Bentley Flying Spur vs LDV Deliver 7

What's the difference?

The Bentley Flying Spur Speed is a whole lot of car, for a whole lot of money. Sure, I’d rather have a Ferrari or a Porsche with similar power (and the Panamera shares the same V8 and hybrid set up), but then if you’re in the market for a Bentley like this you already have a garage full of other options. And I can see why you’d add one of these to your collection. Because you can.

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

For a van that is going to be heavily loaded most of its life, the diesel Deliver 7 offers a strong value proposition with snazzy exterior design and passenger car-like interior tech. 

As a fleet-oriented vehicle, that ANCAP sticker of approval, non-slip flooring and ergonomic seats will please the health and safety officers, too.

It's a shame, then, that LDV couldn't match the reasonable refinement and ride quality offered by the electric eDeliver 7. Where that van feels competitive with rivals, the diesel Deliver 7’s budget bones add up to a bouncy, unrefined and bonging safety aid-filled driving experience.

The diesel Deliver 7 is a decent enough workhorse but it’s hard to recommend saving the money over its more refined competitor set. 

Bentley seems to have spent the design budget on the Continental GT Speed, which was launched at the same time and gets the same new engine under its slightly sexier bonnet. The big move there has been going from Bentley’s traditional four headlight face to a smoother more modern one with just two lights, or eyes.

The Flying Spur, by comparison, sticks with the more traditional look, and four eyes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it looks nerdier. Indeed, it’s still an impressive and handsome beast and does a mighty fine job of making this much metal and mass look bold and desirable. 

Truly, vehicles this large tend to look lumpen and making one look as good this Flying Spur Speed does is an impressive feat. Look at the photos and be impressed.

The interior fit out and fittings are stunning, with Bentley boldly claiming it makes the best car cabins in the world. It’s not an outrageous claim, either.

The van segment has evolved to the point where a box on wheels is no longer enough to grab attention and we can thank the Hyundai Staria for that. 

The Deliver 7 conforms to new norms adopting the exact same fascia as its eDeliver 7 that certainly stands out, though the doily pattern may trigger trypophobics. Sharp LED lighting and classic van proportions finish things off. 

The Deliver 7 rides on 16-inch steel wheels with hubcaps and 215/65R16C GitiVan 600B tyres. An upgrade to alloy wheels is offered, too.

Inside there are pleasant materials in some places, such as the soft synthetic leather door tops perfect for resting your elbow. There is some upmarket chic to the cabin but it’s eye candy only, as the blue faux stitching panel is all hard, scratchy plastic. Still, that’s the hard-wearing vibe of most in this segment.

I’m not going to pretend that I had my laptop out taking notes while we were hitting 200km/h down the back straight at Magarigawa, but at more sane speeds there’s no doubt the rear seats of this car would be a very relaxing, plush, cosseting and pleasant smelling place to sit and work.

That’s at least partly what the Flying Spur Speed is for, a limousine for those who don’t like, or perhaps can’t quite afford, a Rolls-Royce, but still want great British solidity, class and that sense of obscene wealth, probably inherited.

The bonus of the Flying Spur is that it’s also a lovely place to be should you choose either of the front seats, with hugely comfortable seats that are more like couches, endless adjustability and many soothing massage settings for your heated and ventilated pews.

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

When it comes to exterior size, the LDV Deliver 7 sits between the smaller Hyundai Staria load SWB and larger Toyota HiAce LWB. It is only available in low-roof guise but the Deliver 7’s generous width is its party trick, measuring 2118mm from flank to flank. 

The Deliver 7’s load area is 2547mm long (or 2913mm in the LWB), 1800mm wide (pinched to 1390mm between the arches) and 1428mm tall for a total of 6.3 cubic metres of load space. There are six heavy-duty tie-down loops to secure cargo. 

Adding to practicality are standard barn doors which are handy in low car parks and make loading pallets — the Deliver 7 will easily fit two Australian or Euro palettes inside — simple.

They can be opened to 90 degrees where they lock, or all the way to 180 degrees. There is no lock when fully extended, though, so they can blow closed on windy days. We’d also appreciate seeing a second sliding side door as an option. 

The Deliver 7’s star factor is payload, in fact it’s clear of all the listed rivals above by a reasonable margin. The Deliver 7’s 2105kg kerb weight and 3400kg GVM mean drivers can carry up to 1290kg of cargo in the back. It is also capable of towing a 2000kg braked, or 750kg unbraked, trailer load. 

Oddly, for its impressive carrying capacity, the Deliver 7 is not equipped with a bulkhead. It is also a strict two-seater without a centre bench for a third occupant. 

The trade off here is that the Deliver 7 has supportive car-like bucket seats with adjustable arm rests. The upholstery is cloth that feels hard wearing and the seats slide forwards and backwards, have height and tilt adjust along with manual lumbar to keep you fresh after a few hours behind the small diameter leather-appointed steering wheel.

Moving to a stalk-style shifter frees up the Deliver 7’s centre console for added incidental storage, with handy spots for tape measures, keys, invoices and four cupholders easily accessible.

Hidden storage is a little limited, with a small-ish glove box and ashtray the extent of the cubbies. 

