Bentley Continental GT Mulliner - long-term review

“This is an experience reserved for our most special clients” explains the immaculately dressed man from Bentley. I’m greeted at the door to The Mews, a secluded private house Bentley maintains a couple of miles from its Crewe headquarters. Once upon a time, it was the CEO’s official residence. Hedges are set-square straight. The gravel seems to have been hand-washed. Inside, the drinks cabinet is fashioned from the same chocolatey veneers as Bentley dashboards. Dining chairs are covered in the same sumptuous leather as the massaging thrones aboard the cars.

Anyone lucky enough to buy a Bentley can request to collect it from the factory. But only those indulging in the top-tier Mulliner experience have their keys handed over at The Mews.

Mulliner, taken in-house in 1959, is to Bentley what Atelier is to Ferrari, or um, Taste The Difference at Sainsbury’s. Scoured the four billion (really) configurator possibilities and found nothing takes your fancy? Then Bentley’s coachbuilding Q-branch can conjure anything from a unique paint or a one-off-stitching to building you an entirely bespoke car.

It’s a throwback to the glory days of high-end motoring, when a Bentley buyer was supplied with a naked chassis and running gear, independently dispatched to an artisan panel beater finishing school to be clothed in bodywork.

This is becoming big business for Bentley, right around the time the entire Continental and Flying Spur family has undergone a ruddy massive update. No more 12-cylinder engines, a wholesale hybrid reboot, and a mild exterior refresh. For Bentley, this is a moment of upheaval. So we’re going to live with a Waitrose Finest Continental GT.

Spot the diamond-encrusted grille and self-levelling wheel centrecaps. The Breitling dashboard clock, the knurled effect in the dashboard graphics. Paintwork is ‘Bedford Grey’ (dunno about you, but to a commoner like me it’s more ‘Gender-Reveal Blue’) with ‘Oxblood Red /Cricketball’ upholstery in a 1930s Heritage spec – more on that soon.

All these selections live exclusively behind Mulliner’s VIP rope. Even the ‘Blackline Specification’ – chrome delete, in other words – is a Mulliner-specific version costing £5,450. Apparently its popularity varies wildly by region – Middle Eastern and Asian markets prefer the brightwork, while Europe and America favour the moodier look.

That nugget comes from Chris Cole, a long-time Bentley servant who’s head of the entire Conti GT line, having overseen the development of the very first version back in 2003 immediately after the VW takeover. He’s here to personally introduce me to my GT, then over a Michelin star-worthy lunch chats old Porsches, new car industry trends, and lifts the lid off his bottomless well of Bentley knowledge.

“A Mulliner derivative, like this car, is fairly low volume – no more than five to seven per cent worldwide of all Continental GT sales. Sometimes we have trickle-down options which start as Mulliner-only and go into the main range: one of the best examples is our animated puddle lights with unique projections. Mulliner designers worldwide help customers finalise their cars, and visualise it instantly with high-definition renderings. For these customers it’s less about the cost and more about having something unique. We quite often see 2025 Continental GTs over £300k.”

Top Gear’s example is actually on the modest side. With £18,775 of Mulliner paint and trim plus a further £3,215 for the Mulliner interior upgrades and the stadium-worthy £7,210 Naim stereo, our as tested price is just shy of £290,000.

Naturally, we’ve been ushered not into the regular ‘High Performance Hybrid’ drivetrain with a mere 671bhp and 686lb ft, but the top drawer Ultra High Performance Hybrid, which sees the PHEV-assisted V8 boosted to 771bhp and 738lb ft. My home charger pours in 50 miles of e-range in around four hours.

Those of you who’ve been reading TG for a few years will remember we once ran this car’s W12 predecessor. So, there’s much to compare here.

Does plugging in cheapen the Bentley experience at all? Does managing the hybrid system erode the indulgence? Is it any more meaningfully cheaper on fuel, or annoyingly impractical with half the boot given over to battery storage? And though all the Bentleys are magnificent, is the Mulliner more magnificent than the others?

We have a luxurious few months together to find out.