Bentley Continental vs Ford Bronco

What's the difference?

Any fears Bentley was heading in the wrong direction by abandoning 12 cylinders for hybridisation (not that it had a lot of choice) should be totally salved by the Continental GT Speed. It is a hugely capable, fabulously luxurious and beautiful to behold grand tourer that deserves extra points for not being an SUV. It might just be the supercar you could drive every day, with no complaints.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

In many respects the reasons the Bronco is not available to Australian buyers are clear and understandable - demand remains high in the US market and it’s unclear just how many Ford Australia could sell. A pessimist would point to the modest sales of the Jeep Wrangler but an optimist would point out the sales gap between the Ford Ranger and the Jeep Gladiator and ask why Ford doesn’t think it could out-sell its competition.

Having spent so much quality time with the Bronco it’s clear it would have some major appeal to Australian buyers. The strong sales of the Ranger and Everest, as well as the entire off-road SUV market - the likes of the Isuzu MU-X, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport, etc - it’s obvious we love a rugged, adventurous vehicle.

Ford’s strength in that area, with the Ranger/Everest combination, would seemingly strengthen the case for the Bronco to join its ‘T6’ siblings, but only time will tell.

Having spent an extended period behind the wheel I’m more convinced that the Bronco would find a strong market in Australia. Both with the off-road set and those who like a Land Rover Defender to take the kids to school. 

This is an SUV with capability and personality and that should be enough to make it a success in Australia. But for now, we need to play the waiting game…

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much interesting waffle about the design of any car, ever, but before we get to the wild, and wildlife, justifications for how it looks, just feast your eyes on it. 

Now, not everyone might love it, but it’s hard to imagine a huge, super coupe looking any better than this thing does. It’s no Ferrari, sure, but realistically it doesn’t have to compete with that, because it’s a cruiser as well as a bruiser, a supercar you can be quiet and comfortable in. A Rolls-Royce with rocket engines, even. 

The most obvious change, of course, is that Bentleys have had four headlights, or four eyes if you like, for so long that seeing this new one with two is a major shock, a big shift, but somehow it works.

The proportions, the elegance, the bold 'be big and bold and give no damns what anyone thinks', it’s just impressive, and the interior reflects that same, luxury ethos.

Apparently the new-look Continental is built on three design principles, the first of which is, amusingly, 'Resting Beast'. This is supposed to reflect how the Bentley looks from side on; like a tiger, stalking its prey, or perhaps resting and thinking about its prey. It’s all muscles and strength and power, but also elegance. And who doesn’t imagine tigers walking red carpets in ball gowns?

Principle two is 'Upright Elegance', and here you’re supposed to see, in the car, the strong vertical line one finds in the chest of a thoroughbred horse when it’s standing in particularly powerful way. Great. Love it.

And finally, there is the 'Endless Bonnet', which is a horizontal line that goes from the front of the car - via the bonnet obviously - and all the way to there rear, via cat-like haunches, providing an impression of “speed, even when standing still”.

Those are the bold strokes, but it’s all the little details that make it sing, like the beautiful jewellery-like look of the headlights, which are meant to resemble a tiger’s eyes. So many cats, is it any wonder I started thinking of the Bentley as a very, very flashy Jaguar?

It’s important to note that while it looks very new - and 68 per cent of the Continental’s parts are new - the body panels are carried over, while the front and rear are all new. This is one very effective mid-life facelift, with a heart transplant, then.

While we don’t have a history with the Bronco in Australia, it’s an iconic model in the US that was introduced in the 1960s to compete with the likes of the Jeep CJ-5 and Toyota LandCruiser.

It evolved throughout the 1970s, ‘80s and into the ‘90s eventually becoming an F-150-based SUV before being discontinued in ‘96.

For this revived Bronco Ford has gone back to its roots, taking inspiration from the ‘60s and ‘70s but also creating a car that is also very much contemporary.

It’s a great example of using retro design elements without getting lost in nostalgia.

It’s also hugely functional, with a removable roof and doors, which is a popular feature in the US where it’s legal to drive without the doors in place, and has deliberately short front and rear overhangs for improved approach and departure angles.

The Heritage edition takes this a step further with its pumped out Sasquatch flared guards, which are both functional and add to the chunky look of the Bronco.

Notably, the Bronco does not feature a Ford ‘blue oval’ badge, instead it only uses the ‘F-O-R-D’ on the grille and the rest of the badges are the ‘bucking Bronco’ - an alternative take on the ‘striding Mustang’ logo used for the iconic pony car.

