Bentley Flying Spur Review 2025

With the larger Bentley Mulsanne now retired, the Bentley Flying Spur is the firm’s only traditional four-door saloon. With full limousine status now bestowed on the Bentley Bentayga Extended Wheelbase, the path is clear for this model re-assert itself as a car which owners may prove happier to drive than be driven in. Now with a wealth of plug-in hybrid power, find out with our full Bentley Flying Spur review how this luxury model cements its relevance.

Following a subtle refresh of the Bentley Flying Spur's styling in 2024 it continues to look the part. Longer and lower than its predecessor before, with sharp body surfacing there’s a visual drama that hints at the promise of power beneath its enormous bonnet.

In fact, coinciding with those visual and technological enhancements was an overhaul of the Flying Spur's propulsion systems. Out went the old 2.9-litre V6 Hybrid — a plug-in variety — as well as the 4.0-litre V8 and the 6.0-litre W12 engines, replaced by two PHEV alternatives familiar from the Porsche Panamera.

First to arrive was the 782PS Ultra Performance Hybrid joined in 2025 by the 680PS High Performance Hybrid. Somewhat grandiose titles for an electrification exercise that not only improves the Flying Spur's twin-turbo V8 engine's fuel efficiency but more importantly augments the driving experience. Even the lower-powered versions — relatively speaking — are colossally quick.

The Bentley Flying Spur is presented as a sportier proposition to other luxury saloons including the more expensive Rolls-Royce Ghost as well as the Mercedes S-Class, a car which dominates this market to such a degree that it risks appearing almost ordinary.

Other alternatives include the Audi A8 and the challengingly styled BMW 7 Series. Neither are devoid of appeal, but they can't touch the Bentley in terms of majestic presence and the sheer craftsmanship showcased inside. 

Today's Bentley Flying Spur lineup comprises four derivatives — the nameless entry-point model, which is as far from basic as one can imagine, plus the Azure are fitted with the High Performance Hybrid system, while the Ultra Peformance Hybrid is the preserve of the more focused Speed and the flagship Mulliner iterations.

While there is a standardised level of equipment, the fixtures and fittings are down to the personal taste of the customers commissioning their Flying Spurs — a factory visit to discuss options with the artisans involved in crafting Bentleys is a must.

Whether traditionalism is your favoured route, something more contemporary is your vibe or you simply want your Flying Spur to be a four-wheeled projection of you as an individual, Bentley will cater for your every whim. For a price, of course.

Those who opt to occupy the palatial rear quarters of the Bentley Flying Spur will be able to revel indulgently in a cosetting environment, while those who choose to sit up front will recognise the similarities to the dashboard — and driving experience — of the Bentley Continental GT. While the Flying Spur's two-door sibling isn't an out-and-out sports car, its athletic nature is largely present here, making this gargantuan saloon far more athletic that it has any right to be.

Yet, it's a mere driving mode selection away from serenity, isolating its occupants from the trials and tribulations of the outside world as its wafts along, albeit assertively — consequently proving that fraction shy of the imperiousness offered by the Rolls-Royce Ghost. Point the Bentley at a wending ribbon of asphalt across vast expanses of the countryside and it has the upper hand over the Royce. You pays your money and takes your choice.

To drive the most sportiest of four-door super-luxury saloons in the world, it's a small price to pay — and it's the only aspect of the Bentley Flying Spur which has a modest cost attached to it.

Bentley Flying Spur Hybrid: Range and charging

Both the Bentley Flying Spur High Performance Hybrid and the more powerful Ultra Peformance Hybrid have official electric-only driving ranges of 50 miles according to the official WLTP test figures. Our real-world experiences so far indicate a distance closer to the low-40s is more than achievable providing you're not too eager with your right foot.

As per most plug-in hybrid systems, the Bentleys' packages can meter-out the electrical power automatically in Hybrid mode or it can be preserved by using Hold. Sport Hold maintains most of the reserves but will still supplment the V8 engine's grunt with small doses of electrical energy.

Charge mode uses the engine as an on-board generator and will replenish the 25.9kWh battery's levels up to a maximum of 80% charge on the move, but it's not an especially cost-effective method for doing so. Using a domestic wallbox charger will take the battery from flat to full in 2 hours 45 minutes and allows you to potentially take advantage of an even more cost-effective EV-friendly tariff.

Ever since it developed its Bentayga SUV, the luxury brand has been working with a new array of active suspension systems designed to make its other models, including the Bentley Flying Spur, feel smaller and more lithe than they truly are. With the bonus of all-wheel steering included, that effort pays proper dividends here.

Together with all-wheel drive and active anti-roll technology, keeping the Flying Spur impressively level through corners, Bentley's engineers have been able to hone its air suspension arrangement to provide impressive comfort levels without wallowing arround.

