Bentley Bentayga vs Range Rover - a luxury SUV comparison

Bentley Bentayga new take on the old champion SUV, the Range Rover.

If you are a head of state nonagenarian English and you want to let your husband of 94 years to encourage leaders of the free world and his wife around, you really only have one choice of transport. At least, until now you only have one choice. You do this with the Range Rover.

And if you're going to do it in every Range Rover, may I suggest one SVAutobiography newfangled models? It's a little awkward name recognition that people with unmentionable amount of money does not always want to be seen in a supercar or what might be mistaken for the airport limousine. They may be ready to spend a tremendous amount on a 4x4.

It seems blindingly obvious now, but until now, as if there has been a cap on SUV money can ask for. But as Roger Bannister violated four-minute mile, once they do, everyone realizes they can. Therefore Bentley Bentayga, which has been a quiet debate, should-we ought - we are projecting at Bentley Motors until Wolfgang Durheimer arrived as gaffer Bentley (the first time) in 2011 and just told them to get on with it. He saw what he had done for the Porsche Cayenne.

The next year, we all take a deep breath and a step back when he pulled the covers from the concept of EXP 9 F at Geneva motor show; Durheimer even talk to a guy with a falcon on his arm can not quite distract from his face.

Today? Well, EXP 9 F has been turned into something a little less visible, but still unmistakably Bentley. With the nose, can not be anything else. I do not know whether the SUV just a natural fit with Bentley more than a Porsche, or are we just more accustomed to the presence of 4x4s, but here it is. But being a Bentley brings with it some extensive demands.

As? They're not going to let it out the door unless it has a top speed of 187mph and can do a passable impression of a sports car while it was in it. Which means it must have 600bhp. Which means got a 6.0-liter W12 engine twin-turbocharged because, this being a Bentley, it was pretty tough because, being a Bentley, there are a lot of buffalo leather and burr veneer there. It is, after all, a luxury car. Oh, and it's an SUV, and there is an outside chance that someone printed will decide they want to raise the edge of a sand dune without getting stuck, or 3.5 tonne towing boats and trailers from one of the large lakes without rolling back into one. Plus - truly one of the most difficult things to do in the car - raising some wet grass at the races. All the while retaining the ability to do 187mph. I do not think there is a modern car by sending Bentayga broader than this.

To that end, then, Bentley has the VW Group threw the entire company. This platform, in essence, together with the Audi Q7, but it is inconceivable that Bentley could make this car is not all you want without the adoption of a 48V system that shares SQ7 Bentayga with the (driven on P34). There is no cost-increasing electric engines here (W12 6.0 liter with two turbo because it is regarded as quite enough already, thank you), but it has a meaty, electronically controlled active anti-roll bars to slack off when the car going straight to give Bentley type of ride quality it wants not been able to unite in the corners to deliver the kind of body control needed.

Range Rover is a little more old-fashioned. Or, at least, that its remit was nailed to a few decades earlier. It is a car that is comfortable in his skin - a luxury car (although Bentley would consider the premium is not a luxury, one suspects) that can be quite far from the road. A very long way off the road, in fact, you have to ask for, and people sometimes do. Or if they do not, they expect to easily get them to where they ask to go, where to back up capabilities quite convincing. Alan Titchmarsh You do not need to water your geraniums, but it would be nice to know he's got the skills at hand.

But even in the premium / luxury (exit arguing among yourselves), the Range Rover has never asked for a car to quite do this before: sell at £ 149,800 before the options in the form of short wheelbase petrol V8's.

So what do you get? Knurling. Many knurling, diamond-shaped end to the metal surface. There are also a lot of wood and leather everywhere, including around two rear seats individuals, who get the TV screen, heating and ventilation, and it says that every time we stopped to take photos of the Bentley, I came back to find the driver Range Rover in one of the rear seats.

But that was before I was more interested in - believe me, Michelle, the rear of the car either really very good indeed - because of the intrinsic character of the two cars are very different. Even the driving position they give some away.

Range Rover first, then, because it was your car will be easier to find. You sit up high, there are many areas of glass (windows stretching for half under my arm) and, as a pilot boat, you are given quite a view - of which the front end of the bonnet and the flat side of the large door mirrors. Range Rover is a large car (4999mm long and 1983mm wide), but it does not always feel on the road. This is a car that feels big enough to places like the United States but it is still as it was developed to narrow English country lanes. Which, I guess, it was.

So, too, is a Bentley, but no, you can not help thinking, the same amount of thought for threading through the narrow, muddy gateways on the way to the field shooting. (At 5141mm and 1998mm, it is longer and wider.) The driving position is lower and the window line is much higher - up to my shoulder. But, by gum, it is not half as nice here.

Bentley Bentayga

Range Rover

Sitting in the Range Rover in isolation and you would think that it was a great place. No leather, no wood, no knurling, all of it. But then jumps to Bentley and you realize why the 'luxury' manufacturers sometimes get a bit sniffy about the whole world. There in detail (see separate story, overleaf). This veneer impeccably completed and attached to another lump of solid wood. You can not lighten your finger down and bend it. Where there was what looked like a metal, that is metal. And Bentley leather is first rate. In the Range Rover, there is ruffles on the leather steering wheel where it was sewn. Not so in Bentley.

Yes, at £ 160 200, Bentley is more expensive and there is plenty of space to make the initial price by two. But while the Range Rover feels like it was pushed out of my comfort zone, which Bentayga almost did not get into its stride.

Is it better to drive, though? Yes, if you accept the premise that it should do more than the Range Rover. Because if you want the best-riding, most comfortable car, the Range Rover is one. Had a long journey and easier throttle pedal, steering wheel greasy - maybe a little too little self-centered around straight forward - and that contributes to what makes a very relaxed gait. If I would trust 94 years with the US president in any car, this'd right up there. This likely will smooth out surface imperfections better if not on 22in wheels, but you hear, rather than felt, the worst surface. And the engine, which has been tweaked for SVR-spec Range Rover Sport with 542bhp, sounding pretentious.

It is not as fast as Bentley, though. There is a touch of lag at low revs in Bentayga, but then it really costs. the claim is that, in 4.0sec, 1.1sec faster it to 60mph than the other of the Range Rover. faster, supercharged SVAutobiography response does not always make it feel like it, but after a short spool turbo, Bentley flies.

To try to manage all of that should be done, which Bentayga got three chassis modes: Comfort, Sport and Bentley, the middle path recommended that closer to the Sport of Comfort. It's a little too close for my liking - we were on 22in wheels again, which probably did not help - but even in Comfort, it can not deflect enough bumps and Range Rover. That's not good enough, though, and if you ask a lot of things on a winding road, the payback is there. tight body control and steering straight, and although it was nose-heavy touch, grip and how it went pretty remarkable. Such as off-road capability, the dynamic prowess probably will not get tested all that often, but it's good to know it's there.

Is the do-everything Bentayga Status of this compromise? Undoubtedly. Remove one of the three it should be - a luxury, sport and versatile cross country - and it will be able to perform the remaining two is even better. And with the V8, it might sound better (it was mediocre as it stands) and feel more agile.

But although this may not Bentayga perfect, it was not enough to see what it is not perfect Range Rover. Inside, it feels too Accessorize SVAutobiography diamante to be comfortable in £ 150k, while Bentayga entirely happy where it is. Range Rover is a better car at a price much more reasonable. Bentley is the only - and by definition, the best - luxury 4x4. And it will take an impressive car to beat it.

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