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 as 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 and electric motor 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 even 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 0-60 in 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 going to 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 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 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? 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 James do it again. Row row row your boat gently down the stream. 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 think 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 B's 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 round 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 colour. Yes I have it goes with your top. Yes used to do motorsport in the 60s. Did you? Yes in the motor business not now I farm now but 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 will cost? Um telephone numbers that's all I can say. Yeah you're quite right it's about three hundred thousand pounds. It's absolute magic. It's lovely isn't it? I'm very happy with it. What do you think of it? It's not yours. I don't look like I can afford a Bentley is what she's saying. Thank you for 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 quieter. Yeah carry on guys. Hello hello Mr Postman how are you doing? What do you think of my car? Lovely. Do you like it? Just admiring it actually. It's good isn't it? Yeah it is very nice yeah very sleek. Do you know what it is? It looks like a Rolls. Almost. It's a Bentley yeah. Can you guess? Yeah then he's got the bit on the front. Can you guess how much this would cost? I reckon that will cost two hundred thousand. 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 are they show-off? Class. Okay they've got class. If you've got a Bentley you've got class. Class with a bit of money. Class with a bit of money. They're not 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 seat. 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 want to hit 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 Fortnit video review for the latest Rolls-Royce click on the pop-out band up there. There's going to be 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 pore walnut. It's quite expensive though. £6,000 extra this trim. It is lovely. I'd say 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 not 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 is the speaker grates. 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. You're not going to lose them. Down here there's wireless charging for your mobile phone. USB-C, USB-C 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 oldy-woldy 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 Spy 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 speed 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 threading 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. I'm absolutely fine going around here and that brings 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 I don't want to curb my alloy wheels. I've just kind of ruined my example but still there's just a tiny manoeuvre there at the end. And considering the length of this thing that's fine. I'll take that. I'll also take the brakes. Now hybrids can sometimes have grabby brakes. This doesn't because it's been Bentley'd. 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 so surprising. Now here's a completely different car to this 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 sorry Bentley. Okay so it's not quite as manoeuvrable as a micro lino. Let's um let's move on. We'll 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. Now 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. Six. Maybe six. Yeah six. I actually didn't 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 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 litres. Before with the old W12 it was actually 420 litres. Put it into perspective the boot capacity of a Volkswagen Polo is 350 litres. And that brings me 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 there? 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 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. What's that? Oh it's just 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 because at either side of you you're going to 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 going to 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? Yeah okay so this car we haven't got it operational because I'd have to go to a 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 Bentley. Yeah so I'm going to put this on my Instagram and you sit down on it. It's supposed to go down. It's all right. It's all right. Just joking. It didn't go up. I love the way that you can go from the modern high tech then press a button and go for a little bit of oldie worldie Bentley style. 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. Not sure I like it that much after all. Here's another expensive option. It's 10,200 pounds and it's the Akrapovic 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. Oh yeah. Proper fruity V8. 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 where it'll 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 Spa 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 in a Bentley. Or maybe you should. One of the problems with the hybrid tech on this car is that it adds weight. 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 discs gripped by 10 piston calipers. At the rear you've got 380 millimeter discs 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 out my price range. Well I found a Bentley Continental GT on CarWow for £44,000. It's from 2015 and 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 CarVertical. Did a CarVertical history check on that Bentley on CarWow? Came back completely clean but that's not always the case and I'll show you why in a minute. First though 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 CarVertical report would make you stop and think again before buying this particular Bentley Continental GT because according to CarVertical 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 CarVertical 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 CarVertical 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 CarVertical 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 and 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 I've got soft close and a central armrest what's this did that again listen that's great isn't it so we've got a headrest there for the central seat but 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 jump out well 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 going 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 yep 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 it to comfort mode that's better slack and suspension right off and it's really luxurious 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 it's pleasant but after a while that could get on your nerves oh yeah actually 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 on 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 with 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 sporty setting and go to manual because it's a dual clutcher 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 Bentley 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 you on to my final verdict on the new Bentley Flying Spa 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 Spa 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 Spa 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 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