Bentley Continental GT W12 2019 long-term review

There’s been no journey I haven’t enjoyed in it, although naturally, given its grand tourer title, it’s most thrilling on long stretches where one can extort the 626bhp available from the W12, and the glorious, rare-these-days sound that comes with it.

An early drive from London to North Yorkshire not only proved that the W12 never runs out of torque but also showed the true meaning of wafting. The smoothness interlaced with exceptional ride comfort felt, at times, as if I was almost floating.

Ride comfort – crucial for a GT – never failed, and on a lengthy French road trip, not once was I uncomfortable or fidgety. The Bentley has become the benchmark for comfort in all cars I drive. After much playing with Bentley’s four driving modes – Sport was too hard for me and Comfort meant not-quite-right wheel control – I concluded that the ‘Bentley’ mode was perfect, and presumably why it was created.

It wasn’t until I’d racked up a few hundred miles in the car that I came to notice one of the Conti’s subtler technologies – the intelligent coasting system, which predicts a gear and engine control based on the road ahead or speed limits, for example. For me, this is a perfect example of clever, understated technology that helps improve drivability and efficiency.

The looks of this third-generation Conti are what sells the car – and I found the styling grew and grew on me – but it’s inside that makes this car really special and, keeping in mind we had £50,000 worth of extras, you’d hope that was the case.

The £4700 rotating display remains a highlight, simply for being cool, although I rarely took it off the screen. It’s a bit of a gimmick but one that impressed every single person I showed it to. Other keepers were the £8095 Mulliner Driving Specification, which 80% of Conti buyers opt for and includes seat quilting, ‘diamond-in-diamond’ embroidery and Bentley emblems, plus our good-looking 21in alloy wheels.

The City Specification (£3960) is arguably worth it just for the top-view camera if you’re parking anywhere other than wide, open drives and the top-level Naim sound system (chosen by 40% of buyers) was deeply satisfying. We also had the Touring Specification (£6195), which includes adaptive cruise control, lane assist, Bentley Safeguard Plus and Night Vision.

It’s easy to stick to traditionalist views when driving a W12 Bentley: a car is for pure driving enjoyment, and that’s it. But, honestly, in a grand tourer, semi-autonomous driving functions are the perfect complement on long motorway journeys, when the car can keep itself in lane and steer as necessary. Of course, it’s not yet legal to take your hands off the steering wheel, but experiencing the Continental’s capabilities is a reassuring vision of the future when autonomous driving could be welcome after a long day in the office.

What’s bad about the car? Not much. Ed-in-chief Cropley spent a fair bit of time in the Conti and thoroughly enjoyed it but commented that the “engine transmission can occasionally be jerky at low speeds and revs” and reckoned its 23-25mpg “is not so special” these days.

There was also unanimous criticism of the switchgear. Given how much of it there is, the design is neat, but with so many controls in the central console, it’s perplexing that there are also so many menus within menus on the touchscreen. After three months with the car, I still hadn’t found a way to select my favourite radio stations (as opposed to going through the entire radio list) via the steering wheel controls.

The only other criticism is the price. It’s hard to know what quality, feel and experience warrants a £208,765 car. For a humble motoring journalist, it’s steep despite its brilliance, but for those who can own a Continental GT, there’s every chance that this is the price they’re willing to pay for something very special indeed.

Second Opinion

There’s loads to like about the Continental GT: the sense of occasion, comfort levels and the solid way it feels put together are all luxuries. So, too, is its 500-mile range on a tank – important because having time is, after all, a luxury. The GT is a special way to both travel and arrive
.

Matt Prior

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Love it:

Rotating display The Bond-esque coolness factor of the rotating display did not get old.

Clever headlights Matrix LEDs, masking blinding light from individual cars: driving on full beam will never be the same again.

Long-haul cruising The smooth, long legs of the W12 engine coupled with a blissful ride simply shrunk distances.

Loathe it:

Profusion of controls There must be a way to rationalise the switchgear and the infotainment system.

