Bentley Bentayga review

• Overview
• What is it?
• What else is new?
• Why is it a big deal?
• Can I have it with seven seats?
• What does a regular Bentayga cost?
• What models are available?
• What’s it like to drive?
• Our choice from the range
• What's the verdict?
• Land Rover Range Rover (2012-2022)
• Lamborghini Urus
• Rolls-Royce Cullinan
• Driving
• What is it like to drive?
• Is the Bentayga fun to drive?
• How do the brakes cope?
• Does it feel like a proper Bentley?
• Bentley Bentayga Hybrid review: posh plug-in SUV tested
• Bentley Bentayga Hybrid review: first plug-in Bentley driven
• Bentley Bentayga Speed review: 626bhp SUV driven
• Interior
• What is it like on the inside?
• What about the tech?
• Any other tweaks?
• Buying
• What should I be paying?

Overview

What is it?

It’s the Bentley Bentayga, take two. What you see here is a heavy facelift of the first gen SUV that launched in late 2015. Over 1,000 new components. Most importantly, it’s better looking now. While the overall shape is the same as before, the details have been fiddled with in some areas and overhauled in others. It’s much more appealing as a result, tauter of line and with more finesse in the detail. The first Bentayga was ungainly at best, this one is… acceptable.

What else is new?

A 20mm increase in the rear track improves the Bentayga’s stance while neatening its handling, there are new alloy wheel designs and spangly new headlights that use cut-crystal to make them sparkle even when they’re not lit. When they are, their intensity changes with the speed you’re driving to avoid dazzling other road users while still illuminating secluded country lanes.

Why is it a big deal?

The Bentayga is a deeply important car, and not just for the couple of thousand people its manufacture employs in northwest England. It made up almost half of Bentley’s sales in 2019, while 70 per cent of Bentayga buyers are new to the marque. And, we’d imagine, a lot younger than the Bentley norm.

In fact, sales continued to rise during the Bentayga’s fourth year on the market. With roughly 4,000 sold a year, it accounts for over a third of the ‘luxury SUV’ sector that also includes the Aston Martin DBX, Rolls-Royce Cullinan and of course the new Range Rover.  The ‘luxury’ half of its equation is more pertinent than ever now the Bentley Mulsanne is dead, too. Suddenly the Bentayga SUV and Flying Spur saloon have an extra job on their hands, together attempting to fill the literally vast void the venerable old limo leaves behind.

Thus the Bentayga’s had a proper smarten up inside, and its rear quarters are larger and more relaxing if you plump for the especially posh four-seater. New to the range is the extended wheelbase EWB model. An extra 180mm of length added to the rear passenger compartment, taking the total to 5,305mm.

Can I have it with seven seats?

You can have the regular Bentayga as a seven-seater (rugby practice one-upmanship gets no bolder), but the EWB is focused on luggs-ury, so no boot-based chairs there. Instead you’ll want it with four seats (an extra £2,790 over the standard five seats) and ideally the ‘Airline Seat Specification’: footrests, extended lounging capability, picnic tables and the rest for £8,395. Bentley expects most EWB models – which start at £211,300 – to be specced close to £300,000.

What does a regular Bentayga cost?

About £50,000 less – although with the EWB you’re not merely paying more for the extra legroom, but a lift in standard equipment, too. Pricey to buy, pricey to run. Bear this in mind when they hit the second hand market, where the old adage ‘if you can’t afford to buy it new, you can’t afford to run it used’ has probably never rung truer. More on that in the Buying tab.

What models are available?

Broadly speaking there’s a choice of three powertrains: twin turbo 4.0 V8, twin turbo 6.0 W12 or hybrid 3.0 V6 – although not all are yet available in both regular and EWB bodystyles. The flagship Bentayga Speed has a mighty 626bhp, but we’ve actually found the 542bhp V8 to be nearly as fast and significantly less thirsty. The Hybrid does a particular job, having enough pure electric range to allow emissions-free urban trips, but the technology isn’t cutting edge – it doesn’t permit fast charging, for instance and the V6 itself sounds too reedy and isn’t as thunderous and well-mannered as the bigger motors.

