Originally Posted by jbattan

I would love to upgrade my 2017 Bentayga to the new model, and also purchase a GTC, but my experience so far being new to the Bentley brand really isn't comforting:I've had my 2017 Bentayga W12 for six months now, and have had lots of positive and negative thoughts about it that I'd like to share with y'all. (This is my 21st car across 8 brands, FYI.) I've dreamed of owning a Bentley for 12 years, frankly partly because I've loved browsing all the exterior paint choices. I bought this one with 14K miles from a used car dealer in San Diego. I got it for half off its original MSRP of $290K. Can you say "depreciation"?! It came missing the 4 piece luggage set, event seats, luggage mgt rails, valet key, and cargo cover, but the latter is the only thing I felt needed replacing. It had a week's worth of warranty left, so I had the San Diego dealer give it a once-over and a $530(!) oil change.



The spec is:

Glacier White

Body Colored Lower Bodywork

Beluga leather, no secondary hide or color split

Contrast stitching

Contrast stitching to steering wheel

Front Seat Comfort Spec

Sunshine Spec

Touring Spec

Event Spec

Smoker's Spec

Deep Pile Overmats

Veneered Picnic Tables

Naim Audio

Mulliner 22" Paragon black gloss painted wheels

Carbon Fibre Exterior Spec

Window tint, very dark



Since it gets mostly poor reviews for its body style on the 'net, let's discuss that first. I think it looks fine with this white & black spec. Overall pretty "meh" though. A bit blocky, a few awkward creases on the hood, and the wheel arch trim looks tacky, but it's distinctive and I like the B motif throughout, especially because my last name starts with a B. The unique headlight and taillight designs are unlike anything on the road. I like the muscular style of my GLS63 better than any of the MLBevo platform derivatives such as the Bentayga, Q7, Touareg, Cayenne, etc. It gets plenty of looks, probably because it's so rare in this part of the States, but few comment on its looks compared to my AMGs. I get more compliments on the hefty gas cap from the gas station attendants than I do on the car itself. It'll be interesting if the redesign coming next week helps. The interior is beautifully designed, with the stitching, quilting, knurling, heft, and flow.



Since there was NO record of any service having been done on it, I later took it to Bentley Bellevue for its 3 Year service (even though it only had 17K miles on it), which was amazingly expensive. They printed me the list of recalls and updates that had been performed on it, showing it had been to the dealer plenty of times. Since then I've added Scorpion Winter tires, a Weathertech rubber trunk mat, and OEM rubber floor mats that O'Gara was selling on eBay for a mere $150.



So, how is it to drive? Wonderful! Great engine and transmission flexibility and power. The transmission has only thumped once. The steering is a bit numb and not at all inspiring at triple digits, both with the OEM P Zeros and with Scorpion Winters, but that might change when I get an alignment. The 48V anti-roll suspension is great at keeping body roll controlled. The steering assist function is terrible; it bounces the car around on anything other than almost perfectly straight roads. Very quiet, with lots of sound deadening. You'll never hear a growl from it like I do from my AMGs, but I hear the new Speed adds some auditory excitement.



The thing I like most about it is the Naim audio system. Wow, such clarity, power, and fine tuning of everything including the seat shaking. As one reviewer noted: “This sound system is simply incredible. It can articulate even the most minut sound details that you usually wouldn't pick up on when listening over a conventional stereo system. The vocals are crisp and clear, the bass is incredibly deep without being overbearing, and the high/low range never gets washed out.” Definitely the finest I've experienced.



It has vastly superior infotainment settings and UX compared to pre-MBUX Mercedes. Bentley were ahead of their time in incorporating all kinds of features that weren't in my 2017 S-Class. Bentley weren't afraid to load up the center screen with dense information. Highly configurable, but the stupid analog speedometer and tach take up valuable space. The HUD has more info than my GLS. I especially like that it always shows if the ACC notes a vehicle in front. I love how configurable everything is. Not just how far to pace behind the car in front, but how aggressive to be in keeping that distance. Not just the style of massage, but the intensity in 7 levels. (Speaking of which, the massage is so much better than what MB offer.) Steering wheel and seat heaters have an Auto mode so I don't always have to turn them on with each trip. The seatbelt reminder is a pleasant single chime, then a long pause, then two chimes, then more persuasive; much more polite than MB’s immediate and constant beeps. Headlight auto setting toggles back so stalk stays at the same place. HomeLink garage door opener requires just a quick push, and it will hold down the button for the rolling code for you. The interior lights just require a slight finger brush rather than a physical push. Lots of little niceties like that.



