cost as much as an Ivy League education—the DB12 S Volante makes a certain amount of sense.
The DB12 is the middle child in Aston Martin’s lineup of grand tourers, above the Vantage and below the Vanquish. As ever at Aston Martin, the Volante denotes the convertible version. Introduced for 2026, the S is the slightly dearer version, in keeping with today’s tierification of everything.
So, what does the S get you? A lower-body aero kit (splitters at the outside edges of the front spoiler, gloss-black lower-body trim, a spoiler on the rear decklid, a reshaped rear diffuser, and hood louvers), Signature metallic paint, carbon-ceramic brakes, a different exhaust system, and performance and chassis upgrades. If you selected those options on a non-S model, the carbon-ceramic brakes alone run $11,500, the special paint is $6800, and the gloss-black lower-body package is $3800; add a few more included items, and the total is $36,800, which exceeds the upcharge over the standard DB12. Factor in the chassis and powertrain revisions, and the S is kind of a no-brainer. Surely your accountant would agree.
Beyond the extra equipment, the S has been subtly tweaked in several areas of performance. The starting point for any hi-po variant is engine output, although the bump for this Aston is a minor one. The engine-management system for the AMG-supplied twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 has been revised for more thrust at the hair-raising end of the tach, unleashing another 19 horses, for a 690-hp total along with 590 pound-feet of torque, the latter unchanged from the standard DB12.
Long accelerator-pedal travel reveals satisfyingly linear, progressive response, which is key given the amount of thrust on offer. Though not as spine-tingling as the Vanquish’s mighty V-12, this V-8 still invites you to explore higher revs. Stab the Manual mode button on the console and have at it with the shift paddles, or twist the drive-mode dial (integral with the prominent engine-start button) into the spicier Sport or Sport+ mode. Our car did not have the optional titanium exhaust, but even without that, the S gets its own specific dual-mode exhaust system, with stacked outlets at the rear being a tip-off that this isn’t the regular DB12’s setup.
The S is a shade quicker than the regular DB12, with that improvement said to be mostly thanks to quicker shifts from the reprogrammed rear-mounted eight-speed transaxle, a torque-converter unit that still exhibits smooth low-speed behavior. Aston claims to have shaved 0.1 second off the 60 time, which should put it at 3.3 seconds, according to our estimate. This suave droptop is ever ready to rip; the challenge is finding sufficient space to do so—half throttle is enough to go flying past most other traffic. The top speed, which remains 202 mph, is something not so much to be experienced but to casually drop into conversation.
Aston engineers were also busy outside the engine room, although again the changes they’ve wrought are subtle. Recalibrated Bilstein DTX dampers aren’t firmer; they’re more linear in their damping performance, to provide a more settled ride. And indeed, the car was admirably composed over the battered infrastructure of the New York metro area and points north.
Increased rear roll stiffness is designed to bring better balance, while the steering also has been retuned for greater heft. It’s quick at less than 2.4 turns lock-to-lock, precise, and actually feels connected to the front tires. You’ll definitely want to kill the lane-keeping assist, however, as it has all the subtlety of a panicked front-seat passenger reaching over and yanking the wheel (annoyingly, it must be switched off again after every engine start).
Standard carbon-ceramic brake discs are one of the biggest S upgrades. The huge discs measure 16.1 inches up front and 14.2 inches at the rear, and the shiny rotors (clamped by calipers in your choice of colors) are clearly visible through the massively wide 21-inch wheels wrapped in 275/35ZR-21 front tires and 325/30ZR-21 rears. Notable for their lighter weight (saving some 60 pounds here) and fade resistance, carbon-ceramics can be noisy in light braking—they were in a previous DB12 we drove—but we didn’t experience that issue this time.
The S includes full semi-aniline leather, but our car was optioned with Inspire S leather ($9000). It covers just about every surface, and its fragrance fills your nasal passages even when the top is down. The cabin is beautifully finished, but there are some ergonomic frustrations.
The DB12’s 10.3-inch touchscreen is oriented at a reclined angle in the center console, and while that isn’t much of an issue in the hardtop, it’s less than ideal in the convertible, where it gets washed out in the sun when the top is down. Take off your sunglasses and squint at it, and you see that the touch points are tiny. The system also has an overreliance on swipe motion, which is fine when playing with an iPad but distractingly imprecise in a moving car. You’ll want to use phone mirroring, but you’d better have an iPhone, because only Apple CarPlay is supported.
The steering wheel cribs the horrible pencil-eraser-sized touchpads used by Mercedes-Benz, except that they’re worse here because they’re recessed, making it even more difficult to effect a swipe motion across them. Another oddity: The steering wheel has a seek-up button but not seek-down.
There is some physical switchgear, and it’s too bad there isn’t more, because the examples that are here—the dial to select drive mode and the four rollers that do temperature, fan speed, and audio volume—have a real quality feel, like the tuning knob in an old-school stereo receiver.
Our car had the standard sport seats with 16-way power adjustment, but the controls are awkwardly placed on the side of the center console; maybe Aston designers continue to stick with this unusual location so they don’t mar the dramatically sculpted door panels. Racier carbon-fiber Performance seats are an option but seem at odds with the luxury GT vibe.
After all, the S does not transform the DB12 into some hardcore track monster. Instead, it takes the DB12 up half a notch, fine-tuning it in the process. Hopefully, your financial planner sees the value in that.
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Specifications
Specifications
2026 Aston Martin DB12 S Volante
Vehicle Type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2+2-passenger, 2-door convertible
PRICE
Base: $319,000
ENGINE
twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection
Displacement: 243 in3, 3982 cm3
Power: 690 hp @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 590 lb-ft @ 2750 rpm
TRANSMISSION
8-speed automatic
DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 110.4 in
Length: 186.0 in
Width: 78.0 in
Height: 51.4 in
Trunk Volume: 7 ft3
Curb Weight (C/D est): 4250 lb
PERFORMANCE (C/D EST)
60 mph: 3.3 sec
100 mph: 6.8 sec
1/4-Mile: 11.3 sec
Top Speed: 202 mph
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined/City/Highway: 17/14/21 mpg
Joe Lorio has been obsessed with cars since his Matchbox days, and he got his first subscription to Car and Driver at age 11. Joe started his career at Automobile Magazine under David E. Davis Jr., and his work has also appeared on websites including Amazon Autos, Autoblog, AutoTrader, Hagerty, Hemmings, KBB, and TrueCar.