2024 Bentley Continental GT Coupe and Convertible Review: Blending Plush and Powerful

In the realm of ultra-luxury coupes, individuality is key, exclusivity is essential, and price is not a consideration. At a $245k starting price, the 2024 Bentley Continental GT coupe and convertible are certainly very expensive cars, but that's to be expected in this segment. The Rolls-Royce Wraith, before production ended, was even pricier, leaving just the electric Rolls-Royce Spectre from that automaker to compete at a much higher price - even in the Conti GT stable, the coupes and convertibles don't come close to the Roller's $420k sticker price. BMW aspires to a piece of the pie, too, although the 8 Series contenders aren't as opulent or expensive, even in M850i and M8 guise. All the Continentals are performance cars, with either a 542-horsepower V8 or a 650-hp W12, and they blend sport and luxury particularly well. They're also your last shot at a 12-cylinder Bentley, as this will be the venerable powerhouse's final model year.

New for 2024

Bentley says the small changes to the 2024 Continental GT bring harmony to the range. There's a new A trim between the base coupes and convertibles and their respective S trims, which takes some of its styling cues from the Azure, such as its new waterfall grille design, which gets chrome vertical vanes above a black mesh lower-bumper grille this year. A new Topaz Blue paint color becomes available for all trims. In the cabin, the leather upholstery is rendered in a new lofted quilting pattern, while deep-pile wool Wilton mats on top of the (now 100% recycled nylon) carpeting are standard. First seen on the Bentayga, the dark-tinted aluminum finish can now be seen on GT's waist rails and instrument panel, with a technical pattern on it that resembles the cross-hatch grille pattern. The base price of a new Bentley Continental GT increases by a few thousand dollars, too.

2024 Bentley Continental GT and GTC Price: Which One to Buy

The MSRP of Bentley Continental GT base trim, if such a term can be applied to a Bentley, is $242,700 for the base Coupe, followed by the A Coupe at $259,725, the S Coupe at $274,000, the Azure Coupe at $291,300, the Mulliner Coupe at $315,800, and the Mulliner W12 Coupe at $355,600.

The base Convertible will cost you $267,000, the A Convertible $282,025, the S Convertible $301,300, the Azure Convertible $320,300, the Mulliner Convertible $336,000, and the Mulliner W12 Convertible $391,100. These prices include no personalization, options, or the $2,725 destination charge.

If you have a sporty bent, the blacked-out S certainly looks menacing and gets the active anti-roll bars, but we think the decadent Azure spec suits the Continental better, with its classy chrome exterior showing off those 22-inch wheels to best effect, the wider choice of customization options, and the full suite of driver assists already included. The V8 is plenty powerful enough and will get you farther between fuel stops, too. If you must have one of the last Bentleys with a W12 engine, we'd go straight for the Mulliner, if you're not looking at the Continental GT Speed, which we review separately. The Mulliner is very expensive, but it's a truly peerless ride, with the Mulliner personalization catalog allowing unmatched freedom of choice.

Interior and Features

The beautifully elegant interior is made from the most expensive materials and remains understated and classic, despite all the under-the-skin tech.

The Continental's multi-adjustable power seats welcome you inside as you settle into an interior made from the finest natural materials and real metal. There's no plastic to be seen, the leather is the real thing, and the finest wood veneers grace the dashboard. The term 'base model' seems wholly out of place here. A touchscreen is one concession to modernity, but you can opt for a swiveling display that rotates out of view when not needed.

The cabin can be personalized endlessly, with the hues of the hides and the grains of the woods lovingly curated into a selection as long as your arm. No doubt, the prospective buyer will spend hours mixing and matching until they arrive at their ideal combination - which could likely be unique, so many combinations are possible. Getting in requires you to duck well down to clear the 55-inch roof height, but the typical coupe buyer won't be put off by this. There are quite big over-the-shoulder blind spots, but the standard front and rear parking sensors and the surround-view camera system help alleviate parking stress.

Space

Adults will be perfectly content in the first row, but things don't look quite as rosy in the second row. Space here is limited, so only children and slender adults will be comfortable, with leg and headroom distinctly snug for anyone on the taller side. There's only space for two in the rear, with a console between the seats. The wheelbase of 112.2 inches is more than 13 inches shorter than that of the Flying Spur, and rear-seat passengers pay the price. Without providing figures, Maserati claims that four six-foot adults can fit in its new GranTurismo, for example, but this looks like a decidedly cramped prospect in the Bentley. Still, the BMW 8 Series offers less space back there. The convertible Conti's rear seat has a smidge more headroom than that of the coupe, but the two rear seats are considerably closer together, robbing passengers of shoulder space.