The interior of the Bronco is interesting, showing very little commonality with the Ranger and instead embracing its unique history and design language.

The Heritage version also pops with its Oxford White dashboard inset, complete with bright red ‘Bronco’ lettering in front of the passenger.

So a two-door, '2+2' grand tourer isn’t entirely built with the term 'practicality' in mind and it could be argued the existence of this Bentley Continental, the fourth generation, is something of a surprise, when you consider most people just buy SUVs and Bentley has done quite well with its Bentayga (which will, in future, share the same engine used here).

But for what it is, a two-seat car with occasional seating in the rear for emergencies, or very small children, it feels entirely fit for purpose.

An actual human can sit in the back, but it does feel a bit claustrophobic, and you’d be so jealous of how comfortable the people are in the front.

The 20-way adjustable front pews feel like grand armchairs for grand touring, fabulously comfortable - although you can slide across them a bit when driving on a race track, not a common problem - and plush to the touch.

They now come with a 'Wellness Facility' that brings postural, massage and climate functions to help with fatigue on long journeys - and epic blasts across multiple European countries is clearly what this thing is designed for.

In general, the cabin is just lovely, Bentley claims it does the best car interiors in the world and while Rolls might argue, it’s a pretty fair statement.

The spinning central 12.3-inch display remains the highlight, offering you a modern touchscreen, which can disappear to reveal either three classic analogue dials or a plain piece of dashboard, if you prefer a 'digital detox'.

The Bronco is a big vehicle so you do need to climb up into it, but Ford has considered that and integrated handles into the side of the dashboard to help you in.

That’s just one of several small but thoughtful touches around the cabin that show the company has been very considered in designing the Bronco.

The option to have either removable soft- or hard-top is another one of those design touches that show Ford was determined to ensure the Bronco appealed to a broad market of buyers.

It does mean some peculiarities, though, such as the window and mirror controls being on the centre console, instead of the doors.

It also cuts down on small item storage space, as the doors only have small netted areas rather than any meaningful space.

In fact, small item storage is limited to just two cupholders and two small areas up front and in the car there are no cupholders at all in the rear.

Instead, rear passengers are left with the small nets in the doors and nothing else. However, rear passengers do get a USB and power outlet which will no doubt come in handy for owners.

Back in the front the instrument display combines an analogue speedo with a small digital screen that displays the rest of the information.

It’s not a particularly clear layout, with a vertical rev counter next to several other readouts making it tricky to glance at on the move, and unfortunately it cannot be changed like some other digital displays.

The 8.0-inch media screen is a good size and offers Ford’s intuitive SYNC 4 operating system, which is a plus.

In terms of space the Bronco offers reasonable interior room, albeit less than you might expect when you look at how big it is outside.

The front seats are comfortable and offer good visibility of the road ahead, while the rear offers adequate legroom and generous headroom thanks to the tall and squared-off roofline.

The boot measures a very healthy 1008 litres according to Ford, which seems generous based on our real world experience.

It certainly coped well, accommodating several large suitcases and smaller bags, though, so it doesn’t lack for luggage capacity even if its on-paper claim may be grandiose.

Obviously there’s the full-size spare mounted on the rear tailgate in case you need it. The tailgate itself opens in two parts, with the lower half coming out to the side while the glass lifts up, which is necessary because of the removable roof (with the glass section coming off with the top).

Ford offers an extensive range of Broncos in the US market, with two-door and four-door variants, as well as the choice of removable hard or soft-tops before you get to the trim lines. 

The range actually begins with a model variant simply known as ‘Base’ which has only the basic features, even simple steel wheels, so it can be used as a blank canvas for owners to customise with their own aftermarket additions for the ultimate off-roader.

But the Bronco isn’t a cheap vehicle, with even the Base starting at US$39,890 (approx. $52,000) and running all the way up to US$86,580 (approx. $132,000) for the high-performance Raptor.

In between there are seven other variants with some memorable names - Big Bend, Black Diamond, Outer Banks, Badlands, Heritage, Wildtrak and Heritage Limited.

The Heritage we tested starts at US$47,105 - roughly $70,000 in Australian money - which isn’t cheap but you do get plenty of car for the money. 

In terms of standard Bronco equipment there’s a 4x4 system with Ford’s ‘HOSS 1.0’ off-road suspension system, terrain management system and 'EcoBoost' engine, plus keyless entry and ignition, dual-zone climate control and Ford’s 'SYNC 4' multimedia system on an 8.0-inch touchscreen. 