What’s it like to drive?

We shouldn’t have to point this out, but the Bentayga is not a sports SUV. Instead it’s a big, luxurious, very nicely upholstered and trimmed heavyweight SUV. Although it’s come in for criticism, the Bentayga feels a natural brand extension of a firm that’s always built big, heavyweight, sturdy cars. Roll-control technology has made it very capable around corners, but this is still not an SUV that likes to be hustled. The big lad will put his hands on his knees and wheeze at the end of a good road. But cosseting, hushed, smooth riding and cushioned, it makes you feel safe and secure in a way not much else can match.

Our choice from the range

Bentley

4.0 V8 5dr Auto [Touring Spec] [7 Seat]

£172,020

Quite often, our reviews of big, posh SUVs – especially the quick ones – involve us having to leave our reservations about the sheer point of the things at the door. The Bentayga battered them out of us before we even got the chance. It’s a force of nature, but an annoyingly irresistible one, helped by just how long, wide and heavy Bentleys are in the first place.

Ultimately we don’t think it’s quite as bespoke and beautifully finished as a Conti GT coupe or Flying Spur saloon but this, don’t forget, is also Bentley’s entry-level model. It can be specced to perform whatever role you envisage for it (well, luxury four seat chauffeur car or leather clad family hauler) and Bentley’s brand values are well matched to the SUV. It’s not trying to defy physics, just trying to be a high-rise luxury car. It does that very well. Whether you’re experiencing it from the front or back seats.

Land Rover Range Rover (2012-2022)

£81,785 – £186,300

Lamborghini Urus

£163,962

Rolls-Royce Cullinan

£276,000 – £306,800

Continue reading: Driving

Driving

What is it like to drive?

The updated car launched with just the one engine – a 542bhp, 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 – but now there’s also a six-cylinder plug-in Bentayga Hybrid if you have a conscience, and a W12-powered Bentayga Speed if you really don’t. There’s also a schportier version of the V8 called the, erm, V8 S. The diesel was axed a few years ago now. The V8 – as used in a load of other VW Group products including the Audi RS6 and Lamborghini Urus – remains the pick of the bunch. This is a behemoth, so saving a little weight in the nose makes a difference, even if it’s less tangible here than in the Continental GT.

The Hybrid has its advantages – namely, the ability to drive on electric power for up to 25 miles – and is worth looking at if you want to run your Bentayga as a company car or regularly drive into towns/cities with low-emissions zones. But it has flaws too. You can read all about the Bentayga Hybrid by clicking on these blue words or reading about our experiences of living with one for a few months.

Is the Bentayga fun to drive?

The Bentayga remains absurdly neat to drive given its 5m-by-2m size and 2.4-tonne kerb weight. The extra width in its rear track has sharpened up the steering a bit and reduced another ounce of effort from its already relaxed driver. Choose to travel at a sedate pace and it’s so easy-going, the handful of semi-autonomous driver aids feel utterly superfluous.

Up your speed and things don’t get much tougher, unless you’ve turned onto your favourite stretch of backroad and suddenly discovered it feels half as wide as usual. With the help of a deeply clever 48v anti-roll suspension system – as deployed on the quick Audi Q7s the Bentayga bears relation to – its chassis acts like one if not half its size, then maybe two thirds.

It can be genuinely good fun: the way the rear of the car hunkers right down under hard acceleration, or when you aggressively chase the throttle right on the exit of a corner, can be laugh-out-loud hilarious. Perhaps enough to shatter any grumpy petrolhead predispositions about how ‘Premier League training ground’ the Bentayga looks when you first clap eyes on it.

The Hybrid doesn’t feel as resolved, owing to the added weight of the battery and nature of the powertrain, but it’s not meant to be in any way sporty or dynamic. It’s still comfortable, and that’s what really matters.

How do the brakes cope?

Yes, good point, well made. They’re fine up to a point, but stopping always takes much more apparent effort than going. You’re aware of just how much kinetic energy is not being harnessed.

Does it feel like a proper Bentley?

