RE: Bentley Bentayga - official

[SirSquidalot]

fk ugly, but it will sell thousands upon thousands. Would love to see the Bentley drivers club reaction!

[J4CKO]

I am sure technically it is great and a fantastic thing to own/drive but I would feel like a colossal tt driving it, but I am sure colossal tts will buy it in droves (I am just a regular tt I believe)

I don't mind a bit of ostentation, we need it otherwise it would be like a communist country in the 50s but that is a bit too far, like a Rolls Phantom Drophead is but I can forgive the Roller it, its the real deal, this is kind of a Audi Q7 Vanden Plas (ask your dad).

But, that said, if it sells to wealthy folk the world over and is built over here then its all good, regardless of company ownership and underpinnings it is perceived as British, they were going to build it in Slovakia ffs !

[Strawman]

Looks like they cut and pasted the front end of the Lancia Thesis onto a Q7, something that no-one wanted to see.

[TWPC]

coppice said:

Makes current bloated horrors like RRs ,X5s, Q7s and Cayennes look almost restrained. Mind you ,the target market of footballers, rich middle eastern lads, oligarchs and kleptocrats is hardly noted for its good taste is it ? Beyond ghastly.

Gavin Green wrote an interesting piece in Car about whether an ostentatious SUV fitted in with Bentley's heritage and concluded that it did. In fact, building ostentatious products (3 litre, 4.5 litre, Speed Six, Contintental R-Type etc.) to appeal to playboys with sometimes questionable taste and too much money was Bentley's business model in the more distant past.

So there is no betrayal of principle here. Showing off the tourbillon on the dashboard clock is precisely what we should expect.

My view is that it is an overweight, extravagant, irrelevant, ill-proportioned, ugly, offensive machine the sight of which will make me seriously question the judgement of its owner.
Unfortunately I am neither rich, commercially or politically brilliant, titled or likely to inherit a significant amount of money so Bentley will wisely ignore my opinion.

Edited by TWPC on Wednesday 9th September 10:01

[TWPC]

P.S. I still think its bizarre, awkward, ugly-sounding name which in some quarters provokes a snigger reflects the car's character perfectly.

There remains some genius among VAG marketeers.

[SPMX5]

I know it's not particularly trendy to compliment VAG products on online car forums, but think it's brilliant. Big, opulent, brutish and staggeringly quick. And look at that interior!!

As Ettore Bugatti put it: "the fastest lorries in the world"

[Alex]

TheBigUnit said:

The biggest disappointment for me is that beyond the nose it just looks like a big Audi.

That's because it is.

[oldtimer2]

It does not look good in the photos; perhaps it is better in the metal? To me the body shape looks like another product of the German SUV jelly mould. Nevertheless, as others have already said, it will probably appeal to its target market on the basis of its ultra high price, ostentatious interior and 0-60/top speed bragging rights.

[Exoticaholic]

Wait till Mansory lays its hands on one.

[csampo]

Aesthetics clearly aimed at Asia and particularly China; European sensibilities were clearly not on the design brief for the car and why would they be as sales here will be a fraction of the total?

Slightly awkwardly timed given the anti-corruption drive in China and market slides across SE Asia however...

[Cheib]

They really couldn't have tried any harder to make it look like all they did was put the Bentley grill on an Audi/Porsche/VW.

I am sure it'll drive well by the standards of SUV's but I guess the next arms race will be who can make the quickest SUV.

[hiscocks]

Of course it has a Breitling in it... sums it up perfectly

[Fetchez la vache]

TWPC said:

My view is that it is an overweight, extravagant, irrelevant, ill-proportioned, ugly, offensive machine the sight of which will make me seriously question the judgement of its owner.
Unfortunately I am neither rich, commercially or politically brilliant, titled or likely to inherit a significant amount of money so Bentley will wisely ignore my opinion.

This is the crux of it. If you don't like it (I don't) then it's probably not aimed at you.
I had the same thoughts with the first gen Cayenne and it didn't do that any harm. I quite like the 2nd gen Cayenne so maybe the next Bentayga won't look such a dogs dinner from the outside.

kitkat advert said:

You can't sing, you can't dance, you look awful....
...You'll go a long way

[0llie]

I like the interior. I think they could have launched it in a slightly less offensive colour, too.

[swisstoni]

Hope they export every one they make.

[jhonn]

Well, it certainly looks better than the pre-launch versions.

I'm quite impressed and don't find it any more offensive or ridiculous that any of the other 'performance' SUV's out there.

Bravo Bentley - I hope you sell thousands of them.

[W12GT]

Oh dear, uglier than a pot bellied pig that's been run over by a combined harvester......

Potentially the ugliest 'car' to come out in the 21st century????

[sealtt]

I think the biggest disappointment is that they went SO conservative on the styling and made it look like a Q7/Toureg/Cayenne with Bentley bumpers, grills and lights added. I think the design team must have totally freaked out after all the negative feedback from their concept and this is the result.

Whilst I did find the concept EXP9F far from attractive, I had admired the company for trying something different. Even if didn't work out perfectly, it kept the brand alive as something different, a shape you would never see from a mid-range brand like VW / Audi. However, this is just so uninspired and so generic, it could so easily have been rebadged and launched as the MY2016 Q7 and no-one would have raised an eyebrow. It has no personality.

For me on looks and design alone - and the personality they subsequently give the car - this is not a touch on the currently luxury SUV benchmark, the Range Rover Vogue, which oozes personality (love it or hate it) and is unmistakably a Range Rover even if you never see the badge, grill or headlights. This 'Bentayga' sends out all the wrong messages about the driver, and does so without a hint of class or style. I would honestly not be surprised if sales figures (which Bentley is forecasting to be 3k-4k units per year) underwhelm in the UK & Europe.

Now let's wait and see what Rolls Royce produce as their SUV contender, I really struggle to imagine such a cop out from them, so will be great to see what they come up with.

[PhantomPH]

That already looks like a Chinese knockoff of a Bentley 4x4.

This looks like it started off somewhere as a really nice design and then the designs were lost...so someone else re-did it from memory. "I saw the designs once - I kinda know how it should look. Give me that pencil...".

[burningdinos]

Artey said:

Those Germans know how to design a beautiful car. BTW is it based on the MQB platform?

MLB platform, like the Audi Q5 and Q7. Longitudinal engine.


I'm sure it's comfortable (the interior looks a nice place to be) but that exterior...
I hope I never get the chance to see one in the flesh. So horrendous it's borderline offensive.