2021 Bentley Bentayga V8 review

There are certain expectations that come with a particular car’s badge. Here at MOTOR, we assess every car on its merits, but there’s no escaping the fact that certain names evoke a specific reaction. A Porsche is going to be sporty, a Mustang will have more muscle than a juiced bodybuilder, and an S-Class will be at the pinnacle of technological advancement.
For Bentley and its SUV offering, the Bentayga, the weight of expectation is heavy.

With more than a century’s worth of experience building some of the finest luxury and grand touring machines, the team at Crewe are renowned for their fine eye.

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The Bentayga starts at $364,800 in Australia (before any on-road taxes or options are fitted), and customers adding the SUV to their fleet come from a tax bracket that appreciates refined taste. As a result, the list of standard-fit equipment is long and generous. Yes, you can still opt for some ridiculously priced options, but the core fit is appropriate for the price point. So is the quality of material and interior finishing.

There are hints at the Wolfsburg origins in the architecture and tech, but the fit and finish is unmistakably Bentley. New for 2021 are refined styling tweaks which help gently disguise the fact that the Bentayga has been on sale since 2016. Five years is a relatively long time in a market that is obsessed with one-upmanship, but it’s going to be hard to dim the shine of the Bentayga’s new diamond-effect head and tail lights.

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"There’s no rushed dropping of ratios or dramatic flaring of revs – just an unflustered moving of tectonic plates"

Bentley is proud of the fact that its SUV is capable of wearing many hats. They proclaim it has the performance of a supercar, while maintaining the luxurious standards of the brand’s flagship limos, with proper off-road chops thrown into the mix. This concoction of characters places the Bentayga in a challenging box from which to emerge. Thankfully, it has the right tools for the job.

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The 4.0-litre V8 under the bonnet is mated to an eight-speed automatic gearbox. The duo deliver 404kW/770Nm to a permanent all-wheel drive system with a Torsen centre and electronic rear differential. With these ingredients combined, the powertrain is buttery smooth. The V8 burbles along like an engine double its size when cruising.

Jab it in the kidneys with a forceful application of throttle, and it remains composed, using the significant torque (its peak is spread over better than 2500rpm of the rev range) to pull the horizon closer. There’s no rushed dropping of ratios or dramatic flaring of revs – just an unflustered moving of tectonic plates. In even its sportiest of settings, the Bentayga’s transmission shifts between gears almost imperceptibly, swapping ratios more slickly than the dual-clutch in a Continental GT.

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The test route for our drive was a pock-marked, warped, and deteriorating piece of back-road bitumen. Challenging, yes, but something you’d expect a Bentayga to chew up and spit out. There’s a taut readiness to the ride that, on poor surfaces, manifests as a firm edge that may surprise some who mistakenly perceive Bentley as a maker of syrupy limos.

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Turn the Bentayga into a set of bends and you are reminded of exactly why the waft is absent. Far from being the wallowing two-tonne-plus handful you’d expect, the Bentayga is impressively capable in dynamic situations. While not as athletic as Volkswagen Group siblings like the Lamborghini Urus, Audi RS Q8 and Porsche Cayenne Turbo, it doesn’t shy away from a challenging road.

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The Bentley does have more pronounced body roll when upping the ante but this actually improves subjective involvement. That roll and pitch reassures through corners, signalling the limits unambiguously. Allow it to compress and settle into a corner, and you can then ply the throttle, allowing the torque to pull you toward exit, the 285/35 ZR22 Pirelli P Zero rubber rarely troubling the traction control.

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While the Bentayga only has three natural rivals (the Lamborghini Urus, Aston Martin DBX, and Rolls-Royce Cullinan), they each focus on a subtly different customer demand.

This mid-life facelift has done well to keep the big Bentley wagon looking fresh as it faces down newer competition, but it pays to remember that despite the SUV body, the Bentayga bones are that of authentic, traditional Bentley - a raffish gentleman’s express. Looking for something respectively more remote or reinvigorating? Other options are available.