Bentley Flying Spur: The BEST car I’ve EVER reviewed?

This is the new Bentley Flying Spur and it's a little bit like an offshore bank account because if you're a wealthy company director you can use it to avoid paying too much tax. No, I said avoid not evade tax. Tax evasion is illegal. Tax avoidance? Perfectly legal. Anyhow, I'm going to tell you exactly why it can reduce your tax bill in this video. I'm also going to talk you around the exterior. Row, row, row your boat. Show you the interior. Feel the noise. I'm going to put it through a series of performance tests. Take it for a drive and find out just how much people think this car is worth. What do you think of it? It's not yours. I'm Matt Watson, you're watching Car Wow. The old Bentley Flying Spur was available with a 6 litre W12, a 4 litre V8 and a 3 litre V6 hybrid. Now this latest version, they're all V8 hybrid. So you've got a petrol engine, an electric motor driving all four wheels via an 8-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. However, power is up. So the entry-level cars have 680 horsepower and 930 newton meters of torque. But the range-topping models have 782 horsepower and 1000 newton meters of torque. And that means more performance than any other Bentley saloon before. So let's just see how quick this car actually is. I'm going to launch this car and measure it from 0 to 60 miles an hour. See how quick it does a standing quarter mile in and I'm going to measure it over the standing half mile as well. Left foot on the brake, floor the throttle, get the revs. Oh, that's good. Wow. 0 to 60, 3.3 seconds. What's the quarter mile going to be? 11.37 seconds. That's screeching out because of tyre pressures. Half mile, 17.77 seconds. Do you want to know if that was quicker than the old 6 litre W12? Well, here's that car in a drag race. So this car was quicker from 0 to 60 miles an hour and it was slightly quicker over the standing quarter mile, 11.3 seconds. I guess that's progress. Now the really clever thing about this car is that while it has more performance than the old 6 litre W12 flying spar, it's got far lower emissions because it's a hybrid. So this emits just 33 grams per kilometre of carbon dioxide. The old W12 was over 10 times that amount and that really matters if you have one of these cars as your company car because you're a director of, I don't know, a publicly listed company or something. It means you can have one of these instead of say something a little bit more normal like a Mercedes S class or a BMW 7 series hybrid. Now one of the other benefits about the hybrid system is that you can drive it on electric power alone. You've got a 22 kilowatt hour battery which will give you a range of up to 47 miles on electric power and it's quite punchy. You know, it's got 190 horsepower. I mean, yeah, this car is quite heavy but it should still be swift enough. Shall we find out just how quick it is on electric power and how long it can stay in electric only mode before the engine kicks in? So I'll turn this to comfort, go into EV mode. Here we go. Three, two, one, let's go. Come on. Come on 60. Are we going to hit the quarter mile before we hit 60? No. 13.8 seconds to 60 miles an hour, quarter mile, 19.43. What's our top speed? When's the engine going to kick in? We're doing 80, 82, 85, there we go, 86 and at that point we've crossed the half mile at 30.91 seconds. If you're on the very highest rate of tax here in the UK and you have the old W12 Flying Spur as a company car you're going to pay this much money to Rachel Reeves this year in car tax. However, with this new hybrid you will pay this much. Now it's not a small amount but it's significantly less and easier to swallow than for the W12 isn't it? And you know as a wealthy director you might be willing to suck it up just for some Bentley loveliness. You're probably wondering though what is the actual list price of this car on which that tax is calculated? So the Bentley Flying Spur starts from £190,000, however for the speed version which is what I base the tax on it starts from about £240,000. This car here with over £60,000 worth of options is £302,000. It's a lot of money isn't it? Now if you're thinking about getting a new car you're gonna have to sell your old car and if you want to find out the current value of your own car right now then just click on the pop-out button up there or scan the QR code on screen now or follow the link in the description of this video to get it valued on Carwow. You can then sell your car if you want to through Carwow and have dealers all across the country bid on it. Now if you want to do that at a later date just simply google Help Me Carwow and me and my team will help you change your car so sell your current car and then choose and then buy your next car. Which brings us back to this Bentley and does it really look worth how much it actually costs? Well do you know what? I think it does. Now Bentley has actually reworked the design ever so slightly as part of this midlife update and they've changed a few things so the speed now gets this kind of grey trim effect on various parts of the bodywork whereas the normal cars and the Mulliner have like a silvery chrome effect. All cars get beautiful headlamps and they've got matrix LEDs which will blank out part of their beam so they don't dazzle oncoming drivers. There is some fake vintage going on here and it does feel a bit cheap to have a plastic grille on a Bentley. It's metal on a Rolls Royce and then there's all the new safety systems and cameras and stuff for the cars which kind of look a bit odd here in the grille and that's the surround view there but let's move