The manual in the Driver's Guide app is nice. Just three typos found (Extraneous ( in PDC. In Audio > Source: iiPod. Clicking Useful Tips > Activating the seat heating > Details: goes to wrong section).



I have a number of problems/complaints with the car, and this is where all my initial enthusiasm wears off:

• The biggest one is that there is a strong oil or rubber burning smell that floods out of the front of the engine compartment and permeates through the cabin after spirited drives. I've had the dealer and an independent shop check for leaks, rubbing, etc, and they've found nothing. So far I've only had to add one qt oil, so it's not consuming an inordinate amount of oil. The dealer said more extensive diagnosis would cost "20K to drop the engine". I'm considering taking it down to Pasadena for them to check it out and give me a third opinion.
• I've had the car in to four dealers for service so far, from LA to Seattle. I come from many Lexus autos, so I am totally spoiled on service perfection, and so far Bentley don't come close. Pasadena is the best Bentley dealer I've visited thus far, but then it goes way downhill from there. When I asked San Diego for a service summary since I was doing the service remotely, they literally said "we took the old oil out and put new oil in", giving me no info on brakes, tires, or any of the other 30 things that my Mercedes dealers check during every service. I'm VERY unimpressed with Bentley Bellevue: a couple old beat up desks, a tattered and filthy rug, cramped service bays, no promise they'd be able to supply me with a loaner while my car was in all day, a wash "if I can find any volunteers", no follow-up on my satisfaction, and crickets when I sent them several emails afterwards. On the sales side I spent 2 hours with the one and only salesperson there, and asked him to let me know when their Hybrid arrived so i could test drive it; they posted on Instagram that it was there four weeks ago but I've received nothing from him a month later. They're the closest dealer to me at 180 miles away, and the next closest is San Francisco at 630 miles away, so that's a big negative for the ownership experience. The local Ferrari dealer say they can do most of the easy services, and I found an independent shop locally that I like, but they only service a Bentley once a month or so. Bentley Scottsdale charged $290 to mount/balance my tires (cf $70 at my local excellent Discount Tire) and didn’t even clean the mounting goop from the wheels afterward; their service cashier is also their new car receptionist, but none of the four employees there even said hi after I had been walking around for 20 minutes. I submitted a web form service appointment to Los Gatos weeks ago and never heard back. Overall a worse service experience than every other brand I've used. You would think a Bentley owner would be coddled and cared for.
• There's a strange beep and series of latching/ticking sounds from the rear of the car with every door closure, and then again 10 to 20 seconds later, and sometimes minutes later.
• The seat control buttons are impossible to see when changing, so I had to memorize all 10 of them.
• The painted wheels have chipped in many places after a mere 20K miles. I touched them up with some black glossy appliance paint, which is okay but not optimal. I do hear a bit of tire thump due to the low profile 40s.
• The seats are not quite as comfortable as an S-Class. The steering wheel is not padded at all, it's just leather-wrapped metal; very firm and uncomfortable to hold, with lots of ridges. It is beautiful though.
• Lots of electrical gremlins. One time, the map in the left display disappeared, and didn’t come back until I stopped and locked/unlocked the car. Another time, the entire left LED display went blank (but the LCD mileage display stayed). Another time all the settings reset to factory default, and I had to program everything all over again. Once in a while the load assist vehicle lowering button in the trunk doesn't work, so I have to lower the car from the infotainment system. Sometimes the left rear door unlocking sensor doesn't work. The system is set to unlock all doors at power off, but it no longer does. Sometimes while the car is parked and locked, with no one inside and nothing disturbing the car, the exterior lights will start flashing as though the alarm is activated, with no audio. I can't lock the suspension while in sand mode. A few times it's complained that the start/stop feature is inoperable, but it always comes back next time.
• There's no indication the interior motion sensor is deactivated when pressing the button, so my dog freaks out when I leave him in the car (yes, only when it's cold out) and it sets off the alarm.
• The easy access trunk kick feature activates when I'm leaning into the cargo hold, so the hatch starts coming down on me often. I have to put the key in the trunk while I'm taking out groceries etc.
• The voice guidance sounds like the woman is talking through a cardboard tube.
• Sometimes when it doesn't see any traffic signs, it shows the map-based speed limit using the European red circle.

