The natural successor to the DB11, the newcomer drops the cylinders and ups the power, maxing out at 325km/h.
3 min
Seeking to bridge the gap between supercars and grand tourers, Aston Martin has expanded the DB bloodline with the release of the DB12. Billed as the “world’s first Super Tourer”—debatable!—the new Aston Martin DB12 does away with the twin-turbo 5.2-litre V12 of its predecessor. Under the hood is a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 that delivers 500 kW of power and 800 Nm of torque — an increase of 53 kW and 100 Nm from the DB11.
All in all, that equates to the DB12 racing from 0-100km/h in 3.5 seconds with a top speed of 325km/h.
The V8 feeds power to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission, with the addition of a new electronic limited-slip differential. Aston Martin claims its new rear differential “can go from fully open to 100% locked in a matter of milliseconds,” promoting more precise and consistent handling.
Under the skin, structural stiffness has been increased with the aluminium structure upping torsional stiffness by seven percent as a result of changes made to the engine cross brace, front and rear undertrays, front crossmember, and rear bulkhead. The resultant effect allows for gains in suspension performance as well as steering feel and overall driving pleasure.
The newcomer is unmistakable as anything other than an Aston Martin, with the low-and-wide proportions and two-door design a signature of the British marque. Taking on an athletic, aggressive stance, the Aston Martin DB12 is equipped with a more muscular physique befitting of its powertrain.
An upsized grille dominates the front end, which also sees the addition of a new lighting signature and surface detailing on the swept-back headlights and smaller frameless wing mirrors. On the nose sits the newly revised Aston Martin wings logo, with the DB12 the first production car to bear the badge. 21-inch alloys complement the wide design while optimising the aerodynamic profile of the vehicle.
Step inside and you’ll find an entirely redesigned interior. The newcomer does away with the Mercedes-Benz infotainment system of its predecessor. In its place is an in-house—a first for the marque—system with dual 10.25-inch screens and Aston Martin-designed switchgear. Rounding it out is surround sound audio designed by leading British auditory icon Bowers & Wilkins.
The cabin itself takes on an opulent tone, designed with long journeys in mind. There’s the option for full Bridge of Weir leather or Alcantara upholstery; each outfitted with a new quilting pattern introduced for the DB12.
The release of the Aston Martin DB12 coincides with the marque’s 110th anniversary, as well as 75 years of the DB line.
“The latest addition to Aston Martin’s most illustrious bloodline, DB12 exemplifies the brand by boldly moving forward,” says Marek Reichman, Chief Creative Officer of Aston Martin. “Emphatically fresh yet unmistakably Aston Martin, DB12 defines the new breed of Super Tourer.”
First deliveries are slated to begin in Q3, 2023. While Aston Martin is yet to release pricing, it’s a safe bet to assume it’ll be a step up from the DB11, which starts at $382,000 (before ORC).
Rugged coastal drives and fireside drams define a slow, indulgent journey through Scotland’s far north.
A haven for hedge-fund titans and Hollywood grandees, Greenwich is one of the world’s most expensive residential enclaves, where eye-watering prices meet unapologetic grandeur.
Their careers spanned the personal computing, internet and smartphone waves. But some older workers see AI’s arrival as the cue to exit.
4 min
Luke Michel has already lived through two technology overhauls in his career, first desktop publishing in the 1980s and online publishing later on. But AI? He’s had enough.
So when his employer, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, made an early-retirement offer to some staff last year, the 68-year-old content strategist decided to speed up his exit. Before, he had expected to work a couple more years.
“The time and energy you have to devote to learning a whole new vocabulary and a whole new skill set, it wasn’t worth it,” he said.
It isn’t that he’s shunning artificial intelligence—he is learning Spanish with the help of Anthropic’s Claude. But, at this point, he’s less than eager to endure all the ways the technology promises to upend work.
“I just want to use it for my own purposes and not someone else’s,” he said.
After rising for decades and then hovering around 40% in the 2010s, the share of Americans over 55 years old in the workforce has slipped to 37.2%, the lowest level in more than 20 years.