Cargo

Trunk space is more in tune with the snug interior than the size of the car, which is often the case in function-follows-form coupes. The coupe has a trunk volume of only 12.6 cubic feet, and the rear seats cannot fold down to increase it. There is a handy through-loading port for long, slim items, though. Due to having to accommodate the folding roof, the convertible is significantly worse, with only 8.3 cubes of cargo space.

In the cabin, the average-sized glovebox is supplemented with large door pockets, a storage box in the center console, a wireless charging pad, and dual cupholders. There is a center console between the rear seats with a sliding cover that hides two cupholders. In the convertible, the rear seats are closer together, and the console is considerably smaller.

Materials and Colors

The base car's default no-cost configuration is a monotone interior with contrast piping on the seats. There are, of course, a great many interior colors in which you can specify the standard leather on the seats, such as Beluga, Cumbrian Green, and Imperial Blue, to name just three. You can opt for countless variations of contrast stitching and seat piping, hand-cross stitching by Mulliner, and Bentley emblem stitching in many colors. Trim can be had in a variety of wood veneers, such as Dark Fiddleback Eucalyptus, Dark Stained Burr Walnut, and Open Pore Koa. Many of these can be had in a dual finish over Grand Black. Metallic finishes such as dark-tinted Diamond Brush Aluminum and Bright Engine Turned Aluminum, or even carbon fiber, are also available.

The GT A allows you to select separate colors for the main and secondary hides, and a third for areas such as the carpeting and steering wheel. The GT S comes with a fourth color added for the seat centers, which is trimmed in Dinamica faux suede. This sets the scene for the other trims, with more colors and combinations becoming available, culminating in the Mulliner trims, which don't get regular color splits, but rather themes, with their quilted Nappa leather in no fewer than nine color choices for the main hide, 11 for the secondary hide, and 13 colors for the 'Mulliner' embroidering. In terms of trim, they come with Grand Black with a Diamond Milled console.

Features and Infotainment

The most important standard feature in a Bentley is choice, especially in terms of how you want to personalize or customize your car. The standard features are not actually as generous as you might expect, with many of them costing extra. You do get push-button start, soft-close doors, leather upholstery, heated 12-way power front seats, dual-zone climate control, a power-adjustable and leather-trimmed tilting/telescoping steering wheel, and ambient interior lighting, but you have to opt for a higher trim or pay extra for items such as a panoramic glass roof or ventilated front seats with massaging or additional adjustment options.

The base infotainment system comes with a 12.3-inch touchscreen with navigation, Bluetooth with audio streaming, voice commands, Bentley Connected Services, Apple CarPlay (but no Android Auto), Wi-Fi, a wireless charging pad, and a 650-W 10-speaker audio system. Only the Mulliners get the Bentley Rotating Display as standard; it's optional on the other trims. The audio system can be upgraded to a 16-speaker Bang & Olufsen or an 18-speaker Naim setup at extra cost.

Performance

Lots of under-the-skin tech ensures a superb blend of ride and handling and higher trims gain active anti-roll bars to further reduce body roll.

The standard engine in the Bentley Continental GT Coupe and Convertible is a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 with 542 hp and 568 lb-ft of torque. It is used in all but the top trim and provides the best blend of performance and economy, getting to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds and reaching a top speed of 198 mph in all trims. Only the Speed and the Mulliner W12 get the twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter W12 engine with 650 hp and 664 lb-ft of torque, which gives the Bentley Continental GT and GTC a 0-60 time of just 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 208 mph. Only one drivetrain configuration is used throughout the range - an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission that fires rapidly through the ratios and standard all-wheel drive.

