Bentley Continental

REPORT 7

£ 159,900 OTR/£200,345 as tested/£3,000pcm

WHY IT’ S HERE

Is living with luxe all it’s cracked up to be?

DRIVER

Ollie Marriage

LET’S TALK PRACTICALITY. BY DOING SOMETHING THAT ALMOST NO

Bentley owner will do: carrying bikes. Actually, we can basically ignore them. Substantial sheet metal makes for solid suckering. It also makes for a quiet cabin, so the first time you top 50mph you pull over, glowing with the hot fear that, somehow and entirely unnoticed, the bikes have fallen off. The hatchback-rivalling 358-litre boot swallows kit happily and proves easy to hoover out. As a sports tourer, the Conti GT works well.

I’d really been looking forward to doing family days out in the Conti. I can think of no more generously proportioned coupe, none that should better or more comfortably accommodate four people. But it’s not big in the back. “Snug”, I told my two teens because the wrap-around seats are wondrous and the Cricket Ball ambience is tremendous. “Hellish”, they replied, because legroom is dismal and clambering in awkward.

The front pair, even if they’re both about bang-on average height and their teens haven’t broken the mould in any way, are therefore forced far forward, with the end result that no-one in the car is comfortable. Which makes the experience cramped and irritable, full of recriminations about “taking Mum’s car” and “my feet, I can’t feel my feet”. This is an argument that can only be cut through by Naim. We re-bond over our love of music and stunning sound quality.

Other things. It’s been back to the dealer for niggle-fixing. One of the air-vent pulls was a bit stiff and the trim strip where dash meets driver’s door wasn’t aligned. Adjusters in the door took care of the latter, while the former was fixed by replacing a 10p seal that had split. Winter tyres went on – at a cost of £1,500. The only remaining issue now is the gearbox. Every so often the twin-clutch botches a shift, just seeming to catch the edge of a gear, or stutter a little. It’s the only un-Bentley thing about the whole car.