Luxury Car of the Year 2025: Bentley Flying Spur
The Bentley Flying Spur is the 2025 Auto Express Luxury Car of the Year, with the BMW 7 Series and Range Rover commended
The Bentley Flying Spur is our luxury-car champ, because it has a desirable combination of a brutish design and an eloquent interior, now joined by a fabulous brand-new engine. While it’s never difficult to love a Bentley that looks like the Flying Spur, a recent combination of small but very impactful changes has created a package that has pipped the still-excellent BMW 7 Series to the top spot.
Bentley’s plug-in hybrid powertrain pairs a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine with an electric motor mounted inside the existing eight-speed dual-clutch transmission. This replaces the W12 engine, but has no obvious downsides, even if you have a penchant for big engines. That’s because even with the hybrid moniker and its 30-odd miles of all-electric range, the V8 is more charismatic than the W12 ever was. It’s also exceptionally fast and gives the Flying Spur a level of effortlessness you’d expect of a 5.2m-long Bentley.
But beyond more power and better efficiency, the hybrid system also fixes some of the non-hybrid version's key issues when considered as a luxury vehicle. The electric motor helps smooth out the gearbox’s low-speed operations, and fills in the gaps in torque at the lower end of the rev range before the turbos have a chance to spin up. This model even rides better, thanks to new dual-valve dampers, and the digital displays inside are upgraded. These changes have made significant improvements all round.
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Our choice
- Bentley Flying Spur 4.0 V8 Hybrid (£175,100)
Bentley only offers the new Flying Spur with its brilliant V8 plug-in hybrid powertrain, but it is available in a couple of tunes and trim lines. There’s no bad option, but while the Speed’s 771bhp is a colossal amount of power to revel in, we think the 671bhp base car or Azure model will do just fine. In terms of spec, Bentley’s vast range of personalisation options mean you could channel St Tropez glamour at one end, or Gotham City sinister at the other, and both will work.
Commended
BMW 7 Series
Last year’s winner hasn’t lost any of its lustre. In fact, the BMW 7 Series’ garish design seems to have softened with time, but its core talents of combining exceptional refinement, top-tier tech and a range of fully electric and plug-in hybrid power is as compelling as ever. But currently, Bentley has an edge that the brilliant 7 Series can’t overcome.
Range Rover
Once again, the Range Rover picks up a commendation, taking pure luxury into a terrain that no other can go, literally. Buyers can spec diesel, petrol, plug-in hybrid and, soon, EV versions, with a slightly refreshed and simplified interior. It can’t quite pip the BMW and Bentley, but it offers a package that no other brand can get near to, especially if it’s muddy.
See all the winners...
Click on the gallery below to see all the winners of our 2025 New Car Awards...
You can find all the information on our New Car Awards 2025 winners and the reasons why we chose them on the pages below. Just follow the links to read more…
New Car Awards 2025: the winners
Special edition of Auto Express
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Great leasing deals on the Bentley Flying Spur's rivals
BMW 7 Series
Land Rover Range Rover