I wish:

• Prices were available on the Bentley web site. I have to build a custom car and send the Configuration Code to Sales to get the price.
• There was a temp notice of audio station changes on the nav screen.
• There was a numeric volume level indicator.

I wonder:

• What is the purpose of the single chime about 5 seconds after startup, unaccompanied by any text on the screen?

So how does it compare to my daily driver, the GLS63? It drives wonderfully, but not better. It has most of the same driver safety and assistance systems, but I'm sure glad the stupid steering assist can be turned off. The UX is now on-par with MBUX. The gremlins have me groaning every day.



Bottom Line: Is it worth $130,000 more than a fully loaded Mercedes-AMG GLS63? No way. But I'm sure glad I can check "Own a Bentley" off my bucket list.

Originally Posted by TheManWithThe7

I purchased a 2016 gt speed from Bentley Manhattan in Ny in April. The car has issues with veering to the left so I have to hold the steering wheel to the right slightly in order to go straight.

bentley performed an alignment once but it didn’t fix the issue. The second time I took it in, they said it’s normal. I also have a clunk noise when pulling out of my driveway and turning the steering wheel to the right.

suffice to say I am looking at selling the car now as I won’t settle for a crooked steering wheel.

Originally Posted by Samhain

Crazy that an authorized dealer would say such an obvious suspension or alignment issue is "normal".

Originally Posted by MBi

Is the car CPO? Miller Motorcars mechanic John wasn't too bad. Alternatively if you are out of option in warranty for previous problem Bentley when it took 5X attempts to fix a trunk issue at Bentley LI corporate offered to fly someone in from the UK to see the car of it went back again. Call corporate and then they should really look into it. This sucks though that you can't enjoy your car.

Originally Posted by MBi

I think you may have gotten a bad one. Like first GT speed from Long Island Bentley was a total POS, vibration issues in a pillar that couldn't be solved, wheel finish cracking when first purchased, trunk issues etc. 16 V8S head unit died but warranty luckily and the leather driver seat cover or seat is messed up and needs to be fixed again. Ironically Maserati GranTurismo has been most reliable car in the garage only odd stuff, good latch cable kept breaking for no apparent reason more than once.

Originally Posted by TheManWithThe7

I too had a Maserati before the Bentley and I drove it to 50k miles without an issue. I am considering going for a quattroporte trofeo if I can’t solve this issue with Bentley

Originally Posted by MBi

I think you may have gotten a bad one. Like first GT speed from Long Island Bentley was a total POS, vibration issues in a pillar that couldn't be solved, wheel finish cracking when first purchased, trunk issues etc. 16 V8S head unit died but warranty luckily and the leather driver seat cover or seat is messed up and needs to be fixed again. Ironically Maserati GranTurismo has been most reliable car in the garage only odd stuff, good latch cable kept breaking for no apparent reason more than once.

Originally Posted by OnePunch

Totally agree with this post. I owned a 2016 GT Speed for 3 years, and I think the only thing I ever had to replace was the batteries. Car was absolutely amazing.

On the other hand I had an Aston Martin Rapide that I think was having an affair with the service tech, because every other time I drove it, something would break and it would need to go to the shop. Yet other people have Astons for years and years without issue. So I think its individual cars that can be the problem, rather than the entire brand.....

Originally Posted by TheManWithThe7

I tend to agree with this except for the 7 series BMW. That is the most unreliable car ever and I speak from experience having owned multiple ones