Aston Martin DB11 Volante review

The Volante works well as a convertible. Not just because it feels so protective roof-up, but roof-down arrangements are well-sorted too. Raise the four side windows and you suppress the high-speed bluster. Or for an even calmer glide, fit the wind blocker net if no-one's in the back seat. Which they won't be. Toasty heated seats keep the chill off even in the winter.

Too cold or wet? The roof raises in 16 seconds, even up to 30mph.

Sitting in front it's really very grand. Aston's signature 'brogueing' pattern (unrelated to anything Madonna did in the early-1990s) is an expensive option but a special-looking one. Ornamental stitching loops around the dash and doors of course. Head-rest pads seem to hover out from the seats themselves, and you can even have the seat backs in veneer.

It's not all perfect though. The electric armrest is nothing more than an irritation, motoring glacially back and forth when you just want to grab it and get instant access to the pocket beneath. The seats are oddly shaped too, curving your shoulder-blades forwards to generate painful twinges after an hour or so.

The back seats lose 23mm of leg space versus the Coupé's. Whatever… they were never more than child sized.

The boot has a pop-down compartment into which the roof folds. If the roof's up, you can collapse that compartment and make more space. Even so, if you're talking grand touring, you'll have some bags on the back seat.

The infotainment is familiar from Mercedes, and decently modern if not the latest system. Phone mirroring is annoyingly absent.

The instruments are screen-based too, a display that relies too much on gimmickry and too little on either clarity or style. A single obviously plastic bezel around the rev-counter dial makes things worse not better.