With AWD traction and a surfeit of power on tap, even from the V8, you don't need the W12 unless you want to get one for posterity, seeing as it will be discontinued after April 2024. Only at very high, illegal speeds does the 12-cylinder engine's extra power become apparent. The V8 feels more fleet of foot and has a sharper turn-in thanks to the lighter powertrain, too. The three-chamber air suspension is a master class in ride refinement, filtering out all road scars and letting the Continental waft along with the best of them in near silence. Yet, the car comes alive at speed and provides unexpectedly clear feedback through the steering, progressive brakes, and a keenness to change direction that suits the Bentley brand to a tee. It's no GT3 RS, but with the active anti-roll bars in the higher trims, the big GT is rewarding to throw around, with the torque vectoring and rear-biased AWD keeping rotating it neatly when you get on the gas on corner exit. Only the GT Speed gets the rear-axle steering, and it's impressed us in the past.

Fuel Efficiency

Gas mileage is of academic importance in a car such as this, but it does affect the type of driving range you'll get out of a full tank. Predictably, the V8 Bentley Continental GT Coupe and Convertible's mpg numbers are the best, with the EPA estimating the former to return 14/22/17 mpg for the city/highway/combined cycles and the latter 14/21/16 mpg.

Thanks to a cylinder-deactivation system that can disable six of the 12 cylinders, the W12 is better than expected, if still thirsty, with 12/20/15 mpg for the coupe and 12/19/14 mpg for the heavier convertible. The standard gas capacity of 19.8 gallons was deemed insufficient in the US, so local cars come with a 23.78-gallon gas tank, enabling the V8 trims to cover between 380 and 404 miles on a tank. The two Mulliner W12s have a fractionally bigger fuel capacity of 24 gallons, but they still won't get much more than 336 to 360 miles on a tank.

Safety

There aren’t any crash tests to consult, but a basic suite of driver assists is fitted, though you pay extra for various features on the lower trims.

You won't find a safety review of the Bentley Continental GT or GTC anywhere, as expensive luxury cars like these aren't crash-tested. However, modern construction techniques and crash structures should mean it's as safe as anything in this class.

As is often the case with highly customizable luxury cars, the standard spec isn't that impressive, with many features reserved for the options list. This is also the case with the Continental's standard driver assists. Only regular cruise control, rain-sensing wipers, auto-dimming rearview mirrors, automatic matrix-LED headlights, traffic-sign recognition, parking sensors front and rear, and a surround-view camera are fitted as standard on the base, A, and S trims. The Touring Specification package that also adds night vision, a head-up display, adaptive cruise control with active lane-keep assist and lane-departure alert, and front-collision alert with automatic emergency braking is optional on these three trims but standard on the upper trims.

Reliability

There aren't enough of them around for organizations like JD Power to ascertain the reliability of the Bentley Continental GT or GTC, but their recall record looks good. None of the Continental models were recalled over the last two model years, with two recalls applying to all the 2022 models - for an incorrectly installed seatbelt assembly and for incorrect airbag information in the user's manual.

The warranty of the 2024 Bentley Continental GT and GTC isn't generous, covering the cars for only three years in the case of both the limited and powertrain warranties. However, no mileage limit is imposed on either. Complimentary servicing is included for the first year or 10,000 miles.

Warranty

Design

The Continental GT comes with a typical Bentley design, which manages to be distinctive, classy, and dynamic, all at the same time. It's a big car, but it's well-proportioned and comes with the instantly recognizable four round front lights, with the outer ones being smaller. They comprise matrix-LED technology across the board and activate automatically. A hands-free power trunk lid is standard too, and upper GT Coupes get a glass panoramic roof. The beautiful coupe profile doesn't quite survive in translation to the GTC, but the electrically folding soft top can be had in various colors and can be operated up to 30 mph. S trims have blacked-out exterior styling and black wheels, with 21-inch alloys used up to this point and 22s on the Azures and Mulliners, but this is only a guideline, as the cars' exteriors can also be extensively customized.

Verdict: Is The 2024 Bentley Continental GT A Good Car?

Whereas BMW and Aston Martin lean more toward the sporty side in a segment like this and Rolls-Royce toward luxury, it strikes us time and time again that Bentley best manages to marry these two seemingly irreconcilable worlds. The Continental GT really is a super-luxurious and comfortable grand tourer that can waft with the best of them, yet the potent powertrains, lightning-fast dual-clutch automatic, and chassis techno-wizardry like the active anti-roll bars make it astonishingly adept at providing fun when stretching its legs on a mountain road. It's still our favorite sporty-yet-luxurious big coupe and convertible money can buy. Lots of money, that is.