Bentley Mulsanne review: the last Crewe-built flagship, and now a used-market bargain for the brave
4.1/5motorssouq Editorial Team
A used Mulsanne is one of the most calculated risks in the Bahraini used-luxury market: buy the newest, best-documented Series II example your budget allows, from a seller who can show a full main-dealer service history, and you get a genuinely extraordinary car for a fraction of its original price. Buy a cheap, poorly documented early example and you are one air-suspension fault away from a repair bill that dwarfs what you paid for the car. There is very little middle ground.
Pros
- 6.75L twin-turbo V8 delivers effortless, immense torque from just above idle
- Hand-finished interior quality no shared-platform Bentley has matched since
- Series II (2016+) gearbox and infotainment are a meaningful step up
- Deep depreciation makes a well-documented example genuinely accessible used
- Ride quality on Bahrain's better roads is exceptional
Cons
- Parts and specialist labour increasingly come from outside Bahrain, with real lead times
- Air suspension and active anti-roll faults are expensive and not to be gambled on
- Fuel consumption is substantial even by large-saloon standards
- An undocumented early (pre-2016) example is a genuine financial risk
Bentley built the Mulsanne to replace the Arnage without abandoning what made the Arnage special: a genuine coachbuilt flagship, hand-stitched inside by a single craftsperson per car, powered by the same fundamental 6.75-litre V8 architecture Crewe has used since the Eisenhower era. It is the last Bentley saloon built this way — everything since has been built on shared Volkswagen Group architecture, for very good commercial reasons that do not change what was lost.
The engine is the headline. 506 hp and, more relevantly, 1,020 Nm of torque from as low as 1,750 rpm gives the Mulsanne a way of gathering speed that feels less like acceleration and more like the road being pulled toward the car. On the 2016 facelift, the switch to ZF's 8-speed automatic sharpened response noticeably over the earlier gearbox — a Series II example shifts with none of the occasional hesitation owners of pre-2016 cars mention.
Bahrain reality: parts and specialists
This is where the Mulsanne stops being a simple used-car decision. Behbehani Brothers' Bentley Bahrain dealership can service a Mulsanne, but a car this old and this low-volume means parts increasingly come from the UK or the wider GCC network rather than local stock, and lead times are a real consideration if the air suspension, active anti-roll system or infotainment develops a fault. Budget accordingly, and treat any Mulsanne without a documented service history as a car that needs a full pre-purchase inspection by a Bentley-experienced workshop before money changes hands.
What the money buys
What you get in return is genuinely singular: lambswool floor mats, an interior that took roughly 170 hours of skilled labour to trim, and a ride quality that later, lighter Bentleys have not quite matched despite being objectively more sophisticated cars in every measurable way. On Bahrain's better roads — the Corniche, the causeway approach — it rides like almost nothing else sold new today.
Resale value has already done most of its damage; a well-documented Mulsanne today is priced closer to a loaded 7 Series than to what it cost new, which is precisely what makes it interesting and precisely what should make a buyer cautious. This is a car for someone who understands they are buying a hand-built object with a finite parts supply, not appliance transportation.