The financial cushion of rising home equity and stock-market returns is driving some of the decline, economists and retirement advisers say.
But for some older professionals, money is only part of the equation.
They say they don’t want to spend the last years of their career going through the tumult of AI adoption, which has brought new tools, new expectations and a lot of uncertainty.
Many people retire when key elements of their work lives are disrupted at once, said Robert Laura , co-founder of the Retirement Coaches Association and an expert on the psychology of retirement.
“Maybe their autonomy is being challenged or changed, their friends are leaving the workplace, or they disagree with the company’s direction,” he said.
“When two or three of these things show up, that’s when people start to opt out.”
“AI is a big one,” he adds. “It disrupts their autonomy, their professionalism.”
Michel, whose work required overseeing and strategizing on website content, has been here before.
When desktop publishing arrived in the 1980s, he was a graphic designer using triangles and rubber cement.
The internet’s arrival changed everything again. Both developments required new skills, and he was energized by the challenge of learning alongside colleagues and peers.
It felt different this time around. “Your battery doesn’t hold a charge as long as it used to,” he said.
He would rather spend his energy volunteering, making art, going to operas and chairing the Council on Aging in North Andover, Mass., where he lives.
In an AARP survey last summer of 5,000 people 50 and over, 25% of those who planned to retire sooner than expected counted work stress and burnout as factors.
About half of those retired said they had left work at least partly because they had the financial security to do so.
In general, older Americans are less likely than younger counterparts to use AI, research shows.
About 30% of people from ages 30 to 49 said they used ChatGPT on the job, nearly double the share of those 50 and older, according to a 2025 Pew Research Center survey of more than 5,000 adults.
Baby boomers and members of Generation X also experienced the sharpest declines in confidence using AI technology, according to a ManpowerGroup survey of more than 13,900 workers in 19 countries.
“We as employers aren’t doing a good enough job saying (to older workers), we value the skills that you already have, so much so that we want to invest in you to help you do your job better,” says Becky Frankiewicz , ManpowerGroup’s chief strategy officer.
Jennifer Kerns’s misgivings about AI contributed to her departure last month from GitHub, where the 60-year-old worked as a program manager.
Coming from a family of artists, she said, it offends her that AI models train on the creative work of people who aren’t compensated for their intellectual property. And she worries about AI’s effect on people’s critical-thinking skills.
So she was dismayed when GitHub, a Microsoft-owned hosting service for software projects, began investing heavily in AI products and expecting employees to incorporate AI into much of their work. In employee-engagement surveys, the company had begun asking them to rate their AI usage on a scale of 1 to 5.
When it came time to write reports and reviews, colleagues would suggest that she use ChatGPT.
“I’d be like, ‘I have no idea how to use that and I have no interest in using AI to write anything for me,’” she said.
It would have been more prudent to work until she was closer to Medicare eligibility, she said. But by waiting until her children were out of college and some of her stock grants had vested, the math worked.
Her first act as a nonworking person: a solo trip to Scotland, where she took a darning workshop and learned how to repair sweaters.
“The opposite of AI,” she said.
Employers already under pressure to cut workers—such as in the tech industry—may welcome some of these retirements, said Gad Levanon , chief economist at Burning Glass Institute, which studies labor-market data.
“The more people retire, the fewer they have to let go,” he said.
Some of the savviest tech users are also balking at sticking around for the AI upheaval. Terry Grimm, who worked in IT for 40 years, retired from his senior software consultant role at 65 last May.
His firm had just been acquired by a bigger firm, which meant learning and integrating the parent company’s AI and other tech tools into his work.
Until then, Grimm expected he might work a couple more years, though he felt that he probably had enough saved to retire.
“I just got to the point where I was spending 40 hours at work and then 20 hours training and studying,” said Grimm, who has since moved with his wife from the Dallas area to a housing development on a golf course in El Dorado, Ark.
“I’m like, ‘I’ll let the younger guys do this.’”
