Let’s get the painful bit out of the way. If you want a Continental R, rob banks, have rich parentage, be Richard Branson.
It’s almost £200k to buy, it’s in insurance group 20, it’ll cost you an arm and a leg to tax, it’s absolutely not a reasonable choice for company car users and if you are lucky, you’ll get 25mpg from it. If you are rich enough to afford this, you’ll be rich enough to run it, that’s the reality.
Is it worth the price? Depends where you are coming from. Some might say that for a car to have so little space inside is a profligate waste of resources and we would probably agree. But if it’s interior space you need, don’t buy a coupé, and in truth there’s more room in the Continental R than either of its rivals from Aston Martin, the Ferrari 456 GT or BMW 850 CSi. Only the Mercedes S600 coupé offers more space in exchange for a considerable chunk of grace, which we would consider to be a more important consideration for a coupé.
Essentially there’s enough room for two adults and two children to travel at long distances without fights breaking out in the back. Four averagely proportioned grown-ups can complete short journeys in at least tolerable comfort.
Of course it’s lovely inside, but there are some flaws. We would want more rearward travel on the seats, while the seat squab itself is set a shade too high. The dials are attractive but they can be a little hard to read and the layout is cluttered. Still, it is a wonderful car in which to sit. The brilliant split-level air con works well and the classy CD system moves you one step closer to Utopia. It’s not motoring as such, more a profoundly pleasant way to pass the time during the course of which you happen to be transported around the country.