In truth, if any car is made for the incongruous, profit-embiggening switch to SUVs, it’s a Bentley. Already knowingly hefty – with few sops to lightweighting or litheness in the company’s saloons and coupes – the Bentayga really does just drive like a taller Bentley, and thus ought to be vastly less upsetting to the purists than a Lamborghini Urus or Ferrari’s Purosangue.

And its manners are impeccable when you’re not being an imbecile, its cabin as quiet and cocooned as a Flying Spur’s and that extra bit of visibility it lends you over a saloon yet more calming.

Bentley Bentayga Hybrid review: posh plug-in SUV tested

£155,500

Bentley Bentayga Hybrid review: first plug-in Bentley driven

£133,100

Bentley Bentayga Speed review: 626bhp SUV driven

£185,800

Previous: Overview

Continue reading: Interior

Interior

What is it like on the inside?

You’ve a choice of four, five or seven seats. You’ll likely have the ultra-plush four-seater if you’re being chauffeured around, in which case you’ll be enjoying an extra 10cm of legroom compared to the old Bentayga. But then someone pulls up next to you in a new EWB with an extra 18cm of rear space. Awks. Try to shrug it off. By the way, you can’t have seven seats in the Hybrid because the batteries get in the way.

If you’re sat up front, though, things have improved even more markedly, even if the changes are all – once again – largely in the details. Bentaygas have never felt quite as special as a Continental or Flying Spur inside, with more VW Group-familiar displays and switchgear, even if the materials and presentation have generally been befitting of a £150,000-plus purchase. There’s less awareness of the inevitable part-sharing here, even if the ‘rotating Toblerone’ entertainment screen of lither Bentleys is missing.

What about the tech?

The tech’s all taken a step up. Apple CarPlay is now wireless, Android Auto makes its debut, and there seems to be a USB-C port embedded in every surface you look at. Which means updating your charging cable if you use a slightly older phone, but then you’re a Bentley owner. You probably don’t.

Oh, and if you stick your phone on the inductive charging plinth, it’s surrounded by a signal booster. The Conti GT that formerly lived in the Top Gear Garage had an interior so well cocooned it occasionally prompted an involuntary digital detox each time you drove it. One we might actually miss when all our WhatsApp groups are pinging away with endless GIFs inside one of these.

Any other tweaks?

Fully digital dials with classier map displays than an equivalent Audi, a newly smooth steering wheel with the stitching moved from the outside of the rim (so as not to irritate your finely moisturised fingers), a more artistic central air vent (which ionises the air it pumps out) and a new remote control for rear passengers to control their own seats and climate, possessing as much processing power as a home PC of a decade ago.

You’ll lose days perusing all the wood, leather, trim and stitching options inside, while you’ve a choice of two stereos: the standard, 590W, 12-speaker set-up, or the optional Naim system with 1,780W and 20 speakers. Have that. You’ll realise why as soon as you listen to it.

Previous: Driving

Continue reading: Buying

Buying

What should I be paying?

The Bentayga isn’t cheap to buy, nor cheap to run: Bentley claims 21.7mpg and 294g/km of CO2 emissions for the V8. You might get 20mpg from the V8. You won’t from the W12. But of more relevance will be its near 400 miles of range on a tank. It’s so comfy inside, it’ll only be pitiful human needs for toilets or snacks that’ll prevent your own distance between stops being the same.

The Hybrid claims an entirely theoretical 83.1mpg, 82g/km and a 431-mile cruising range. In practice it’s a little more efficient than the V8 on a long run, but not that much. Expect 23-24mpg. It’ll cost you less to tax than a normal Bentayga (as if you care about tax…), but you’ll need to keep the battery topped-up to get the most out of it. Bentley tells us most owners do.

The V8 and Hybrid Bentaygas cost exactly the same to buy – £162,500 before options. And there are MANY options – the superb Naim stereo costs just under £7,000, and the ‘Touring Specification’ pack that gives you adaptive cruise control, lane assist, a head-up display, night vision and a couple of other bits is £6,480.

The bigger question surrounds residuals. The awkward looking first gen Bentaygas can be picked up for around £75,000 now, but we expect the second generation cars to hold their value better.

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Continue reading: Specs & Prices

Keyword: Bentley Bentayga review