Unwanted attention The fear that you’ll arrive at the car to find a key line on the paintwork…

Final mileage: 5337

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Life with a Bentley Continental GT: Month 3

We sample Bentley’s customer car-speccing experience - 28th August 2019

It’s perhaps no surprise to learn that if you have the dosh to buy a Bentley, you can expect a personalised experience when speccing your car. This has long been the case, but Bentley is bringing it to the digital age with its Bentley Network app.

We’re already in our Continental GT, so we did a hypothetical exercise to spec my next Bentley in the way that so many loyal Bentley owners do.

First up is the questionnaire. Having shown interest in a new car, I receive a link in my Bentley app inbox. It asks questions aimed at someone with a far more grandiose lifestyle than me, but I do my best: favourite watch (Cartier), fashion (Chanel), lifestyle brands, hotel (Sugar Beach St Lucia), cars (always hard but I picked a Merc Pagoda, Audi Quattro, BMW ‘E31’ 8 Series and Porsche 365), all of which paint a picture of what my preferences might be.

Five days later, via the app, I receive two moodboards in PDF form from senior interior designer Jonathan Punter, who introduces himself and explains the themes. There are two options: Dark Sapphire Exterior/Imperial Blue and Linen Interior (pictured) and Dove Grey Exterior/Damson Interior. They’re both up my street – understated but with interesting details. The first is my favourite.

Punter says it’s “a sophisticated interpretation of the contrasting elements of beach and ocean inspired by the rich deep blues and contrasting light sands of the tropics”. Contrasting elements, he says, such as the exterior brightware and interior contrast stitch details, are “often seen in classic products such as Cartier watches combining rich navy, chrome and high-contrast detailing within the watch face”.

The moodboards are meant as a starting point: Bentley head of interior design Brett Boydell says he’s never finalised the spec of a car exactly the same as the moodboard.

“You get two kinds of customers,” he explains. “‘I know exactly what I want’ versus ‘you tell me’. I encourage people to go for something you can only do in a Bentley. A totally black interior is a waste in a Bentley. The default interior colour is beluga or linen. But a duo-tone can really bring the interior to life.”

I stop the design process there, mindful I’ve already taken up plenty of time. But the next step would be firming up my car’s specification with an assigned designer. Ideally, says Boydell, this step would be face-to-face: “If the customer is at Jack Barclay (in London) it is feasible, but if they are on the other side of the planet, we look at other ways – for example, FaceTime or Zoom.”

The service is also offered by other means, such as text or email. At this end of the market, the customer gets what the customer wants.

Can Bentley’s designers really afford the time for this customer interaction? “It’s something we’ve committed to,” says Boydell. “It has to be a designer – that’s what makes it an authentic experience.”

Love it:

Impressive economy No one buys a W12 Bentley for good economy, but 26.9mpg is welcome nonetheless.

Loathe it:

Errant driver assist A driver ahead braked harshly and the Conti’s auto braking did the same. I found its collision warning was set to ‘late’. I changed it.

Mileage: 10,007

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Can our luxurious grand tourer live up to its name on a road trip around France? - 14th August 2019

The continent in a Continental. It had to be done. The original plan was to re-enact the route of Le Train Bleu, a train which ran between Calais and the French Riviera and against which one of the Bentley Boys, Woolf Barnato, famously raced in the 1920s. Time and funds did not quite permit such an excursion, however, so instead I concocted my own road trip of Bentley-based highlights.

It started, as most do, at the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkestone.

In the same way that the Bentley Boys would doubtless be in awe at the engineering feat that is a modern-day Bentley, I wonder what would surprise them more: this car or a tunnel under the sea to France? Much concern was had over getting into the overheight carriage rather than a standard one, given the width of the Continental and its easily scuffed alloys. So I queued defiantly for the ‘overheight’ carriage despite not having booked such a ticket (ignorance rather than arrogance), and when every other non-overheight car got shooed towards the normal carriages, the stern-faced woman pointed me the right way and I let out a sigh of relief.