And while the Deliver 7’s technology suite looks good on the surface, it is not particularly responsive and many heavy-use functions are restricted to the screen.

For example, the headlight controls are on the main menu and they do not automatically switch off when you turn the Deliver 7 off using its push-button start system unless they’re in auto mode and, instead of just turning a stalk to silence beeping, you have to reboot the car. 

The eating and ventilation controls are a mix of digital and physical though the row of switches is an awfully long way from the driver’s seat. The scroll wheels to adjust fan speed and temperature have very fine stops making it difficult to be accurate on the move. 

The touchscreen’s menus are otherwise straightforward enough, though it is a shame Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone mirroring has to run through a cable attached to only one of the three USB-A and USB-C charge ports scattered about the interior.

The LDV Deliver 7 is essentially a rebadged version of SAIC Motor's Maxus V70 sold in China and arrives in Australia as a simple proposition. Short or long wheelbase is your only choice, with a single sliding door and rear barn doors as standard.

The range simplicity makes LDV importer Ateco’s life easier, meaning the price is sharp. The Deliver 7 short wheelbase we have on test is normally $44,726, drive-away, but if you hold an ABN (as almost every van buyer does) it’s yours for $42,490 on the road. 

Admittedly, the gap between LDV’s offering and established names has closed since the G10, however, it’s still about $10,000 cheaper than rivals once you factor in on-road costs.

For reference, the Toyota HiAce LWB is $51,636, the Hyundai Staria Load Twin Swing $50,640 and Ford Transit Custom SWB Trend starts at $56,590, with all those prices before on-road costs. 

And there’s good reason the Deliver 7 has come upmarket; plenty of whizz-bang technology inside. A generous 12.3-inch central multimedia touchscreen, decent sound system, sizeable digital information screen, LED head and tail-lights, electronic park brake, keyless entry with proximity key and rain-sensing wipers should give the LDV a leg up in the showroom. 

Health and safety officer-pleasing features such as a bright LED light in the load bay and rubber flooring (which is less grippy than its ‘non-slip’ name would have you believe), high definition reversing camera and parking sensors at both ends also come standard.

For an extra $1500, you can upgrade to 16-inch alloy wheels and pick up a 360-degree camera. Dual sliding doors are part of that pack, too. 

If you’re going to put the word “Speed” in the title of your car, you really can’t mess about when it comes to the powerplant, and Bentley also has a proud history of making hugely powerful V12 engines to live up to. That’s a history that has now ended, with the announcement that the new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 in this Flying Spur Speed will be the one and only in all Bentleys, henceforth, including the Continental and the Bentayga SUV.

Bentley’s W12 engine is, sadly, no more, which might well make some older Flying Spurs quite collectable.

The V8 will come in different flavours, of course, and it’s also a hybrid, as is the modern way. Bentley calls the 140kW electric motor attached to the engine an “e-machine”.

Using that machine, the Speed can whisk you around in silent, EV-only mode for up to 81km. With such a stupendous sounding V8 on offer, it’s hard to see why you’d bother, but it’s an option, and the hybrid system is cleverly set up so that the harder you drive, the quicker the battery recharges, so effectively you’d almost never have to actually plug this PHEV in.

With the engine and e-machine combined, you’re looking at a staggering 575kW and 1000Nm, enough to propel all 2646kg of this Flying Spur Speed to 100km/h in just 3.5 seconds.

It might not sound quite as orchestrally moving as the big, sassy W12, but it’s still a hell of a replacement, as it is, in fact, “the most powerful Bentley engine ever”. That will do nicely.

There is nothing special about the Deliver 7's carryover 2.0-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder that produces peak power and torque of 123kW and 390Nm.

The Deliver 7's engine iscompliant with Euro 5 standards and emits 203 grams of CO2 per kilometre. It is equipped with a diesel particulate filter (DPF), though no AdBlue tank. 

It is noisy and vibey in this application but provides adequate motivation unladen and loaded, feeling especially punchy between 2200-3000rpm. 

The LDV Deliver 7 is front-wheel drive and uses a nine-speed ZF-sourced torque converter automatic that shifts smoothly. There are three drive modes: 'Eco', 'Normal' and 'Power'. 

Annoyingly, the Deliver 7’s transmission is calibrated to shift into the highest gear as soon as possible, sometimes leaving you without enough grunt to accelerate without kicking down.

It is also slow to downshift under braking, meaning you need to lean on the brakes harder when carrying a heavy load. There are tactile shift paddles behind the wheel to encourage a downshift if you need, though.

So, if you were very careful to use your 81km of EV-only range, as often as possible, and you drove very slowly and treated the accelerator pedal with great care, you might, possibly, achieve the Flying Spur Speed’s claimed fuel-economy of 10.7 litres per 100km. 

That’s the great thing about hybrids like this, they are theoretical fuel misers of the highest order. But if you aren’t careful and you care more about enjoying that twin-turbo V8 engine you’ve paid so much money for, you’re never, ever going to get it under 15L/100km, and you’ll quite likely exceed 20L/100km, as we did, with ease, by driving it around a track all day.