on let's ignore that. What we can't ignore though is this beautiful green paint with this yellow pinstripe it looks so good and the metallic effect of the paint is just to die for but so is the price it's a £19,000 option for this paint to work with the pinstripe. Speaking of options you get upgraded wheels with the speed you get 22 inches as opposed to the standard 21s they look lovely don't they? There's more of this kind of like grey trim and being the speed you've got the speed badging there on the side got beautiful kind of crease here in the shoulder line of the car and I just want to show you something all cars are fitted with acoustic glass to help reduce noise so I'm going to show you working now so James can you just do us a favour so James is a new dad he often sings this to his son to get him to sleep so go on James row row row your boat gently down the stream see you can hardly hear him it's better isn't it listen down the river if you see a polar bear don't think yeah we don't need to hear that now here's a comparison with a normal car go on row row row your boat gently down the stream if you see see there's a difference isn't there you can jump out now thanks for your assistance anyway you get soft close a standard lock soft close and on the rear of course but there is one thing I've noticed I don't this door sounds quite as expensive as the rest of the car feels just just like a like a normal car doesn't sound like a clunk that you'd get from like older Bentleys anyway probably thinking wow it's amazing how you managed to line up the bees so they're both pointing the right direction well it's because Bentley's copied Rolls Royce with the centre caps that always end up the right way nice anyway right at the back slightly redesigned rear bumper you've got a slightly sportier lower part of the bumper here on the speed other than that not much has changed yes we've got different exhaust pipes on this particular version but more on that later overall though I like the look of this and it does look suitably expensive but what will other people think hello do you like it of course I do it's absolutely fantastic you've got it in the right color yes I have it goes with did he yes in the motor business not now I farm now okay I appreciate something like this do you think that someone who has a car like this has a very nice life not necessarily because it could go through the business oh yeah because it's a plug-in hybrid as well so yeah so you can the emissions aren't terrible what do you think something like this would cost um telephone yeah you're quite right three hundred thousand pounds it's lovely isn't it well I'm very happy with it what do you think of it it's not yours I don't look like I could afford a Bentley is what she's saying thank you for the the not compliment have a good day hello can you turn that off it's a bit noisy actually you don't need to I can just put my window up yeah that's better isn't it that's quite uh yeah carry on guys hello hello mr postman how you doing what do you think of my car lovely do you like it it's admiring that actually it's good isn't it yeah it is very nice yeah very sweet do you know what it is it looks like a roll almost it's a Bentley yeah can you guess I was trying to talk a bit down yeah then he's got to be on the front can you guess how much this would cost I reckon that will cost yeah it starts from two hundred and forty thousand pounds so not bad and what do you think of someone who would have a car like this are they sophisticated or they show off class okay they got class you got Bentley you got class cars with a bit of money cheap to run well see you later bye we don't want to hold up people's mail what I actually think is the best place to enjoy this car from it's here in the driver's it just feels absolutely lovely the feeling of the steering wheel the controls the metal paddle shifters the different trims in this 3d effect trim here this diamond on the door it's just oh so nice this car's got a lovely alcantara headlining and just everything just feels super expensive oh yes they haven't really changed much Bentley with this interior but they didn't need to they have redesigned the seats so that's one thing but other than that it's pretty much as before there are a few things that aren't great though such as like bits of trim sometimes just don't quite line up which does my head in a little bit and I think overall a Rolls-Royce does have a slightly higher quality feel for instance on a Rolls-Royce you wouldn't have plasticky air vents they're just metal to see my four minute video review for the latest Rolls-Royce click on the pop-out band up there it's kind of a qr code on screen now or follow the link in the description of this video but I am literally nitpicking you can have so many different options in terms of trims and these bits of trims this is actually open pour walnut it's quite expensive though six thousand pounds extra this trim it is lovely I tell it's also lovely the infotainment system the screen is nice and sharp it's fairly responsive you've got wireless apple carplay and android auto it's all very easy to use and you've got buttons actual buttons for things like the climate control the heated seats no messing around through the screen I love that everything is electrically operated as it should be plenty of adjustment in the seats and you get a really good sound system you can upgrade to a 16 speaker Bang & Olufsen or you can go for over 20 speakers and 2200 watts with the name audio system it even has special bass speakers in the seat which vibrate you so you feel the noise one thing to watch out though with these