The first leg of our trip was the final section (albeit in reverse) of the route taken by Le Train Bleu. Today’s train from Calais to Paris would take around half the time of our W12-powered route. But I’d confidently say – despite the French rail network’s superiority over ours – that the Continental would be everyone’s favourite, given the choice.

My partner and I mile-munched our way along the motorway – not a test of dynamism but certainly a test of effortless grand touring. Not once were we restless or uncomfortable. The most exciting part of that leg came at a péage near Paris where we were greeted by the mayhem of the Gilets Jaunes. One common thread in the Continental is feeling conspicuous, and nowhere was this more true than here. We smiled as the protesters swarmed the car, in the hope that such a blatant display of wealth wouldn’t aggrieve them.

All was fine, and then through no fault of our own – an important note for any Gendarmerie reading this – one of the protesters blocked us from paying for the toll, took our ticket and we were away free, having saved a good €20.

Our first hotel stop was in the stunning town of Fontainebleau. A requirement for every hotel I booked was free car parking, but what I didn’t know was that this hotel had an underground car park with an acutely narrow entry and exit. We escaped unscathed but with plenty of hand directions from my co-driver and some enthusiastic horns from delightful French drivers behind us.

The next run was towards the heart of the Loire valley, on a mixture of country roads and motorways. Plenty of flat, open lanes with great visibility gave the perfect chance to gently test the impressive dynamism of which I’d been assured the GT is capable, despite its heft – 2250kg – and my anxiety at keeping a £210,000 car pristine.

I kept things relatively tame but can absolutely see the GT’s potential. And despite many tweaks to the driving modes (Sport, Comfort, Custom), I can confirm that ‘Bentley’ mode is the best. Cruising effortlessly through forest-filled country roads with the odd rond-point, I noticed the GT’s intelligent coasting system kick in a few times. Cleverly, the engine and gearbox ECUs are linked to the sat-nav, meaning the car selects a gear and engine control based on the road ahead, speed limits and so on.

For the next couple of days we ambled from chateau to chateau with only one grumble: amid a heat wave, I returned to the car and was greeted with the message ‘stop-start engine fault, function unavailable’, which then seemed to rectify itself almost immediately. Talking of the heatwave, the GT deserves a gold star for the rapid efficacy of its air-con, making the cabin a welcome retreat on many occasions during our trip.

Onwards to the motorsport haven of Le Mans. First stop was to see my nine-year-old godson, who spent a full 30 minutes looking at every line of the GT. A post-dinner treat was a brief demonstration of the GT’s straight-line acceleration, which, suffice to say, left him thrilled. The next day we headed to the Mulsanne straight, part of the famous Le Mans 24-hour track.

In case you don’t know the connection, 96 years ago, at this very place, WO Bentley refused to watch one of his customers take part because his cars weren’t designed to race. The car set a lap record and would have won had it not been for a hole in the fuel tank. With Bentley’s support, the marque won the next year, 1924, and again from 1927-30.

Ours was a brief visit, and one sadly done at a sedate speed, but the thought of 1920s Bentleys tearing down this strip was enough to thrill this modern-day Continental driver. After another chateau stay (yes, it’s a tough life), our final sojourn was Le Touquet and the Westminster hotel, an art deco residence favoured by the Bentley Boys, who escaped to the seaside town from London for weekends of revelry and gambling.

It was here that Jack Barclay (of the Mayfair Bentley retailer) accrued such a large gambling debt that his mother had to bail him out before banning him from racing and telling him to focus on his car sales business. I can’t say we did Le Touquet in the fashion of the Bentley Boys, but it was a charming place nonetheless and satisfyingly close to Calais.

The overheight carriage gamble didn’t go quite as smoothly on the way home, by the way, although my pidgin French got us the desired result after some friendly debate. Some 1800 miles later, I’d happily do the trip – and more – all over again. If you can ignore the conspicuity and tight manoeuvring, I can’t imagine a car more deserving of its grand tourer title.

Love it:

Ace air conditioning Possibly the most speedy, efficient air-con I’ve come across. Perfect for 40deg C-plus in France.

Loathe it:

Restricted view My favoured seating position means there’s an annoying blind spot around the right door mirror.