This massive car simply hunkers down and gets on with it when you're extracting its performance, with a level of precision and composure that entirely belies its 2646kg heft.

It's not exactly a consummate B-road weapon but it fairly hurtles along, faithfully following the road's topography with ease. On an even flatter, straighter A-road the Bentley is all too willing to unleash its outrageous pace.

Moreover, although the cabin ambience might suggest otherwise, this isn’t a laid-back drive, it’s relentlessly engaging and genuinely entertaining. As to the choice of driving modes, we’re happy for Bentley mode to take charge of balancing power delivery with agility — it's the Goldilocks choice, neither being too firm or too soft, but just right.

The only real advantage of Sport mode is that it’s notably rear-biased in its power delivery, with the front wheels only getting a maximum of 31% of available torque. Indeed, unless the system detects slip, it’s fully rear-wheel drive.

Lashings of torque on tap are a given, and the V8 engine sounds great too. It's latent — if not completely silent — when you want it to be yet bellows with an encouraging snarl when pressed. 

The only fly in the ointment, then, is the occasional breakdown in ride composure. At one level, the Bentley Flying Spur delivers precisely the suppleness of ride you’d expect from a luxury limousine. But the price to be paid for the car’s agility is the intrusion of some surface noise and a tendency not to smother shorter, sharper lumps and bumps to the extent you might wish for.

Larger imperfections and expansion joints can sometimes send an undignified slap into the cabin via the suspension when hit at speed. That’s a pity, because on good surfaces at pace, the car remains unerringly level and unflustered. 

Since its 2024 refresh, the Bentley Flying Spur has been solely propelled by plug-in hybrid power choices, with the second, slightly less powerful option arriving in 2025.

Both make use of the 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8-configuration petrol engine paired with an electric motor. Drive is sent to all four wheels via an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

Making do with only 680PS and 930Nm of torque, the junior of the two PHEVs is labelled High Performance Hybrid. Its outputs are sufficient for a 3.9-second 0-62mph acceleration time and a 168mph top speed.

It more readily defaults to electrical mode for greater real-world fuel efficiency but when you want to press on, it does so surfing on a tide of urgency. It doesn't feel much slower at all than the Ultra High Performance alternative, although the flagship choice always feels like it has that bit extra in reserve as though a few more millimetres of throttle movement will unleash next-level speed.

For the record, it yields a combined output of 782PS and a nicely rounded 1000Nm of torque, shaving the 0-62mph benchmark down to 3.5 seconds and increasing the top speed to 177mph.

Both models will travel at up to 87mph in electric power alone.

The Bentley Flying Spur hasn’t been tested by Euro NCAP, but is built around a very strong aluminium body and underpinnings that are related to those of the Audi A8 and as such, it comes with the very latest driver assistance technology. So you need not worry should the worst happen.

There’s plenty of good news in terms of active safety systems — including the grip of four-wheel drive. As we found during testing in some genuinely rotten weather, it feels exceptionally secure on the road. 

There’s a multitude of airbags plus two standard and one optional Isofix child seat mount in the rear. Bentley will happily sell you one of its own matching child seats.

Driver assistance systems include a head-up display, parking system with front and rear sensors, 360-degree camera system, camera-based traffic-sign recognition and a tyre-pressure warning light.

At 5316mm long, the tape measure confrims that the Bentley Flying Spur this is a massive car, yet standard-fit all-wheel steering makes it feel remarkably nimble.

Don't confuse that manoeuvrability around town with supermini-rivalling nippiness — this remains a model you'll be hunting out extra-wide parking bays for while sucking in air through your teeth as you negotiate tight ramps in multi-storey car parks. It's a foot-long gourmet sausage pretending it fits within a six-inch sub.

Not that you’ll want to get out. The rear seats may lack the ultimate in luxury now afforded by the Bentley Bentayga EWB’s airline seating, but there’s no shortage of space or comfort back there — for two adults, anyway.

You see, Bentley describes the Flying Spur's standard interior arrangement as Four Plus One Occupant, because the central rear seat is narrower, less comfortable and the drawer of the short straw's legs have to straddle the significant floor hump.

The optional Four Seat configuration means there's no possibility of carrying a fifth passenger, but for those whom that's fine, the rear pair become even more delightful with a broader range of adjustability plus a fully integrated centre console complete with additional storage areas. There's more than ample room even for taller passengers, with even the standard rear seats benefiting from 14-way electrical adjustment, heating, ventilation and massage function.

It's similar up front, although the sportier nature of the Bentley Flying Spur means it feels cosier than other luxury saloons — yet not cramped. The high centre console, which sweeps up into the dashboard's main horizontal plain, before wrapping around the upper door cappings ensures you feel enveloped.

Determining a perfect driving position is made all the easier with electrical adjustment of the heated, ventilated and massaging front seats that adjust electrically in 24 different directions. They are sumptuous comfortable yet appropriately hip-hugging for when driving enthusiastically.

