Bentley Bentayga review

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The world has changed around Bentley's 10-year-old SUV, but it doesn't really care

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It’s all in the details. The little CGI model of the Bentley Bentayga on the driver display has indicators and brake lights that illuminate when their real counterparts do, the sound insulation under the bonnet is quilted and you press the B in the rear badge to open the boot. Neat. 

The Bentayga is all about occasion. Transplanting the cross-country luxury credentials of the Continental GT and Flying Spur into a hulking SUV silhouette, it quickly became Crewe's best-selling model when it was launched, and remains so a decade later, having been recipient of many important technical and visual upgrades in the intervening years.

But time marches on, and with the Continental GT and Flying Spur both recently receiving an extensive round of updates – which most importantly introduced a new V8 PHEV drivetrain – and Bentley poised to introduce a radical new design language, beginning with its landmark debut EV next year, the Bentayga is starting to feel like something of an outlier.

So, as a new generation surely looms on the horizon, let's take stock and see how the Bentayga stacks up in today's luxury car market. 

With Bentley’s goliath W12 engine retired, the Bentayga is now available exclusively with the choice of a 449bhp V6 plug-in hybrid drivetrain, or a pure-petrol twin-turbo V8. The ICE car touts a generous 542bhp and 568lb ft as standard, or a colossal 626bhp and 664lb ft in the range-topping Bentayga Speed - which no longer uses Bentley's long-lived W12 but more than compensates for the missing four cylinders with outrageous firepower and explosive, supercar-baiting pace.

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Beyond those three motive options, there's a characteristically mind-boggling array of special editions, trim packages and personalisation options to choose from across the Bentayga line-up, including the option of the gigantic, 5.3m-long extended-wheelbase variant. 

But for as representative an overview as possible, we're testing what is roughly the mid-point of the range (it's all relative, at circa £200,000): the handling-focused Bentayga S, which promises "extra sporting agility" (it's all relative, at 2.4 tonnes) and is marked out by a performance-flavoured makeover that majors on sporting appeal, with black exterior trim, a beefy exhaust and lashings of carbonfibre inside. 

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DESIGN & STYLING

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The Bentayga's fundamental chassis and body-in-white have been little changed since its 2015 launch, but substantial design and technology upgrades – including the addition of new bodystyles and powertrains – have helped to keep Bentley out near the front of an increasingly busy super-SUV field. 

The Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus have fully embraced their supercar-on-stilts billing, gaining angrier styling, even more outlandish power figures and more heavily dynamically oriented chassis set-ups as part of recent updates, while the Rolls-Royce Cullinan – also recently lightly overhauled – continues to stand alone in the very highest echelon of luxury SUVs, with a focus on peerless refinement above all else.

The Bentayga seems to sit somewhere in between, with a similar do-everything-really-well remit to the likes of the Range Rover and Porsche Cayenne, but breathing somewhat more rarefied air, courtesy of an entry price that's approaching £200k. 

The Bentayga can be specified with either a 3.0-litre V6 plug-in hybrid powertrain (which will no doubt be phased out soon in favour of Bentley's new V8 'Super Hybrid' PHEV system), or a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, which chucks out 542bhp and 568lb ft as standard, or a faintly ridiculous 626bhp and 664lb ft in the range-topping Bentayga Speed, which no longer uses Bentley's whopping 6.0-litre W12.

It is always four-wheel-drive, and always sends its herds of stallions roadwards via an eight-speed ZF automatic, albeit with different mapping depending on variant. 

Tested here is the Bentayga S, which was effectively the 'hot' Bentayga after the W12-powered Speed bowed out, but now that version is back with a 626bhp V8, it's basically the most ostensibly driver-focused version of the 'standard' Bentayga. You can't have it in conjunction with the Extended Wheelbase, and it comes exclusively with the Blackline trim package. Got that?

It keeps the 542bhp V8 but brings "extra sporting agility" courtesy of its 15%-stiffer dampers, recalibrated torque vectoring and standard-fit 48V anti-roll control system, which is capable of sending up to 885lb ft at a time to each corner to mitigate squat and dive. 

You know it's the S, because it's riding on bespoke performance-style 22in wheels, the exterior trim is all finished in black, it has a chunky rear spoiler, the lights are tinted and there's a mean-looking quad-exit exhaust. Prices start just north of £170,000, but if you like the look of our test car's extroverted Orange Satin Flame paintwork, put another £24k on top of that.

INTERIOR

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The Bentayga's interior was extensively overhauled as part of a chunky mid-life update in 2020, with wide-reaching improvements made to the materials, ergonomics and in-car tech in a bid to fend off the Range Rover snapping gamely at its 285-section heels. 

Five years on, it holds up broadly very well. The calibre of the trimmings and switchgear is impressive, there are acres of room in both rows (plus a decently usable boot) and you'd have to go some way to find a function or system that's fitted to Gaydon's luxury SUV but missing here. Smartphone mirroring is wireless, there's an abundance of USB-C charging ports and a wireless phone charger that also serves as a signal booster. Neat. 

In fact, the Bentley arguably has the edge for analogue appeal, its cockpit being drenched in physical buttons, switches and levers – in contrast to the Rangie's touchscreen-centric cabin – and for the most part, they click, clack and clonk with the sort of pleasing solidity you'd expect at this lofty price point.

That said, this is an environment that you could say is starting to feel a little old-hat in comparison to minimalist, digital-first rivals. The layout is fundamentally unchanged since 2015, and some bits feel like they're starting to trade their trad appeal for fustiness – the olde-worlde analogue clock in the dash, for example, and the many, many chrome trim elements. 

