The Aston Martin DB11 has won the Game Changer award at this year’s Autocar UK magazine awards.
The DB11 went on sale in NZ in August last year, priced from $365,000 plus on-road costs, and motor registration figures show nine models were registered during 2016.
The company described it as the most significant new Aston Martin since the introduction of the DB9 in 2003.
The Autocar UK award celebrates cars that “bring new, higher standards to their classes,or defy convention in a way that brings benefit to buyers”.
The DB11 is an important part of the British marque’s ambition to launch seven key new products in the same number of years.
The DB11 was introduced last year, powered by a new 447 kW in-house designed 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine.
Built on a new lighter and stronger bonded aluminium structure, DB11 is the most powerful and efficient DB model in Aston Martin’s history.
Autocar UK editor Mark Tisshaw said, “The DB11 is as comfortable as new Aston GT cars will get, but what’s just as important as how excellent it is, is what it’s made of: it is the first in a new-generation of aluminium platforms that is more advanced yet just as flexible as the previous architecture from a production perspective.
“There’s a new factory in Wales, too, that will supplement production at Aston’s base in Gaydon [Warwickshire].
"While there are exciting plans all around for the company, it’s the DB11 we’ll remember as the car that started its new era, earning it one of this year’s Game Changer awards”.
Aston Martin president Andy Palmer said the company was honoured that Autocar UK recognised the strides the company had made with the DB11.
“This is just the start of our second-century plan, but this model already begins to redefine who we are.”
He said Aston Martin would continue to pursue the same levels of quality, performance and pioneering excellence.