Thanks to the high-voltage battery pack, current Bentley Flying Spur boot capacity is just 346 litres — a modest sum considering the overall dimensions, as well as representing 74-litre reduction compared with the previously available non-PHEV models. For reference, the Audi A8 TFSI e can handle 390 litres, the BMW 750e and 760e both manage 525 litres but the Mercedes S450eL and S580eL are limited to 350 litres.

Dotted around the Flying Spur's interior you'll find a reasonable assortment of cubbies, including under the lidded centre console, in each door, pockets on the front seatbacks, four USB-C charging sockets, a wireless smartphone charging pad, twin cupholders front and rear and so on. What limits the practicality of many of these features — and of the boot — is the high quality materials employed to trim in and around them.  

Still, it's worth mentioning the electrically-operated, self-levelling picnic tables, standard on Mulliner versions and optional elsewhere. Where once their ruthlessly polished surfaces offered little purchase for champagne flutes, causing your chilled Bollinger to hurtle into the soft leather-trimmed door panel, today’s table top is leather-lined and modestly scalloped in an attempt to prevent such mishaps.

Where to start in a car as exquisitely finished as the Bentley Flying Spur where virtually every surface your hands come into contact with are tactile delights? Supple leathers, cool metallic finishes, Dinamica soft fabric, perfectly damped organ stops for the eyeball air-conditioning vents, almost everything feels brand appropriate.

Being especially picky, while all of the buttons and controls work perfectly, some of them do feel disappointingly plasticky, with the indicator and wiper stalks falling short notably. This may be because they look metallic and therefore your brain's geared-up for them to feel cool and solid when instead they... Well, they don't.

Of course, the more you're prepared to spend on your Flying Spur, the more special and detailed your car can be finished, with a baffling array of hide colour combinations and quilting patterns which are only outnumbered by the breadth of veneer choices for the dashboard and door panels.

Whether you prefer to see modernistic machine-turned metals or bookmatched natural timber patterns through an filter of high-gloss lacquer or a textured open-pore finish, the choice is yours. You can even choose to have the wooden trim painted in solid colours, including a genuine piano black — none of the nasty, easily scratched plastic facsimile of it in here.

Located in the upper centre of the Bentley Flying Spurs dashboard is an electrically revolving Toblerone-shaped unit.

One face continues the veneer choice unsullied by additional features, the next punctuates an identical surface with a trio of supplementary analogue dials, while the third houses a 12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen. Unless you find the high-definition display a gauche intrusion, there’s very little not to like.

The system is readily navigable through a choice of short-cut buttons beneath the screen, a line of short-cut zones to the side of the display itself or a small rotary knob on the transmission tunnel for those who prefer to keep the display smudged fingerprint-free. Rear seat passengers can take charge via a remote control tablet-style touchscreen.

A pair of front seatback-mounted, fully networked 10.2-inch touchscreens, which effectively work like tablet PCs, are an option.

Responsiveness, refresh rates and clarity of menus are all first-rate and while the integrated navigation mapping looks more sophicated than many packages, it isn't as clear as Google Maps, which you can swiftly access via the standard-fit Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity — although their graphics seemingly jar with the Bentley's interior sophistication.

The standard Bentley Signature Audio package is mightily impressive but for audiophiles who prefer the finer things in life, two optional speaker system upgrades are available, with acoustics specifically tuned for the Flying Spur's interior — one is from Bang & Olufsen, the other by Naim.

If you can make do with the entry-level Bentley Flying Spur High Performance Hybrid and somehow resist the temptation of the optional extra assortment, one of these could be on your driveway for a shade or two over £190,000. The plusher Azure version adds in the region of £29,000 to that asking price.

Should that prove insufficient to convey your status, the Bentley Flying Spur Ultra High Performance costs in the ballpark of £239,000 for the Speed and a smidgen over £258,000 for the Mulliner flagship.

How do those figures compare with rivals? For a PHEV-equipped Audi A8 you'll need from £94,500 with the plug-in hybrid BMW 7 Series chiming in at £10,000 more than that. For the Mercedes S-Class equivalent you're looking at closer to £112,000. All modest prices alongside the Bentley.

And the Rolls-Royce Ghost? At almost £285,000 is starts off north of where the pricest Flying Spur finishes.

Given the Bentley Flying Spur's £200,000-plus asking price, if ever the old addage 'if you need to ask, you can’t afford it’ was applicable, it’s here. Yet taking their performance credentials into account, both of today's plug-in hybrid versions could be run inexpensively, depending upon the typical length of your commute.

In terms of official WLTP fuel efficiency averages, the High Performance Hybrid's 64.2mpg figure is barely ahead of the Ultra Performance Hybrid's 64.0mpg claim. So, how do those translate in the real-world? Keep your journeys to around 40 miles at a time and chances are you won't burn through any petrol at all, but flex the Bentley's muscles a little — as you'll want to — it should still be possible to average 35-40mpg.