But otherwise, there's extremely little to fault. The driving position is suitably imperial – you sit about as far from the ground as in any other commercially available passenger car – and the seats are so comfy as to make a long motorway schlep feel almost akin to a lazy day on the sofa.

Lovely attention to detail, too. There's a 'postural adjustment system' that makes microscopic tweaks to your seating position to alleviate aches and pains over long journeys; the digital driver display now contains an animated projection of the road ahead; and the air conditioning is connected to the sat-nav so will automatically enter recirculation mode 10 seconds before the car enters a tunnel, in anticipation of higher pollution levels. It'll only turn recirculation off afterwards if the next tunnel is more than 20 seconds away. It really is the little things.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

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With Bentley’s goliath W12 engine retired, the biggest engine you can have in a Bentayga is Audi's venerable twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8, sampled here with 542bhp and 568lb ft - good for a 0-62mph time of 4.5sec and a top speed of 180mph.

Funny how those figures don’t seem quite as towering in 2025 as they did a few years ago, though, isn’t it? Not small, by any stretch, but somewhat diminished in light of the Aston Martin DBX’s 717bhp and the 789bhp pumped out by the Lamborghini Urus hybrid - not to mention the 740bhp V8 PHEV that’s due to be rolled out to the Bentayga itself next year. 

But more fool those who question the efficacy of this colossal 4.0-litre lump. The thunderous urgency with which this ornate cathedral can haul itself away from rest remains as impressive as it is incongruous, its stunning urgency off the mark belying a 2.5-tonne kerb weight and the baritone bark from its sports exhaust injecting a dash of naughtiness into the bargain. Who needs 12 cylinders?

It tends towards hooliganism at its most extreme, and you might think that such a palatial and prestigious automobile ought to conduct itself with a touch more delicacy (ignoring the lurid orange-over-green specification of this specific example). But that’s just Sport mode. Comfort mode is a different kettle of caviar, altogether: the exhaust fades to a muted but still enjoyable grumble, and the throttle response slackens off to allow for calmer and more predictable progress - not that things ever go so far as to become frenetic. 

Around town and at much lower speeds, where the average Bentayga no doubt spends a fair chunk of its time, it can be driven so smoothly and quietly that you could reasonably be convinced there was no engine under the bonnet at all. The incongruously composed comportment is blighted by the faintest clunkiness of the ZF eight-speed gearbox in parking manouevres, but otherwise it's as adept at prowling through city centres as any humdrum family SUV or chunky estate. 

RIDE & HANDLING

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One of the Bentayga's more remarkable and surprising attributes is an agility and responsiveness that belie a kerb weight roughly equivalent to a pair of high-spec Volkswagen Polos. Especially here, in the S, which comes as standard with rear-steering and 48V active roll management. 

It takes confidence to really hustle something of this size (and price) along a tighter, twistier stretch of road, but psyche yourself up to explore the reaches of that boisterous powerplant and you'll be rewarded with steering that's commendably direct, weighty and responsive, and body control that's impressively uncorrupted by the transfer of weight around the chassis. The active roll managment trickery going on at each corner is imperceptible but highly effective.

But of course, the Bentayga's refinement credentials will no doubt be of vastly greater import to prospective buyers than its B-road blasting credentials.

Naturally, it's a dyed-in-the-wool city slicker, with a fantastically cushioned low-speed ride that's the equal of any traditional limousine, and urban manoeuvrability that's on a par with any 'normal' SUV of this size, courtesy of its decent all-round visibility and the rear-steering trimming its turning circle to just 11.8m - not far off that of a Nissan Qashqai.

It remains sumptuous and nearly silent as you pick up speed, too, nicely rounding out all but the very worst of imperfections and relaxing into the flow of the road without tending towards the disconcerting floatiness that afflicts many an air-sprung high-rider of this ilk.

We'd wager the ride would be even better on the smaller 21in wheels you can have lower down the Bentayga line-up, but quite honestly these 22s fill the arches so well it's a compromise worth making.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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It might be easy to laugh off the notion that a prospective Bentley customer would spare more than a second considering such trivialities as MPG and running costs, but there are nuances to explore here, so indulge us. 

Firstly, the elephant in the room: for all this V8's engaging character and effortless deployability, it is rather a consumptive old beast. We managed 26mpg on an extended motorway run, not excellent but hardly Eddie Stobart territory - but that dropped to a pretty dismal 16.5mpg in low-speed urban running. 

Thank heavens for the gargantuan 85-litre fuel tank. It might cost comfortably more than £100 to fill with today's pump prices, but it does mean the Bentayga should go around 400 miles between fill-ups, if you're not caning it - and you could hardly ask for a better car in which to cover such huge swathes of ground at a time. 

By comparison, in earlier testing, we've been impressed by the V6 hybrid's ability to return nearly 32mpg over 500 miles of motorway running - a commendable improvement (albeit some way short of its official 94.2mpg) that's backed by a BIK tax rating of just 6%, compared with the V8 car's 37%.

VERDICT

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Bentley's rigid commitment to all-round supremacy and a succession of significant updates mean that in its 10th year on sale, the Bentayga remains an astoundingly accomplished machine that serves up performance, refinement and decadence in equal measure without overtly compromising in any one area. 

You can find gripes if you really try, and at this price point – so far, as it is, into the six figures – you might even feel obliged to. But any quibbles about the interior layout or fuel economy all but pale into insignificance in the context of this luxury SUV's hugely impressive attributes. 

Felix Page

Felix Page
Title: Deputy editor

Felix is Autocar's deputy editor, responsible for leading the brand's agenda-shaping coverage across all facets of the global automotive industry - both in print and online.

He has interviewed the most powerful and widely respected people in motoring, covered the reveals and launches of today's most important cars, and broken some of the biggest automotive stories of the last few years.