2023 Aston Martin DBX Interior and Cargo

Much like the paint colors, Aston's interior options are vast. To start with, you have to choose an Interior Environment. The options are Inspire and Accelerate, available in monotone and duotone finishes. Essentially, these are just shortcuts, so you have something to start with. Inspire represents old-school luxury, while Accelerate adds a few sporty touches. If you opt for the duotone option, you can select the primary color from more than 20 options. Can't find a color that works for you? You're too picky. Moving on to the secondary color, the selection is just as extensive. We expected the configurator to tell us some combinations can't be done, but you can create a genuinely terrifying purple and orange combination if you really want to. Mansory would be proud. You then select the color of the brogue, followed by the headlining. The latter is only available in black or the primary color you chose.

The interior customization process isn't done yet, however. You still have to decide what kind of stitching you want and the color of the seatbelts, carpets, and trim inlay. The various interior trim inlay options include Piano Black wood, Light Olive Ash Open Pore wood, carbon fiber, and gloss Bronze mesh. The prices for these various bits are not displayed on the website. Whatever you build is sent to the nearest Aston dealer, and they'll phone you with the final - and likely eye-widening - cost.

The DBX has a 22.3-cubic foot trunk, which is below par in this segment. Below the load shelf, that figure shrinks to 17.3 cubes. 22 cubes is still a lot of room for most daily needs, but it pales in comparison to the BMW X5 M's trunk which offers more than 10 cubes of additional space. When you need to transport something bigger, the 40/20/40-split-folding rear seats can be folded forward. Or, you know, you could just buy a base Ford F-150 to keep around the house for those odd occasions.

While the Aston's trunk isn't as big as its rivals, you can buy custom-made luggage sets that get the most out of the available space. Your dog will also love the Aston. It's the only car we know of with dog-related optional extras, like dog beg, dog accessory kit, and even a dog washer.

Interior storage includes twin cupholders front and rear, twin front center armrests with covered storage, door pockets, and a locking glovebox.

The DBX comes fully loaded, and you cannot add a lot to it. It comes standard with soft-close doors, power-adjustable front seats with memory, a power-adjustable steering column, heated front and rear seats, keyless entry, automatic tri-zone climate control, dual-zone ambient lighting with a choice of 64 colors, and an auto-dimming rearview mirror. The standard driver assistance suite consists of adaptive cruise control, a speed limiter, forward collision warning with auto emergency braking, blind-spot warning, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, lane change warning, rear cross-traffic alert, traffic sign recognition, and door exit warning. A 360-degree camera system helps the driver keep an eye on the SUV's surroundings. Ahead of the driver is a 12.3-inch digital cluster.

We touched briefly on the infotainment technology, which is housed on a 10.25-inch TFT screen. Though it looks large enough and close enough to the driver to accommodate touch controls, the only way to use this system is a Mercedes parts bin rotating controller. It's telling that all three German luxury automakers have switched back to touchscreens, and the DBX uses a more complicated scroll knob. Fortunately, Apple CarPlay is standard, so you can use Siri to enter controls via voice command. Unfortunately, as a sign of this system's age, CarPlay is wired-only and Android Auto is not available at all. As a consolation, the DBX comes standard with a stellar 13-speaker audio system with 790 watts. SiriusXM satellite radio, four USB ports, an SD card port, navigation, and Bluetooth are included too. It's not the best tech, but at least Aston doesn't charge you an arm and a leg for it like some of its competitors.