name stereos though it's a speaker grate it's almost like a cheese grater you can file nails on that don't brush any parts of your body against it otherwise you'll need a skin graft okay other things to note storage cup holders decent size door bins very large and of course lined with leather glove box very nice and lined with felt and in here is a little box which has special wallets for the keys there's actually a special place in this car to keep the key obviously you've got keyless go but just here you see this it's a great place for your keys then you're not going to lose them down here there's wireless charging for your mobile phone usbc usbc and 12 volt socket i just love the way it blends the old with the new the dials are a good example so digital dials of course but they have an oldie worldie feel to them with this metallic surround and just the design of them they just look analog even though they're digital and that pretty much sums up this car and it's something that flows through into the driving experience you might be thinking this Bentley flying spot it's a big car surely it's a little bit tricky to drive in town but actually no no it's not now first things first being a hybrid you get the luxury of it just running on electric power alone as you travel at lower speeds so it's super silent and then there's the visibility which is surprisingly good i can tell where the corners of the car are yeah you wouldn't think you could but i'm quite confident in threatening it through this traffic in fact i'm going to go the difficult way around because i don't care look i don't care the only slight issue is the view out the back window but it's not terrible look i don't care i'm fine absolutely fine going around here and that brings me on to the turning circle so because you've got rear axle steering it's a mere 12.4 meters here's some shorter cars with worse turning circles now i'm going to pull up the surround view camera now can i really make it round here really am i going to do this i don't know if i'm going to do this so that's fine there oh oh no i've got a dilemma i've got a curb dilemma i'm not going to make that look don't want to curb my alloy wheels i've just kind of ruined my example but still it's just a tiny maneuver there at the end and considering the length of this thing that's fine i'll take that i'll tell you what i'll also take the brakes now hybrids can sometimes have grabby brakes this doesn't because it's been bentleyed they'll have worked on it forever to make sure that the braking is smooth because the last thing you want in a car that's designed as a limousine is to make the vip in the back feel sick by constantly jabbing the brakes on yeah this is great around town it's just i'm so surprising now here's a completely different car to this bentley for driving around town but what i'm going to do is try and follow it can i get through that gap like the micro lino can i am i going to regret this can i get down that gap oh i'm sorry bentley okay so it's not quite as maneuverable as a micro lino let's um let's move on we have to check that in a minute look this is kind of narrow but no problem still just driving around on electric power right i'm just going to park it let's see what damage i did please please please please don't be bad don't be bad don't be bad nothing just a load of dead flies i won't do that again and hopefully i'm not going to damage the car doing this demonstration as well so i'm going to see how much i can fit into this car's boot so it's one airplane size carry-on suitcase two three four five maybe six maybe six yeah six actually do you know what i forgot you're probably thinking what about that extra space oops it's a hybrid isn't it got to carry my charging cable so that'll go in there like that six with a charging cable bag it's not a whole lot considering the size of this car it's 5.3 meters long reason being because of the hybrid system and the batteries which are underneath the boot floor the boot capacity of this new bentley flying spur hybrid is 346 liters before with the old w12 is actually 420 liters and put it into perspective the boot capacity of a volkswagen polo is 350 liters and that brings on to five or nine things about the bentley flying spur there's little gaps where the trim meets the bodywork and it becomes a little collecting zone for polish look can you see see that here here and here trifling matters i know but i like trifle if you like the armrest in the forward position which i do the cup holder is then sort of useless or you can use a cup holder the control for the headrest is too close for the backrest for the front seat control so when you're moving the backrest you accidentally press the headrest button as well so you're reclining but also putting your headrest up often when you don't want to i've noticed that this trim on the dash is quite reflective and so when you're going past trees and stuff you get quite a bit of flickering it distracts you it's almost like watching a tv script oh what's that oh it's the trees that's not ideal while the standard fit wall floor mats are lovely you get a little bit of a problem a bit like when you've had a newly fitted wall carpet can you see you get all this kind of fluff now if these mats were just like cheap polyester mats like in many other cars you wouldn't have that issue the price of luxury however it's not all bad here's five cool things about the new bentley continental flying spur obviously this is a wide vehicle which can be problematic if you park into a normal size parking space cars at either side of you you're gonna find it difficult to either get in the car or out