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Driving the Aston Martin DBX, Audi SQ5 and Hyundai Palisade | Autoblog Podcast #670

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder and Contributing Editor Joe Lorio. First, they talk about driving the Aston Martin DBX, Audi SQ5 and Autoblog's new long-term Hyundai Palisade. They discuss the news, including the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, the BMW i4 and iX, and the Kia EV6. Last, but not least, they dig into the mailbag to help a listener choose a replacement for a long-serving Honda Pilot. Autoblog Podcast #670 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars We're Driving 2021 Aston Martin DBX 2021 Audi SQ5 Long-term 2021 Hyundai Palisade News 2022 Jeep Wagoneer is here: gigantic, luxurious and packing big V8 power BMW EV news BMW Group announces an armada of EVs that includes the full Mini range BMW i4 revealed as the 3 Series' EV sidekick BMW iX xDrive50 isn't just greener on the road, but from the get-go Kia EV6 electric car revealed with curvy sheetmetal Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Autoblog is now live on your smart speakers and voice assistants with the audio Autoblog Daily Digest. Say “Hey Google, play the news from Autoblog” or "Alexa, open Autoblog" to get your favorite car website in audio form every day. A narrator will take you through the biggest stories or break down one of our comprehensive test drives. Related Video: Aston Martin DBX in Stirling Green | On road, off-road and on the track

Aston Martin and Airbus reveal ACH130 AM helicopter collaboration

The Aston Martin DBX is one of the brand's several recent forays into novel territory. In November, the carmaker unveiled a motorcycle co-created with Brough Superior, the AMB 001. A month later, the brand teased a liaison with Airbus Corporate Helicopters with the ACH130 model at its heart. Here we have the result after 12 months of planning, the ACH130 Aston Martin Edition. The exterior lines of the six- or seven-seat chopper most often used for "sightseeing services, charter operators, and emergency medical services" are unchanged. Aston Martin's creative hand came in composing four exterior color combinations and an interior embellished with the carmaker's hallmarks. The pictured ACH130 AM wears livery in Stirling Green that fades into Jet Black underneath, accented with Skyfall Silver cowlings. The remaining three choices use Xenon Grey, Arizona, or Ultramarine Black as their primary colors. Seats profiled to recall Aston Martin road cars can be dressed in hides of colored Oxford Tan, Pure Black, Cormorant, or Ivory. Brogue detailing decorates the strip of Pure Black ultra-suede running down the center of the front seatbacks, stopping at hand-crafted leather satchels affixed to the lower portions. The rest of the interior is trimmed in matching leather and Pure Black ultra-suede, with embossed Aston Martin wings "tastefully positioned throughout the cabin," and a plaque inscribed with the edition number of the particular ACH130 AM. The bird can be ordered as of now, with deliveries to begin this quarter. Aston Martin and Airbus didn't release the price, but a standard ACH130 costs $3.3 million before frills. That makes the ACH130 AM the most wallet-friendly offering among Airbus' carmaker collaborations; the Mercedes-Benz ACH145 costs about $8.5 million, the ACH160 developed with Peugeot's design consultancy requires roughly $18 million. Related Video:

All-new Aston Martin Vantage turns up the volume

The Aston Martin Vantage is the storied British marque's volume car. And with the unveiling today of an all-new model, that volume just got turned up. "The new car starts where V12 Vantage, not V8, left off," says Miles Nurnberger, Aston's head of exterior design, as he walks us around the production car in an intimate advance viewing at the brand's rural UK headquarters. He is referring to the top-of-the-line, end-of-the-run, 12-cylinder, stick-shifted, spoiler-bedecked analog anachronism that was a limited-edition sendoff for the outgoing car, which had been on sale for more than a dozen model years. (To say that the previous Vantage was long in the tooth is a reckless overestimation of the lifespan of teeth.) From a purely visual perspective, we cannot argue with him. The new Vantage is immediately recognizable as an Aston Martin — with the signature hill-climb grille, sensuously crisp hood, mesomorphic flanks, squinting greenhouse and tucked tail. But the car can almost be heard, seething, with one's eyes. First off, the hue the brand has selected as a launch color, Lime Essence, looks like ionized absinthe. Additionally, the car is rimmed along its ground-hugging nether regions, from chin to rear, in a be-pronged sinew of starkly contrasting polished carbon-fiber aero effects. It sneers menacingly through narrowly horizontal, selachian eyes. It flashes a triangular carbon burgonet on each cheek, armor potent enough to ward off a Napoleonic cuirassier. And its rear is a war of stark bladelike protrusions, like the final battle sequence in a chop-socky movie. "If the DB11 is a gentleman," Nurnberger explains, "the Vantage is a hunter." Its nose is to the ground, scanning the distance for something to trounce." "It's the color of a predator in nature," explains Aston's straight-talking CEO, Andy Palmer. "Look at a wasp. Its colors warn, stay away." Not drawing the ire of other motorists is, in our opinion, one of the chief advantages of driving an Aston, especially versus some of its flashier (Italian) competitors. Apparently, Aston is aware of this and also offers the new Vantage in a more subdued palette and trim. We'd spec ours in a more traditional color, like grayish Hardly Green, with satin titanium trim and body-color zygomatic implants.