New Bentley Bentayga Diesel 2017 review
It's the first Bentley to run on diesel but is the Bentley Bentayga Diesel up to the brand's luxurious standards?
Verdict
The cheapest Bentayga is also the best proposition for UK customers. The diesel engine is strong enough for rapid performance and refined when cruising, but brings benefits in real-world range and potential tax bills that give it real appeal over the W12. Bentley claims that a lot of high-end Range Rover customers have already been attracted by petrol editions of the Bentayga; we can see plenty more being swayed by this version. It may be Bentley’s first diesel, but it’s a great one.
The
Bentley Bentayga SUV has already been a huge success for the British luxury manufacturer; depending on which market you’re in, the waiting list for the £150,000-plus creation is as long as two years. And that demand is only likely to grow with the addition of this new diesel variant - the first Bentley in history to not use a petrol engine.
There is a risk involved in this, of course;
Bentley is known as a brand that mixes luxury with performance, and on the face of it, its traditional customers may not approve of sticking a smellier, dirtier fuel into their tank. But make no mistake: the new Bentayga diesel is a car that could only happen because Bentley knows there is demand for it. Well-heeled customers, it would appear, do get annoyed by regular visits to the filling station - not on grounds of cost, but because of the sheer inconvenience of it all.
In any case, the Bentayga’s diesel motor is a long way from your regular 2.0-litre TDI. It’s based on the same 4.0-litre direct-injection V8 unit that we’ve already seen in the immense
Audi SQ7, and is fed through an intelligent four-wheel drive system and an eight-speed automatic transmission. The motor features two twin-scroll turbos that operate at different areas of the rev range, and an electrically-driven supercharger that responds within 30 microseconds to offer improved response when you’re pulling away.
As a result, peak torque of 900Nm is delivered at just 1,000rpm and the peak power of 429bhp is delivered between 3,750rpm and 5,000rpm. That’s enough to take a vehicle weighing almost 2.4 tonnes from 0-60mph in just 4.6 seconds, and on to a top speed of 168mph, making the Bentayga the fastest diesel SUV in the world.
The efficiency is pretty remarkable for such a heavy vehicle too; claimed combined fuel economy is a respectable 35.8mpg and the Bentayga diesel emits just 210g/km. However, a more important figure will be its range; the car can go around 1,000 kilometres, or more than 620 miles, between fill-ups. That’s enough, Bentley claims, for it to get from London to Verbier, Bordeaux or the Scottish Highlands on a single tank.
From the outside, there are only a few visual cues that the Bentayga diesel isn’t a conventional petrol-powered Bentley. There’s subtle ‘V8 diesel’ badging on the bottom of the front doors, a ‘black matrix’ grille at the front end and a slightly different design of ‘twin-quad’ exhaust pipes at the rear.
The chassis gets air suspension as standard, and can be ordered with what Bentley calls Dynamic Ride - a system that uses the car’s 48V electrics to power active anti-roll bars designed to keep the car flatter during fast cornering. Should you wish to take your Bentayga off road, Hill Descent Control is included as standard, and you can also specify Responsive Off-Road settings that allow you to fine-tune the car’s parameters to the conditions.
That aside, it’s regular Bentayga - which means opinion-splitting styling and a cabin filled with just about enough sumptuous leather and high-grade wood trims to make you forget that you’re driving a car based on the Audi Q7. In fact, the diesel introduces a new, wider range of veneers to the Bentayga palette - although as always, there’s a plethora of additional options available beyond the regular brochure.
Indeed, should you want, you can spec your Bentayga diesel with further modifications from bespoke specialist division Mulliner, or the extraordinarily expensive Breitling Mulliner Tourbillon clock.
On the road, Bentley’s work with the V8 engine - which gets a different map, fuel feed system and exhaust set-up from the Audi’s - is clearly evident. The colossal torque is delivered in a more linear fashion than on the SQ7, with a more progressive approach at low revs that makes it easier to drive smoothly during tight manoeuvres. Once you’re up and running, though, the surge just doesn’t know when to give up; progress is swift, as you’d expect and, should you wish to rev the motor out, it’ll pull strongly to well beyond 4,000rpm.
Refinement is deeply impressive, too - another area where Bentley has made gains not just through the engine’s electronics but also through the exhaust and additional sound deadening. A cruise at 70mph barely requires 1,200rpm from the motor, and at that speed, you simply won’t hear it; in this respect, at the very least, the Bentayga V8 diesel does feel every inch a Bentley.
The chassis set-up is more agile than it probably needs to be; it’s pretty happy to change direction quickly, belying its near-2.5-tonne mass. The steering is quite light, particularly around the straight-ahead, but it’s surprisingly easy to trust it. And the gearbox is intelligent, with smooth, rapid shifts.
The only point where you may regret the Bentayga’s raw pace is if you over-commit to a braking zone; at this point, the weight can’t quite be disguised. But a measured, intelligent approach to getting somewhere quickly will, well, get you there extremely quickly. You’ll be comfortable, too, for while body roll is well contained in corners, the Bentayga does a decent job of soothing out road bumps as well. It can feel a teeny bit wallowy over speed bumps, but on the whole, it’s extremely well resolved.
Our Spanish test route did take in a small chunk of off-roading on dirt tracks turned into a mudbath by unseasonal amounts of rain. The vast majority of Bentaygas will barely get dirty, let alone go off road - but the car showed sufficient ability for us to be able to say with some confidence that it’s likely to satisfy all but the hardiest Range Rover devotee in this regard.
Key specs
- Model: Bentley Bentayga Diesel
- Price: £135,800
- Engine: 4.0-litre, V8, twin-turbodiesel
- Transmission: 8-speed auto, four-wheel drive
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/bentley/bentayga/97941/new-bentley-bentayga-diesel-2017-review