Theoretically, again, this Bentley will emit just 33 grams of CO2 per kilometre. 

The combined (urban/extra-urban) ADR fuel cycle efficiency for the LDV Deliver 7 is a respectable 7.7L/100km. Our 200km loop including rural, urban and motorway driving saw it return 8.5L/100km at an average speed of 45km/h.

In urban and suburban driving, we saw 10L/100km aided by the engine start-stop system. 

There is a large 80-litre fuel tank that would see driving ranges in excess of 1000km in favourable conditions, with 800km still likely on urban delivery runs.

Any car with a whopping 575kW and 1000Nm is going to be interesting, even invigorating to drive, but you’d have to say the smaller and lighter it is, the more excitement, and even fear, you’re going to be faced with.

In the case of the Bentley Flying Spur Speed, you’re talking about an enormous, and enormously luxurious and comfortable, sedan that’s designed to carry more than two people, and weighs a hefty 2646kg.

It’s a limousine powered by a rocket, as I said earlier, but looking at the size, and pondering the weight of it, you really don’t expect too much in the way of thrills. Effortless performance, sure, titanic overtaking thrust, perhaps, but then you read the fine print and note that this Flying Spur Speed can hit 100km/h in 3.5 seconds.

That’s seriously fast in anything, but in a car this big, and filled with as much luxury as a mid-sized super yacht, it feels other worldly. 

Hammering the big Speed around a tight, intense race track feels strange at first and then strangely comfortable. Even sitting in the back wasn’t so much frightening as amusing, as the big Bentley simply slopes through any challenge you throw at it.

Sure, I’d like it to be louder, and you do miss the sound of the old 12-cylinder engine (and Bentley fans in particularly might find its absence upsetting), but the V8 is still throaty enough to please your ears, and it’s important to consider that it’s actually more powerful than the old W12, which is no mean feat.

Compared to the shorter, sharper Continental GT Speed we drove on the same day, the Flying Spur does have a bit more body roll, a bit more pitch and dive under braking from 200km/h, or when accelerating ballistically out of slow corners, but it’s still stupendously impressive for what it is.

And that is a luxury limousine that can turn itself into a race track weapon if you, and your three passengers, want it to. 

The Deliver 7 is effectively the same configuration as its electric sibling, using struts with coil springs up front and a leaf-sprung beam axle at the back. Standard stuff for a heavy duty van. 

The front and rear disc brakes have a nice solid pedal feel with well calibrated ABS and the Deliver 7 is generally safe and fairly secure on the road-holding front. 

Unfortunately, the suspension set-up of LDV’s diesel van is significantly worse than the rather refined electric model. Unladen, the Deliver 7’s ride quality is atrocious, bordering on unacceptable. 

Over speed bumps, the rear end bucks and shimmies as the van’s dampers fail to control the heavy duty leaf springs. There were several instances when the Deliver 7 was so uncontrolled my backside lost contact with the seat cushion.

As Deliver 7s are likely to spend most of their life loaded up, we headed to BC Sands in Taren Point which happily put 600kg worth of builders sand in the back. The rear ride height dropped 20mm with the load onboard.

With the weight onboard the Deliver 7’s ride settled on rippled tarmac and the bouncing was less abrupt coming off speed humps.

However, the 3.3-turn lock-to-lock steering became light and ponderous and the ride still lacks finesse. A previous-gen Toyota HiAce rides better. 

Visibility is another Deliver 7 struggle. A solid-walled van will always be compromised but with the seat in a comfortable position for me, at 188cm, my head was in line with the B-pillar.

The big mirrors couldn’t be adjusted far enough out for my driving position, either, leaving plenty of blind-spot (lucky there’s a safety system for that!). The A-pillars are thick and pushed forward, impacting visibility at junctions and roundabouts.

The LDV Deliver 7 achieved a gold star rating in ANCAP’s light duty van testing in 2024 thanks to six airbags and a long list of driver assist features. 

Due to the poor outward visibility, you need the assistance which includes auto emergency braking (AEB), driver attention monitoring, lane-keep assist, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, speed sign assist and tyre pressure monitoring. 

Aside from the very helpful blind-spot monitoring, the Deliver 7’s other features feel more like a box-ticking exercise than genuinely helpful aids. You can turn the ones you don’t like off in about four taps on the central touchscreen. 

I encountered two instances of false positive AEB intervention; regular misinformation and beeping from the speed sign detection; constant tugging from the emergency lane-keep assist even in its most forgiving setting and, at one point, the driver attention monitoring scalded me for smoking a (non-existent) cigarette.

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.

The LDV Deliver 7 is backed by a competitive seven-year/200,000km warranty, however LDV does not publish fixed-price servicing.

After purchase, the Deliver 7 needs maintenance after six months or 5000km at a cost of $344, with subsequent intervals yearly or at 20,000km, whichever comes first. 

Australian importer Ateco was able to give us a guide for three years of servicing at $2644 though this will vary depending on labour rates, rate of consumable use and other factors depending on the dealer. 

Toyota caps HiAce servicing at $1740 for the same period and gives a clearer indication of pricing beyond the three-year mark, which may help you budget into the future.