Mileage: 9683

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Life with a Continental GT: Month 2

Our Conti heads to the workshop for a quick once-over - 7th August 2019

With a road trip in the works, it seemed the ideal time to experience Bentley’s aftersales service. We were lucky enough to have had the Continental GT thoroughly serviced before it arrived at Autocar, so the sensible choice was a simple health check, just to ensure everything was as it should be.

I turned up at Jack Barclay Aftersales in Wandsworth, London, on a Friday morning, and already I’d behaved contrary to the typical Bentley owner. On arriving, David Fellowes, group aftersales director of HR Owen, Jack Barclay’s umbrella firm, explained that 95% of cars serviced at the site are picked up and delivered back to the owner. As a Continental GT ‘owner’, I’m most likely to book in work myself, but if I owned a Mulsanne or Flying Spur, it would be my staff instead. I don’t have any staff, unless I can describe my boyfriend as such...?

You might have read our feature on the outfit recently but suffice to say, this place operates in parts of society that most of us can hardly imagine. There’s a Porsche 959 in the corner being stored for a loyal client, plus two Rolls-Royces which were shipped in containers from the Middle East for servicing here, such is the prestige of the place. It’s hard to know what secures this level of demand (aside from excellent customer service, which Fellowes assures me the firm delivers), but it does hold the Royal Warrant, which must go some way to impressing legions of dignitaries and the rest.

After my car is washed (hoorah!), it’s parked on one of the centre’s 23 ramps and the technician, Rory Pankhurst, works through a long checklist, with the car in three positions: on the floor, and then at two different elevated heights. The inspection includes a full systems check of around 40 control modules via a diagnostics machine, a fluid level check and a nose under the bonnet, plus a careful look inside and out to seek any imperfection. Higher up on the ramp, Pankhurst looks at suspension, brakes, tyres, wheels, cooling system, gearbox and more. He says it’s a careful process to ensure he doesn’t mess up the air suspension’s tolerances.

Pankhurst has worked here for six years, starting on a three-year apprenticeship. He went to Mercedes-Benz for a year which, he says, “allowed him to appreciate the pedigree of Bentley”, before returning. He’s a novice compared to most of the 14 technicians at Jack Barclay Bentley Aftersales, given that the average length of service here is 27 years (the longest-serving member of the team is a 46-year veteran).

The health check takes around 40 minutes. How much? It’s happily a free service, although any suggested work comes at a price, of course. Once the health check is completed, I receive an email update detailing any recommended work and through which I can press a button to give the go-ahead to anything I want done.

Our Conti was all fine, except for a query on its tyres. Now, I’m not saying that Squires Prior and Calo, who borrowed the car for a video, had anything to do with the slightly worn tread but… To replace all four came to the princely sum of £1786.96. I didn’t press the ‘accept’ button.

Jack Barclay has recently introduced a service plan, which is novel at this end of the market. The first two services of a Continental GT (or Bentayga) would cost £1595, which saves around £600, I’m told.

Love it:

Experience to savour The joy of running a Bentley hasn’t worn off. Climbing in to the luxurious cabin, firing up the W12, gliding down the road… delightful.

Loathe it:

Shine whine Catch the sun at the wrong time and the reflections in the Piano Black dash veneer can be unnervingly distracting.

Mileage: 9670

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Matrix LEDs in the spotlight - 17th July 2019

I tried the headlights’ auto-dimming function for the first time recently and was impressed by the clever matrix LED technology. The lights remained on high beam but tracked oncoming cars and masked out that bit of blinding light until the car had passed. It worked flawlessly, even with more than one car coming at me. The tech ensured excellent visibility on the (very dark) road.

Mileage: 8407

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Bentley Drivers Club event in Yorkshire stretches our car’s long, London-based legs - 3rd July 2019

"The Arnage is comfortable, quiet and has the prestige of being a Bentley,” says David Spencer, proud owner of a 2005 Arnage and organiser of the East Midlands branch of the Bentley Drivers Club.

