• Wonderful interior quality
• Lots of personalisation options
• Some might find the infotainment old fashioned

How is the quality and layout?

As you’d expect for a luxury car at this price, the Bentayga’s cabin is a stunning thing to behold. Mostly. The fit and finish is of the highest standards and the materials used are top quality too. Features such as the ‘organ stop’ chrome-plated air vent controls really add a sense of occasion here, and even the electric window switches are brilliantly damped and weighted. There’s an overarching feeling of quality in this car.

Some of the switchgear – the cruise control stalk and gearshift paddles for example – is lifted directly from the Audi Q7 but sprayed a different colour. That isn’t to say it feels anywhere close to cheap, though. There’s an unmistakable depth of engineering to the Bentayga and all of the controls feel solid and well-weighted as a result. But if you owned an Audi or a Volkswagen as well as the Bentayga, you better get used to seeing some very familiar buttons, switches and fonts.

The driving position is commanding – standard for an SUV – and visibility is excellent thanks to the large windows. The A-posts are bulky – another SUV standard – and you really need to peer around it when entering roundabouts or dealing with angled junctions.

Infotainment and tech

The infotainment system is a 10.9-inch touchscreen that spans the entire width of the centre fascia. Content in the main screen can be selected either via buttons beneath the screen, or from the main menu screen. It’s fast, looks good and features an up-to-date sat-nav set-up. The head-up display can project traffic information, street and names and distance to destination too.

Wireless Apple CarPlay is standard, as is Android Auto . It’s a better system than the Bentayga originally came with for sure, but BMW, Mercedes and Rolls Royce do it better, and to some potential buyers the way it is integrated into the dashboard may seem old fashioned.

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The instruments are handled by a fully digital driver’s information panel and can be customised. It can be viewed in either Classic or Expanded format. In Classic, the display shows the traditional two-dial design of speedometer and tachometer. In Expanded, the right dial is replaced with an area for maps and media information.

Finally, it comes with My Bentley, the in-car and remote connected car services system. There’s an embedded SIM that provides real-time data to drive this as well as allow for in-car wifi. Useful features include ‘find my car’ and ‘lock my car’, which are accessed via a smartphone app.

Comfort

• Excellent cabin refinement
• Lots of room for four
• Great seats

The Bentley Bentayga excels here. It’s fair to say it’s one of the most comfortable cars we’ve driven with great seats that offer lots of adjustment.

There’s loads of room in the cabin for driver and passenger up front, while two back-seat occupants will be pleased with the excellent ride quality as well as the space on offer – something the longer Bentayga Extended Wheel Base takes even further. Regardless, legroom is fine in the second row, though shoulder room for three adults might be a little tight, and as we’ve already observed the third row in seven-seater versions is also compact.

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Some road noise intrudes into the cabin on poor surfaces. But generally, it is very refined inside – unless you put your foot down and demand more performance, at which point you getting plenty of cultured engine sound. At idle, however, it’s so quiet inside you could easily confuse this for a battery-powered SUV.