Bentley Bentayga India review, test drive

The new Bentayga SUV is large, imposing, powerful, expensive, luxurious and just a little bit ostentatious. Every bit a Bentley, then.

Published on Jun 30, 2016 07:00:00 AM

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Bentley Bentayga India review, test drive

I pull over and step out, from thick wool carpet, to carbonfibre sill step (it extends automatically from under the car when you open the door) to hot tarmac. I walk around to the back, open the tailgate and flip out the leather picnic bench that unfolds over the electronically lowered sill. Apparently it can support 360kg of silver-spoon-fed weight. Time to sit down and reflect on my life and why I’ll never be able to own one of these. It’s not hard to see why the Bentayga exists. Even if you look past the growing preference for SUVs and crossovers in every segment, there’s also simply the fact that such an incredible level of luxury becomes more usable when dressed in the more practical guise of a 4x4. It certainly does in India.

And Rs 3.85 crore sure buys you a lot of exclusivity. At this stratospheric end of the market, there’s simply nothing like it around. Oh, except the top-of-the-line Range Rover SVAutobiography LWB with the supercharged petrol V8, which costs about the same. But that car has the same problem as the S-class Maybach S 600 – it’s expensive and luxurious in the extreme, but you have to live with the knowledge that there are lesser versions of the same car in existence. Not the Bentayga. This thing is bespoke. Small wonder India’s 2016 allocation of 20 cars is already sold out. If you do happen to see one of these unicorns stuck in traffic, be sure to stop and stare for a while.