Unique touches for the Heritage edition include a two-tone paint job with 'Oxford White' accents on the removable hard-top, front grille and 17-inch alloy wheels.

It also gets the huge squared-off fender flares from the 'Sasquatch' package that Ford offers for the Bronco, which also increase the track by approximately 50mm.

The Heritage treatment also includes a unique ‘plaid’ cloth trim for the seats, an Oxford White inlay in the dashboard and front and rear rubber floor mats.

There is some sadness that the world’s biggest producer and promoter of 12-cylinder engines has cut production of them altogether - the epic W12 is no more - and this does feel, on a smaller scale, like Porsche ditching flat-six engines forever.

Previous hybrid efforts from Bentley, including a V6-based one that the company now admits was a bit limp wristed, might cause some concern when you hear that Bentley will, henceforth, make just one engine for all its cars, and that it is a hybrid, albeit one attached to a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8.

But then they point out the version in this Continental GT Speed’s is “the most powerful Bentley engine ever” and that sounds pretty good.

The engine alone makes 441kW and 800Nm, which almost sounds ample, but the addition of the electric E-motor is good for another 140kW and 450Nm, with the aid of a 29.5kWh battery, which somehow adds up to a combined output of 575kW and a nice, round, and impressive 1000Nm of torque.

All that power does have to move 2.5 tonnes of precious metal, which sounds like an ask, but is effortless in practice - hurling the Speed to 100km/h in a properly supercar-like 3.2 seconds on its way to a top speed of 335km/h.

Yes, vitally, it sounds pretty damn impressive when all the power sources are going at once, it even barks and pops on the overrun, a bit like the Porsche Panamera with which it shares the hybrid set-up, only a bit bossier, and perhaps classier.

The point of the hybrid feels like it’s mostly about performance and excitement, but it has a practical side, too, because in EV-only mode this giant Bentley can drive for up to 81km in pure, and slightly inappropriate-feeling, silence (at speeds of up to 140km/h).

Handy if you live in global cities with zero-emission zones, or if you want your neighbours to think you care about the climate.

One brilliant thing about this plug-in hybrid is it’s set up to use the engine to regen the battery, hard, in 'Sport' mode, so the more fun you have, the quicker the battery charges. So much so that, realistically, you might never need to plug it in at all (Bentley recently ran the car at a race track for two weeks and never needed to top it up via cable once).

It is an impressive, sonorous and enjoyable power plant, and you’d expect nothing less from Porsche, although Bentley says it’s done lots of work on the donor engine to make it uniquely more wonderful.

The Heritage edition is powered by Ford’s EcoBoost 2.3-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and can be paired with a 10-speed automatic. 

However, our test car was equipped with a seven-speed manual gearbox, but not in the way you might think. Instead of seventh gear being an overdrive for highway cruising, the extra ratio is actually for extremely low-speed off-road use.

Known as the ‘Crawler’ gear Ford says it makes the Bronco ‘almost unstallable’ when you find yourself in a tricky spot.

Specifications for the engine aren’t quite as straightforward as you’d like, with Ford offering power and torque figures for US standard and premium grade fuels.

With the former the 2.3-litre makes 205kW/427Nm, while if you put better petrol in you’ll get 223kW/440Nm - so it will pay to spend a bit more at the pump.

While the top-line figures for performance hybrids like this always sound impressive, it’s hard to believe anyone will ever get near them in the real world, because the temptation to drive a car like this hard and fast, as its makers clearly intended, will mean chewing fuel in a very non-efficient way indeed.

On paper, though, where it matters in terms of being allowed to sell your giant luxury grand tourer in Europe, the Bentley Continental GT Speed produces just 29 grams of CO2 per kilometre. 

Fuel economy is a claimed 10.3 litres per 100km, which is optimistic, but still a lot lower than the equally unlikely 14L/100km figure for the old (12-cylinders and no hybrid) car. As in, neither car would ever achieve the theoretical figure, but at least the new one is clearly a lot better.

Not surprisingly a large SUV powered by a relatively small, turbocharged petrol engine is not particularly fuel efficient.

The USA’s Environmental Protection Agency estimates the EcoBoost four-cylinder will use 11.7 litres per 100km on the combined urban/highway cycle.

That didn’t ring true in our real-world test, which did include long highway stretches as well as a lot of urban running around, with the car’s trip computer saying we’d used 13.6L/100km.

While that’s not particularly miserly, at least there’s a 64-litre fuel tank to provide a driving range of nearly 550km, so you can cover some distance.

