Bentley Continental GT - long-term review

Let’s talk practicality. By doing something that almost no Bentley owner will do: carrying bikes on it. Actually, we can basically ignore them. I’ve found this before when carrying Bikes On A Bentley™: they sit very securely. Substantial sheet metal makes for solid suckering. It also makes for very limited noise inside, which means that the first time you top 50mph you pull over, glowing with the hot fear that, somehow and entirely unnoticed, the bikes have fallen off.

You may not want to carry bikes on your Bentley. Skis maybe. Or a surfboard. Bentleys look cool wearing sports gear (just me?). Whatever your poison, the problem is the boot-filling accoutrements that tend to go with whatever’s on top. Helmets, shoes, harnesses, clothing, padding, backpacks. The Conti GT actually copes fine with all of that because the boot, at 358 litres, is big. Decent floor area, goes back a long way, rivals most hatchbacks, has a through-load if you need it (though it’s a pain to use as you have to dismantle the key to get the actual key part of it out, then clamber into the back and awkwardly insert that in the little door).

Anyway, the boot copes because the other thing about expensive load bay carpet is that it’s actually easy to clean after you’ve been a muppet and forgotten to take a sheet along to line it with. So the boot does the job easily. The lid moves electrically so no dirty fingers, access is good, I’ve rarely had need to fill it to capacity. It works.

One of the things I was most looking forward to with the GT was loading the family into it and doing days out. I wasn’t rash enough to believe we’d be able to do family holidays in the Conti, but I did think day tripping was going to be on the agenda. And to be fair it has been. So I need to qualify that statement by adding the word ‘uncomplaining’ in there somewhere. Now, two teenagers do not go anywhere ‘uncomplaining’. Complaining is the natural state of mind. But on this they have a point.

The Conti GT is a big car, 4.85 metres long by 1.95 metres wide. 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 them 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.

One thing though – the cabin’s acoustics are amazing, so when we do turn down the tunes, it’s very easy to have a conversation. This is less about the close proximity of teenage mouths to parental ears than incredible noise insulation. Thankfully.

Of course, the Conti GT can do glamour. When we needed one of our Garage cars to step up to the mark and carry Chris Harris to the premiere of the new TV series in Leicester Square, it was the Bentley that we turned to. I’ll let you in on a little secret – the pictures of it wearing bikes and covered in muck? They were taken the day before. Amazing how quickly and easily the Bentley cleans up.

One last thing I ought to mention, as it’s genuinely surprised me: Night Vision. It’s part of the £6,290 Touring specification (together with lane assist, radar cruise and head-up display). I used these a few times before and they’ve been gimmicks. But here, although the viewing angle is narrow, it genuinely spots pedestrians in the dark way before my eyes can, putting yellow brackets around them – red, if they’re in the path of the car. It’s not too distracting, it just works.