Bentley Recalls Bentayga to Address Rear Seat Issue, 1k Units Affected

Care to guess which is the best-selling Bentley in production today? Of course, it’s the Volkswagen Touareg-twinned Bentayga. The British automaker sold 15,174 vehicles in 2022, of which 42 percent were sport utility vehicles. By comparison, the Continental GT range finished second with 30 percent.

Commercially successful though it may be, the Bentayga isn’t without faults. Bentley has just issued a safety recall for 1,008 units produced for the United States, with 50 percent of them believed to exhibit the issue we’ll detail in just a moment.

As it happens, the second-row seats in five-seat vehicles may not have been installed correctly. More specifically, they’re not locked on all seat rails. In other words, the rear seat could move in case of a crash, thus compromising passenger safety.

Bentley notes that an improperly locked second-row seat is easily identifiable. If there’s even the slightest movement in the second-row seat, then it’s not locked properly. Based on the document attached below, miscommunication between the British automaker and supplier led to this blunder. The supplier in question is Adient’s Polish division. Adient is a Michigan-based company with Irish legal domicile. Adient is fully owned by Cork, Ireland-based Johnson Controls International.

The aforementioned problem was identified back in January 2022 during a sled test for a new project. The issue was resolved in the factory the following month, yet a number of vehicles hadn’t been remedied correctly. On the upside, no passenger injuries have been reported over this concern.

Dealers will be informed on June 19 to check the second-row seat rail positions. Even if the seat needs to be reset, this operation should take less than an hour. Bentley further highlights that it’s a build process issue rather than a design issue. Both 2022 and 2023 model year Bentayga sport utility vehicles are called back. The seven-seat version isn’t recalled because it features a different locking mechanism. According to Bentley’s NHTSA report, affected vehicles were produced in Crewe between February 20, 2022 and November 7, 2022.

At press time, the Bentayga numbers six trim levels in the United States, ranging between the base specification and Speed Edition 12. Two further trim levels of the Bentayga EWB (i.e., long wheelbase) also need to be mentioned. Previously available with a diesel of all possible engines, the Bentayga currently flaunts a V6, a V8, and a big-boy W12.

The V6 is exclusive to the plug-in hybrid, whose driving range is best described as impressive. 28 miles (45 kilometers) in all-electric mode may not seem impressive at first glance, but do remember that we’re dealing with quite a heavy vehicle. The V8 is an Audi-Porsche design with two turbochargers, just like the V6. As for the soon-to-be-discontinued W12, this engine puts out 626 ponies and 664 pound-feet (900 Nm) of twist.