I’ve driven to North Yorkshire on a Friday in our Continental GT long-term test car to meet a few club members at the start of their weekend of local driving tours, to discuss their experiences of owning a Bentley. It’s my first long drive since the Continental’s arrival on the Autocar fleet, and it’s a glorious one. The further I get away from London, the more the roads – and the car – open up and its credentials as a grand tourer are quickly proven. Each time I have the chance to accelerate rapidly, I’m thrilled by the linear progress and the ride comfort. It feels as wafty as I’ve yet experienced in a car, although perhaps that’s a reasonable expectation when your car costs £210,000...

Spencer’s take on his Bentley is a recurring theme among these owners. Although today Bentley endeavours to have far more focus on performance and dynamics in its line-up, and particularly in the Continental, comfort is still crucial.

As you might expect of Bentley owners, most people I speak to have an impressive fleet of cars. Spencer enjoys a Jaguar XJ Sovereign as his daily driver, has a Jaguar E-Type and names his favourite a Triumph Stag.

He has been a Bentley owner since 2006 but didn’t acquire the Arnage until 2017. Why did he buy it? “I like the brand. I’m a driver rather than someone who owns a Rolls, where you sit in the back. With a Bentley, you don’t look like a snob, whereas if you drive a Rolls… I like driving it all the time in Lincolnshire, where I live. It’s got 42,000 miles on it and I’m going to keep it for the long haul.”

The joy of an owners club is the breadth of Bentleys present. Alongside the Arnage is a Mk VI Mulliner from 1948. Paul Flower tells me he’s only the third owner after the car spent many years in a garage. “We took out the engine and rebuilt it. Everything is original. It took 18 months,” he says.

Flower owns four Bentleys in total, including an R-Type. But the Mk VI Mulliner is the one he uses the most. “I bought it to enjoy it. A car like this is a lot more reliable than other vintage cars. We did 1200 miles in Scotland. They just drive and drive as WO Bentley intended,” he says.

And then there’s Pat Connock, who has a 1949 Mk VI Special, which she has owned since 1980, having been brought up in a family that had a 1925 4.25-litre. When I ask how long she has been a member of the owners club, she swiftly responds: “Bentley Drivers Club. We drive. We don’t own.” I stand corrected.

“I’ve driven thousands and thousands of miles in it. I have a Volvo for Sainsbury’s but I feel at one with this car,” she says.

“My favourite trip was in the Outer Hebrides. You’re at one with the landscape with the hood down.” There’s little more satisfying than being around people who truly love driving their cars. And there’s plenty of interest in our Continental, too, with people enthused by mod cons such as the Bentley logo projector and rotating display.

Next morning, I head home at dawn from a sleepy Yorkshire village. It’s the perfect time, place and roads for dream motoring in the Continental. So much so that, when I arrive home, I look at house prices in the area. I can commute from Yorkshire, right?

Love it:

Effortless progress Waft. Waft. Waaaaaft. Get the idea?

Loathe it:

attention grabber It’s understated in grey but still feels conspicuous.

Mileage: 6601

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Life with a Continental GT: Month 1

Direct competitor makes its presence felt - 12th June 2019

Our Bentley met its most direct rival: another hand-finished British grand tourer with 12 cylinders and more than 600bhp. The Continental GT and the Aston Martin DB11 AMR also cost not dissimilar money. The Bentley feels more luxurious, more refined, although it’s heavier and less agile. The verdict? Watch the video on our website to find out.

Mileage: 6338

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Welcoming the Continental GT to the fleet - 5th June 2019

When Bentley revealed its third-generation Continental GT in late 2017, it promised “a paradigm shift in driving performance”. In layman’s terms: the Crewe-based maker wanted to get the attention of those buyers typically devoted to a certain Stuttgart marque not named Mercedes…

The aim, beyond captivating Porsche buyers, was to appeal to both loyal and new customers and be “even more agile without compromising luxury”, helped by a new chassis, suspension, W12 engine and dual-clutch eight-speed gearbox. Given that the Continental remains Bentley’s second biggest seller – outranked only by the successful Bentayga SUV (just) – it’s not a formula to mess with. Bentley is set to sell 12,000 cars in 2019, an increase of 2000 over last year, and 5000 of those will be Continentals, of which 500 will be in the UK.

