Models
Urus vs Bentayga vs G 63: The LA Super-SUV Question
Three of the most requested SUVs in Los Angeles use the same basic engine — a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 — and produce three completely different cars. The engine is the least interesting thing about this comparison.
A Lamborghini Urus, a Bentley Bentayga and a Mercedes-AMG G 63 will all seat five, all carry a weekend of luggage, and all make a valet stand up straighter. What separates them is character: one is built to be heard, one is built to be quiet, and one is built to be recognised. Getting that right matters more than any number on the spec sheet.
Day rates move whenever the fleet syncs, so you will not find figures typed into this article — each car carries its live daily rate on its own page. The gap between the three is narrower than the gap between their personalities anyway, which is why this piece is about the personalities.
The numbers, side by side
| Urus | Bentayga | G 63 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horsepower | 641 | 542 | 577 |
| 0–60 mph | 3.5s | 4.4s | 4.5s |
| Top speed | 190 mph | 180 mph | 149 mph |
| Engine | 4.0L twin-turbo V8 | 4.0L twin-turbo V8 | 4.0L twin-turbo V8 |
| Drivetrain | AWD | AWD | 4WD |
| Construction | Unibody | Unibody | Ladder frame |
| Seats | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| Ride | Firm | Settled | Firm and busy |
| Voice | Theatrical | Near silent | Deep |
| Built for | Being heard | Being driven in | Being recognised |
Two rows explain most of the others. Construction is the first: the Urus and the Bentayga are unibody cars that happen to sit high, while the G 63 is a genuine ladder-frame off-roader with a luxury interior bolted on top — which is why it rides as it does, and why it will go where the other two will not. Top speed is the second. The G 63 gives away 40 mph to the other two, not for lack of power, but because it runs the tyres, the height and the aerodynamics of a vehicle nobody ever asked to do 190.
Urus: the loud one
The Urus is a Lamborghini that happens to have four doors, and it never lets you forget the first half of that sentence. Cold-start it in a hotel forecourt and everyone within a hundred metres turns around. Put it in its sharpest drive mode and the exhaust does theatre on every downshift. Nothing else in the fleet arrives with the same volume.
It is also genuinely fast in a way the other two are not. Lamborghini's own figures for the Urus — 641 hp, 3.5 seconds to 60 mph — are supercar arithmetic in a five-seat body, and the chassis backs them up. This is the one of the three you would enjoy on a canyon road rather than merely survive, and we have a guide to the roads worth taking it on.
It is also the only one of the three that comes with a choice of colour: green, yellow and black. That matters more than it sounds. Green and yellow are the cars people photograph; the black one is the car that behaves itself outside a hotel and still moves the same way.
The honest trade-off is that it is the firmest riding and the most conspicuous of the three. In its sharper modes the ride is busy over LA's cracked tarmac, and it sits lowest, so steep driveways in the Hills deserve a slow, angled approach. If the point is to be noticed, none of that is a downside. If there is a client in the back seat, it might be.
G 63: the one everybody knows
Nothing else on the road is shaped like a G-Wagon, and that shape is doing most of the work. Flat glass, exposed hinges, indicators standing up on the corners of the bonnet, a spare wheel hanging off the back door. It reads as a G 63 from a block away in the dark, which is something neither of the other two can claim.
Underneath it is still a ladder-frame off-roader, and you feel that. The seating position is upright and commanding, the ride is firmer and busier than the Bentayga's, and there is a mechanical honesty to how it moves that either charms you completely or does not. The side-exit exhaust is loud in a deeper, less exotic register than the Urus — more muscle car than supercar.
Mercedes builds the shape in two states of tune, and the G-Class range splits accordingly: the 416 hp G550 and the 577 hp AMG G 63. We keep both, and from across a street they are the same car. The difference is entirely in what happens when you use the throttle, and in what the neighbours hear at seven in the morning.
Practically, the square body is a gift in Los Angeles parking structures: you can see all four corners, so placing it is easier than its width suggests. The catch is the rear door, which is side-hinged and swings out rather than up. At a tight kerb that door needs room, and it opens towards the pavement rather than away from it.
Bentayga: the quiet one
The Bentayga draws the least attention of the three, which is precisely the point. It is the quietest of them at 70 mph, the most settled over broken surfaces, and by a distance the best place to sit for three hours of Los Angeles to Santa Barbara. Interior materials are a step above both rivals, and it is the only one of the three where a phone call on speaker is genuinely comfortable at freeway speed.
