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