In an ideal world, one would take the Bentley Continental GT Speed for an appropriate drive from the top of Germany to the bottom of Italy or France, but instead we were asked to drive the big beast around a tight and slightly terrifying private members race track outside Tokyo called the Magarigawa Club.

Members here pay US$1 million a year for access to this circuit, carved out of several mountain tops, which features two long and fun straights attached to what feels like a hill climb circuit with a bit of Laguna Seca’s Corkscrew and a touch of Mt Panorama’s undulations.

This track, with its daunting lack of run-off, should have been an intimidating and possibly inappropriate place to try the Continental GT Speed, but it is a credit to the car’s “everyday supercar” personality that it soaked up the pressure, and pace with ease.

On our first lap we were encouraged to drive in EV mode, which was predictably a bit dull, quiet and not-quite boring, because if you went past 75 per cent of throttle, or 140km/h, the engine would kick in and things would instantly get interesting.

It was a good chance to note just how lushly comfortable the cabin and seats are, however, and just how supple the suspension can be.

The Bentley’s “secret weapon”, according to its engineers, is a new twin-valve damper the allows the chassis to behave like a sports car when you want it to - probably about 3.0 per cent of the time for actual owners - and an absolute luxury pleasure palace for cruising around the rest of the time.

The split personality thing really is on offer with this car, as we found out once we engaged the Sport setting.

The Speed’s all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, torque vectoring and electronic LSD were all on display over the later laps, in which we were allowed to blast past 200km/h and find out just how good the brakes are at pulling up 2.5 tonnes of high-speed luxo-barge.

You do your steering via a lovely wheel with a leather front and Alcantara wheel, and it feels effortless, even in full track attack mode. A bit more feedback might be nice, but I guess Bentley owners have other cars for that kind of thing.

Aside from the rushing, roaring speed, what is most impressive is how little body roll there is from the Continental. It feels planted, poised, happy to change direction and is rarely upset or flustered, despite some squeals of complaints from the tyres. 

Getting too wide on to the ripple strips caused a shudder and a skip sideways now and then, but perhaps I shouldn’t have been so far off the racing line.

Overall, the Continental GT delivers on its name, with Speed, and lots of it, all delivered in a properly swanky environment.

The Bronco is designed for off-road use, it isn’t a ‘soft-roader’ and has been created specifically for those who enjoy getting off the beaten path.

Ford claims an approach angle of 43.2 degrees, a breakover angle of 29.0 degrees and a departure angle of 37.2 degrees, plus 294mm of ground clearance and up to 850mm of water fording capability. 

We, unfortunately, didn’t get a chance to drive the Bronco that way, instead spending three days behind the wheel driving it through US cities, along highways and winding our way through some picturesque mountain roads.

But despite being out of its element, the Bronco felt perfectly at home.

The fundamental qualities of the ‘T6’ platform, that makes the Ranger such a capable and popular offering with Australian buyers, shines through with the Bronco, too.

It steers with accuracy and has nicely weighted steering, rather than feeling too heavy and slow as some off-roaders can.

The ride is comfortable, too, which isn’t too surprising as it rides on 17-inch alloy wheels with huge 35-inch tyre, with bumps soaked up with ease.

Ford’s drive select system has modes for on-road - 'Normal', 'Sport' and 'Eco' - as well as off-road - 'Mud/Ruts', 'Sand' and 'Rocky' - so you’re covered whatever you want to do.

As for the powertrain, the EcoBoost engine does an admirable job most of the time, feeling powerful enough around town to move this sizable SUV.

However, there are times it will struggle and labour, most obviously when needing to overtake or climb a hill. There were several instances when we found ourselves shifting down from sixth to fourth gear to keep momentum up.

In the US market the Bronco gets front, side and curtain airbags, with rollover sensors, as well as a reversing camera as standard equipment across the range.

But if you want more active safety features you need to add some optional safety packages, including on this high-grade Heritage edition.

That means items like pre-collision warning with autonomous emergency braking, blind spot monitoring and lane keeping assist are all additional extras.

For the Bronco to work in Australia, the company would need to offer a higher level of standard safety equipment in line with market expectations.

The Bentley Continental GT Speed comes with a five-year, all-inclusive servicing plan as standard.

That sounds good, but stunningly, Bentley still only offers a three-year manufacturer warranty, albeit one with no mileage limitations. That's way below industry standard these days.

The battery that forms part of the hybrid system is, however, warrantied for eight years, or 160,000km.

These are questions for another time unfortunately, with Ford Australia still unlikely to add the Bronco to the range in the near future.