Cars.com's Joe Wiesenfelder reviews the 2012 Bentley Continental GT.
Transcript
(upbeat music) <v Announcer>Cars.com auto review. (upbeat music) Hi, I'm Joe Wiesenfelder with cars.com. We're looking at a 2012 Bentley Continental GT. Now this is a 2012. The last time they sold this car was a 2010.
That's because they've redesigned it completely. This is a car that starts at $190,000. As tested, our car is 217. To the casual observer, the styling might not seem that different, but there are some changes. The grill is a little bit more upright. Actually, a little criticism. I still think it looks a little bit cheap and plasticky. I've said it about Jaguar. I've said it about Bentley before. Grills tend to be plastic. They don't have to look that way. Now, there are also new LED daytime running lights here, and some other subtle changes to the headlights. Now in the previous generation, 19 inch wheels were standard and 20s were optional. In this one, 20 inch wheels are standard. Our test car has 21s. You would think that might make it ride poorly. Actually rides pretty nicely. Some of the other changes include more creases, cut lines in the car itself. I think it actually makes a big difference. Makes the car look a little bit less like the world's fastest bar of soap. Now, the interior was updated as well. One of the things we complained most about in the previous generation was an outdated navigation and control system with real buttons on either side of the display. Now it's a touchscreen. Much better, but not perfect. I'll show you why. There are a lot of delays. When you hit a button, the screen comes up. Then you hit another button on the menu. It waits a second, then it beeps. And then it goes to what you wanted in the first place. Not ideal. Now, usually I enjoy running off a list of extremely expensive options on cars like this. This time around, our test car has an option package that hides everything. Very clever, Bentley. One thing I can point out though, things like contrast stitching here, 1800 bucks. You want more stitching? Thousands more. The 2012 is also a better driving car than the previous generation. I think it feels lighter, and that's for a few different reasons. For one thing, more power. It has a six liter that puts out 567 horsepower that it sends to all four wheels. So all that power gets there. Zero to 60 comes in about 4.5 seconds. A second reason is that the car actually has lost some weight, about 150 pounds, which it counts. And the third reason is the all wheel drive now sends more power to the rear than the front, which really helps you balance the car when you power out of a turn. It just makes the car feel much lighter than it is. Now, with the redesign also comes more back seat leg room. It's largely because of a redesign of the front seat. When you flip the backrest forward, it motors out of your way automatically. Once you're seated, there's a nice rocker switch here to move the seat back. I'm six feet tall. I have enough headroom. Legroom's decent enough to give the person in front some space. The improvement, I'll take it. Now unfortunately, there's been a slight decrease in the trunk volume, about a half a cubic foot to 12.6 cubic feet. Calm down. You can still fit your golf clubs in there. For more details on the driving and all other aspects of the Continental GT, see my full review at cars.com. (engine humming) <v Announcer>For more car related news, go to cars.com or our blog, kickingtires.net.