Other high running costs are inevitable, including servicing bills and consumables such as tyres — these are massive and designed for high performance driving, so can't be scrimped upon.

Being PHEVs, the latest Flying Spurs are now more attractive to company car drivers, although likely those who own the firm rather than the employees. That said, with CO2 emissions of 100g/km they're not in one of the very low Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax bands, although 26% is easier to swallow than the older V8's 37% rating.

Vehicle Excise Duty is charged at the same rate for Year 2 onwards as non-plug in cars, while the Flying Spur self-evidently doesn't dip the £40,000 threshold for which the Expensive Car Supplement charge is levied from Years 2 through 6 of ownership.

There are four specification levels for the Bentley Flying Spur range — an unnamed entry-level model, followed by Azure, Speed and Mulliner. Each can be upgraded with a massive array of extra-cost options and bespoke packages.

For the entry-level Bentley Flying Spur, standard equipment includes:

• 21-inch Ten-twin-spoke alloy wheels
• Black-painted brake callipers
• Bentley Active Chassis adaptive air suspension
• Black matrix grille with chrome surround and central vane
• Matt black lower bumper grilles
• Front and rear parking sensors
• 360-degree parking camera system
• Chrome badges for bonnet, wings and boot lid
• Chrome exterior detailing
• Full LED matrix headlights with automatic main beam
• Full LED tail lights
• Electrically adjustable, heated auto-dimming and folding door mirrors
• Automatic windscreen wipers
• Acoustic windscreen and side windows with infra-red light barrier
• Keyless entry and starting
• Electrically soft-closing doors
• Electrically operated bootlid
• 12.3-inch multimedia touchscreen with Touchscreen Remote Control for rear seat passengers
• Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity
• Bentley Signature Audio speaker system
• Wireless smartphone charging pad
• 24-way electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and massaging straight-fluted design front seats
• 14-way electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and massaging straight-fluted design rear seats with Dinamica-trimmed headrest cushions
• Nappa leather upholstery on the seats, door panels and lower dashboard
• Dinamica fabric on the headlining and roof pillars
• Leather-wrapped, electrically adjustable and heated steering wheel
• Heated front and rear central armrests
• Heated armrests in all four doors
• Leather-wrapped gear lever
• Crown Cut Walnut veneer for dashboard and door panels
• Multi-zone climate control
• Auto-dimming interior rear-view mirror
• Electrically operated blinds in the rear doors and for the rear windscreen
• Illuminated door sill stainless steel treadplates

Additional features found on the Bentley Flying Spur Azure include:

• 22-inch Azure alloy wheels
• Gloss black matrix grille with chrome surround and vertical vanes
• Bright chrome lower bumper grilles
• Jewel-design fuel filler and oil filler caps
• Panoramic glass sunroof with two-part electrically operated blinds
• 24-way electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and massaging Harmony Diamond Quilt design front seats with embroidered Azure emblems
• 14-way electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and massaging Harmony Diamond Quilt design rear seats with embroidered Azure emblems and Dinamica-trimmed headrest cushions
• 3D Harmony Diamond leather door panels
• Open Pore Crown Cut Walnut veneer for dashboard and door panels

Further equipment that is part of the Bentley Flying Spur Speed package includes:

• 22-inch Speed alloy wheels
• Red-painted brake callipers
• Bentley Peformance Active Chassis adaptive air suspension
• Dark tint matrix grille and surround
• Dark tint exterior detailing
• Dark tint head and tail light lenses
• Sports exhaust
• 24-way electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and massaging Speed design front seats with embroidered Speed emblems
• 14-way electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and massaging Speed design rear with embroidered Speed emblems and Dinamica-trimmed headrest cushions
• Nappa leather and Dinamica seat upholstery
• 3D Precision Diamond leather door panels
• Leather- and Dinamica-wrapped, electrically adjustable and heated steering wheel
• Dinamica-wrapped gear lever
• Piano Black veneer for dashboard and door panels

Specifying the flagship Bentley Flying Spur Mulliner adds:

• 22-inch Mulliner alloy wheels
• Black-painted brake callipers
• Mulliner Floating Diamond grille with illuminated Flying B mascot
• Bright chrome lower bumper grilles
• Satin silver door mirror housings
• 24-way electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and massaging Precision Diamond Quilt design front seats with embroidered Mulliner emblems
• 14-way electrically adjustable, heated, ventilated and massaging Precision Diamond Quilt design rear seats with embroidered Mulliner emblems and Dinamica-trimmed headrest cushions
• Nappa and Olive-tanned leather upholstery
• Grand Black veneer with Mulliner overlays for dashboard and door panels
• Leather headlining
• Electrically operated rear picnic tables