• With premium cars come premium costs  
• No longer a relatively frugal diesel option 
• Plug-in hybrid best for company car tax and lowest fuel bills

What are the running costs?

It goes without saying here that a Bentley tipping the scales at least 2.4-tonnes isn’t going to be cheap to run. It’s a case of relativity here, though. If you purchase a car priced well into six figures new, in theory you should also be able to afford to keep the thing on the road.

We’ll start with the the V8. Its figures make grim reading if you’re eco-minded, but then, we guess, green-minded people aren’t going to be looking at a new Bentley. Fuel consumption runs to 25mpg if driven gently. It’s helped considerably by cylinder de-activation technology – and in a week’s real-world testing, we managed 22.0mpg.

The Bentayga Hybrid has a 17.3kWh lithium-ion battery that gives an official all-electric range of up to 27 miles WLTP and can be charged in as little as 2.5 hours. With a mere 3.0-litre V6 under the bonnet, CO2 emissions are relatively parsimonious which means reasonably low BIK company car tax, although lesser SUVs such as the BMW X5 45e and Mercedes GLE 350de are in an even lower group.

On an 85-mile jaunt consisting mostly of motorway miles we averaged around 34mpg with a full battery. This figure would go up significantly if you were able to keep the engine switched off and run predominantly on battery power, something that’s more easily done if used mainly in urban environments.

Servicing and warranty

Bentleys come with a three-year unlimited mileage warranty.

It suggests regular maintenance and even offers a fixed price servicing scheme for cars over two years old. Interim services will set you back around £1,200, while smaller services are around £800. Bentley recommends servicing every 12 months or 10,000 miles.

Reliability

• Uses mainstream technology
• Bespoke build generally excellent
• But there have been some recalls and bad experiences

The Bentayga is built using many parts from elsewhere in the Volkswagen Group (it’s based on the Audi Q7’s platform), which means although Bentley is a small volume manufacturer, a lot of the technology it uses is very well proven in mainstream mass-production vehicles.

That doesn’t mean it’s been fault free, however. There have been a few safety recalls, many of which relate to seats, so you want to make sure they’ve been carried out if buying used. The V8 model has been subject to a few technical recalls as well – again, check these have been completed. You don’t want to be dealing with an unreliable engine in one of these.

Build quality of the Bentayga feels exemplary, with no indications of loose trim or rattles on any of the cars we’ve tested. But some owners haven’t been so lucky. Make sure you take a lengthy test drive in any secondhand example and look for full service history.