the car so what you can do is control it remotely using an app so you can drive it in and out of parking spaces such as this so here we go i'm gonna drive it forward imagine it coming out of a parking space so i can get in nice and easy look at that driving along on electric power alone all very very good what are you doing you why did you just stay yeah okay so this car we haven't got it operational because i'd have to go to a dealer and actually buy the car to get the app registered to my phone i can't afford to buy the car but you get the idea it's kind of a bit of a fake demonstration but it works in real life i love the way you can make the flying b rise majestically from the front of the bonnet look at that and see those glass bits there they illuminate at night plus it's got this feature so that it'll automatically retract if something knocks it so let's say you want to pose for instagram on the front of your instagram and you sit down on it it should also oh it's supposed to go down oh lewis lewis lewis it's all right it's all right just joking it didn't go i love the way that you can go from the modern high tech then press a button and go for a little bit of all the worldy bentley styley or just go do you know what i don't want to see any of that at all let's just keep things nice and clean with a bit of that that's really nice however of course it's optional it's 5 300 pounds i'm not sure i like it that much after all here's another expensive option it's 10 200 pounds and it's a krapovich sports exhaust but not only does it sound good when you tap it anyway it sounds good when the car is running so start it up fruity va now give it some revs there we go and again yes as well as the standard fit seats which are heated ventilated and have a massage function you can upgrade to the wellness system for 3 600 pounds and then it has this smart function will actually set the temperature that's right for your body constantly monitoring how hot you are and adjusting the heating and ventilation then there's also the postural adjustment so as you're driving along it'll constantly move ever so slightly so that you don't feel too fatigued by the time you get to the end of your journey now one of the big things about this new bentley continental flying spar is that it gets a lot of tech from the porsche panamera it's also got that car's torque vectoring on the rear axle which means apparently this might madness that's nuts you should be able to do that at bentley or maybe you should one of the problems so this thing is almost 2.6 tons which is a lot and obviously it's got a load of performance as well so it needs some big brakes and on the front you've got 420 millimeter disc gripped by 10 piston calipers at the rear you've got 380 millimeter disc gripped by four piston calipers i'm going to do a brake test now from 100 miles an hour and we'll see how long it takes to stop now i timed this the other day a similar kind of brake test in a porsche 911 gt3 we'll also measure the stopping distance from 60 miles an hour as part of that brake test and ideally you want it around 35 meters for that sort of distance now you might be thinking right looking forward to seeing that but matt what i really want is a bentley of my own but this is a bit at my price range well i found a bentley continental gt on carwow for 44 000 pounds it's from 2015 it has 46 000 miles on the clock now if you're thinking about buying a used car you should always do a history check on it and i recommend using car vertical did a car vertical history check on that bent on carwow came back completely clean but that's not always the case and i'll show you why in a minute first let's do this brake test three two one there we go now i'm gonna have to do some maths on this so braking from 100 was 308 feet which is 94 meters braking from 60 was 111 feet 34 meters that is really really good considering how big this car is it's good anyway but blimey this thing can stop anyway speaking of stopping this car vertical report would make you stop and think again before buying this particular bentley continental gt because according to car vertical that has a marker against it for having been stolen yeah you definitely don't want that do you but you do want to get yourself a car vertical history check for any used car you're thinking about buying and there's a link in the description of this video to go get a car vertical history check and you can just scan the qr code or click on the pop-up banner in the top right hand corner of the screen but here's the important thing make sure you use the code carwow for 20% off your car vertical history check another good thing about this car is just how comfortable it is here in the back seats the seats are absolutely lovely got this glorious cushion as well for my head you can adjust the seat back so you can go into a recline position move the base forward there's plenty of knee room plenty of foot space you can really stretch out headroom that's good as well as you can see this one has the sunroof and it opens as well it helps let light into the cabin makes it feel nice and airy and just the quality just extends all the way back here it's just the same as in the front i don't know if you've noticed that like everything is damped i mean just lovely bentley damping just slow elegant movements here's my favorite bit of damping actually so if i just pull this down underneath here you've got like some storage and you've got a 12 volt socket and your usb c's there as well you've got your cup holders under there but that's not what i want to show you i want to show you this damping look got soft close the central armrest