And for all of Bentley’s desire to attract younger, more sports car-orientated owners, let’s be honest: a large proportion of these cars will be bought by those already familiar with the Continental formula. There’s no official Continental customer profile but, anecdotally, UK buyers tend to be in their 50s and male.

Bentley’s intentions for the latest Conti have succeeded – to an extent – according to our road test. We gave it 4.5 stars and said it retained all the “lavishness, top-level luxury and first-order touring refinement” of its predecessor while halving the gap between that second-gen car and the best handling cars in the super-GT niche. The Aston Martin DB11 V12 nudged just ahead in our rankings.

As well as the introduction of the impressive DB11 since the previous-gen Conti, the (much pricier) Rolls-Royce Wraith and Ferrari 812 Superfast have arrived. The new McLaren GT will also enter the mix. We’ve racked up some miles on the Continent in a Continental, when Andrew Frankel completed a mammoth 24-hour drive through 15 countries. In his sign-off, he noted: “I sat in that Bentley for an entire day and emerged without the smallest ache, and there can be no better measure of a car called Continental.” All of which bodes well for our next adventure in Bentley’s grand tourer…

I’m running a W12 Continental for three months to see what it’s like to live with day to day. I can’t pretend I have the house or garage of a typical Continental buyer – given that those I’ve met have upwards of three cars – but I will be doing some serious mile-munching and seeing if what appears an incredibly luxurious interior translates to usability, ease and comfort day in and day out. This is a chance for the Continental to prove its standing as the ultimate grand tourer in the comfort stakes, with an extra dose of dynamic driveability thrown in.

Now, the mind-blowing numbers. The 6.0-litre W12 engine produces 626bhp at 6000rpm and delivers 664lb ft of torque between 1350rpm and 4500rpm. Our acceleration tests achieved a 0-60mph time of 3.5sec and 0-100mph in 8.1sec. If you care, claimed combined economy is 20.3mpg. On the upside, it has a generous 90-litre tank so you’ll get upwards of 400 miles on a fill unless you’re a total hooligan (which, I’d like to think, Bentley drivers aren’t).

The Continental is priced from £159,100, but our car comes to a costly sum of £208,765 taking into account £49,665 of options. We have a handful of so-called ‘specifications’. Touring (£6195) gives you features such as lane assist, adaptive cruise control and heads-up display; City (£3960) includes a top-view camera, reverse traffic warning and handsfree boot opening; and Mood Lighting (£1490) does what it says on the tin.

Our most pricey extra is the Mulliner Driving Specification, at £8095. That doesn’t put off buyers: 80% of Continental GTs have this option and you can see why. It gives the interior an extra dose of the luxury you want in a Bentley. It includes quilted seats, embroidered Bentley emblems, sports pedals and diamond embroidery. Mulliner spec has 22in wheels as standard but you can go for 21s, as we have, for better ride comfort.

By far my favourite interior gimmick is Bentley’s rotating display in the central dashboard, in which you can alternate between a 12.3in screen or three traditional circular dials. When the engine is turned off, a third face sits flush to the rest of the dash design. It’s a £4700 option and two-thirds of buyers go for it. The other particularly expensive option on our car is the ‘Naim for Bentley’ audio system, at £6500. Apparently, 40% of buyers opt for this set-up. All in all, we have 19 options. The bargain? A £250 air ioniser.

The first thing that strikes you about the Continental is its sheer presence inside and out. While it still looks like a Continental, its more mature, sleek lines are a sizeable upgrade to my eyes. Inside, it’s opulence epitomised. But will those formidable first impressions last? Let’s find out.

Second Opinion

I’ve yet to meet anyone who hasn’t loved being in a Bentley. But I also meet very few people who aspire to it. Part of the problem, I believe, is that few fully know what Bentley stands for. It’s arguably not as posh as a Rolls, nor as sporty as an Aston and thereby not as defined as either.

Jim Holder

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