It is not slow — 4.4 seconds to 60 mph is quick by any sane standard — but it is unhurried about how it delivers that. Where the Urus shouts and the G 63 rumbles, the Bentayga simply compresses the distance in front of it and says nothing.
The trade-off is recognition. Even the name is quiet about it: Bentayga is a rock formation in the Canary Islands, and it began the naming rule the two most expensive Bentleys ever built now follow. Outside of people who know cars, a Bentayga reads as a large, well-made SUV rather than as a specific event. If the brief is content, an arrival, or being seen, that is the wrong trade. If the brief is a client, a parent or a long drive, it is exactly the right one.
The practical column
- Five seats in all three — this is not a differentiator; luggage and door swing are
- Boot space — Bentayga and Urus take a weekend of bags for four without negotiation; the G 63 is competitive but its side-hinged rear door needs kerb clearance
- Ride comfort — Bentayga, then Urus, then G 63, and the gap between first and last is large
- Ground clearance — the G 63 is the only one you would take up a rough canyon fire road without wincing; the Urus sits lowest, and the angle that actually decides a Hills driveway is not the figure either brochure prints
- Parking — the G 63 is easiest to place despite its width, because you can see every corner
- Noise — Urus loudest, G 63 deepest, Bentayga effectively silent
- Colour — only the Urus offers one: green, yellow or black. The Bentayga and the G 63 come as they are
So which one
| If the brief is… | Book |
|---|---|
| Content, a shoot, an arrival people should hear | Urus |
| A canyon road on a Sunday morning | Urus |
| Clients, parents, or a drive longer than an hour | Bentayga |
| Discretion, with the badge still doing its work | Bentayga |
| Instant recognition, day or night | G 63 |
| A week of mixed use, including rough roads | G 63 |
| The same shape with its voice down | G550 |
Two adjacent options are worth knowing about. If the G 63's shape appeals but the noise does not, the Mercedes G550 is the same silhouette with the calmer engine underneath: 416 hp against 577, 5.6 seconds to 60 mph rather than 4.5, and no side-exit exhaust to explain to anybody. And if the Bentayga's brief — quiet, refined, five seats — is the right one but you want the rear seat to be the best seat in the car, the Maybach GLS 600 is built around exactly that idea.
The short version
Take the Urus when the arrival is part of the job: it is the quickest of the three, the least subtle, and the only one that rewards a good road. Take the Bentayga when the drive is long or the passenger matters more than the entrance. Take the G 63 when you want the one shape everybody knows and will trade ride comfort for it — and the G550 when you want that shape to keep its voice down.
Three ways to arrive. The only hard part is choosing.
All three book through us — send the dates and we confirm the one you want.
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Frequently asked questions
Which is quickest, the Urus, the Bentayga or the G 63?
The Lamborghini Urus, comfortably. It makes 641 hp and reaches 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, against 4.4 seconds for the Bentley Bentayga and 4.5 for the Mercedes-AMG G 63. It is also the only one of the three that enjoys a canyon road rather than tolerating it.
Which one is the most comfortable for a long drive?
The Bentayga. It is the quietest inside, the most settled over broken tarmac and the easiest place to spend three hours on the 101. The G 63 is the opposite — upright, firm and loud, which is part of why people love it.
Which should I book if a client is in the back seat?
The Bentayga, without much argument. It is the quietest of the three and the only one where a phone call on speaker works at freeway speed. The Urus and the G 63 are both louder than a conversation wants, in different registers.
What is the difference between the G550 and the AMG G 63?
The same body and the same 4.0-litre V8, in two states of tune. The G550 makes 416 hp and reaches 60 mph in about 5.6 seconds; the AMG G 63 makes 577 hp, does it in 4.5, and adds the side-exit exhaust that most of the noise comes from. From across a street they look identical, and both are in our fleet.
Do all three seat five people with luggage?
All three are five-seaters. The Bentayga and Urus have conventional boots that take a weekend of bags for four. The G 63 has a side-hinged rear door with the spare wheel mounted on it, which needs clearance to swing open at a kerb — worth knowing before you park.
What deposit do these three take?
A refundable authorisation on the primary renter's card at handover, not a charge. The Urus sits one tier below the Bentayga and the G 63; the figure that applies is shown when you book, and it is released once the car is back clean, fuelled and undamaged.