what let's do that again listen that's great isn't it so we've got a headrest there for the central seat the central seat isn't all that so it's very narrow now you can get this car as a strict two-seater in the rear which is probably what you want to do because considering it's large we're quite close aren't we we're quite close it's not terrible for shoulder room but i really do just feel like i'm not in a great position on my little narrow seat uh what do you think lewis yeah it's okay not great on headroom it's okay isn't it but you know you're not going to be sitting like this in the back of a bentley are you go on jump out i've got a couple of other things to show you back here so look at this you have this screen that you can control stuff on and one of the things you can control the blind so you have blinds here it's going to get very dark it's getting dark outside right now good old british winter and look here control the blind at the back through there and if you want to not lean forward to operate it you just press this button and it pops out i wonder how many of these will end up getting lost or no i'll put it back there we go now we've got some nice pockets on the seat backs we've got some decent sized door bins a little bit of storage there overall this is a lovely place to sit however what really matters is what it's like being back here when the car's being driven so let's find out if it's any good i must say so far so good so i'm going to get james to accelerate from 30 miles an hour up to 70 blimey okay you know you're in a bentley you didn't accelerate for long i think we got there pretty bloody quickly is that correct james yeah so cruise along at 70 yeah it doesn't feel like i'm doing 70 it feels like i'm doing about 40 it's so relaxing what mode have you got the car in put into comfort mode that's better slack and suspension right off and it's really luxurious and there's a bit of road noise here in the back but it's not terrible no wind noise at all i'm absolutely loving it what's the economy 20 that's all right for a car this big and this fast that's not bad at all there is one last question and it's what is this car like on a country road how well does it handle well i'm going to stay in the back for this first bit because you want your driver to be able to whisk you along down some country roads without you feeling uncomfortable frightened and sick so james no pressure it's absolutely fine this bit of road is really quite bumpy i'm not feeling it at all really put the car into sports mode let's go to the most aggressive suspension setup so i'll give you a bit more fun but does it annoy me well i'm noticing that it's firmer but it's not uncomfortably so you do notice the exhaust quite a bit when it's in sports mode here in the back i can just hear it like rumbling away obviously you can actually customize all the different settings so i would probably change the engine noise and just have that in just the normal waffle rather than the burble if i'm in the back oh listen to that so it's pleasant but after a while that could get on your nerves oh yeah hopefully it changed my mind sounds really good but i think if you're trying to concentrate and do a phone call you might want to turn that down but i have to say we've gone down this twisty road i don't feel sick i feel absolutely fine it's comfortable enough even in sports mode i'm hugely impressed but i need to know what it feels like to actually drive myself on a twisty road so i'm going to jump in the front and i'm going to leave james but the side of the road fired now i'm going to move the gearbox out of automatic mode where it's very smooth even in the sport you're setting and go to manual because it's a dual clutch up i want to shift myself and the shifts are quick and responsive first corner what amazes me about this car is just how well it grips the road for something that weighs over two tons and then that hybrid system really gets the power down as soon as you plant your right foot i mean it's just on it straight away so much performance it's a big luxury limousine and you can actually have fun in it it's crazy what benley have achieved with this it's like the best of all worlds a fun car a luxurious car a comfortable car a quiet car a loud car it's just not an expensive and a cheap car that's the only problem if they could master that it'd be the best car in the world but as it is it almost very nearly is wow what a thing it's a true delight to drive whether you want to go slow whether you want to go quickly whether you want to drive it yourself or whether you want someone to drive you what a lovely lovely car life is definitely good and that brings me on to my final verdict on the new bentley flying spar but before that i just want to show you this now it's quite dark the beautiful puddle light look at that down there and the illuminated bentley on the cells plus you can really see the glowing wings of the flying b so then should you avoid the flying spar should you consider it should you shortlist it or should you just go right ahead and buy it well i reckon you should avoid the bentley flying spar but your company should definitely go right ahead and buy it for you if you're a director because it's an absolutely glorious machine and now it makes sense because it's a hybrid as a company car i'd love one i hope you'll enjoy the video if you did give it a like let me know what you think of this car in the comments if you want to watch some other videos click on the windows and if you want to get your car valued right now through carwow just click on the carwow logo thanks for watching and i'll see you next time