Finally I spotted the new Bentley Mulsanne. It looks stunning from every angle! And thanks to Jack Barclay London for the hospitality :)
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Car of the Day #33 Bentley Mulsanne
Tag: Bentley
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Bentley SUV Press Release Mistake
Bentley is going to reveal an SUV in couple of years. I already mentioned this in my blog previously like many other journalist mentioned. It was very obvious that, Bentley will reveal an ultra luxury SUV to consumers, who are not satisfied with the Range Rover. Reasonable decision and they will definitely make lots of money!
However, they made a minor mistake during the press release recently. Bentley CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer said “we will be first to use a 12-cylinder petrol engine in a luxury SUV. I like this idea; it makes clear whose car is the boss.” Actually he made a minor mistakes in this sentence, there was a 12-cylinder petrol powered SUV. And it is made by VW, the Touareg W12! From his point of view, Touareg is not in the same leauge with Bentley’s SUV and that is true, but he should have said ultra luxury.
Many consumers perceive Touareg as a luxury SUV, which is based on its price tag. Thus, Bentley’s SUV is an ultra luxury SUV. Not luxury!
Pictures’ Copyrights
VW
Bentley’s World Ice Speed Record model!
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Recently Daimler’s CEO announced his concerns on the sales performance of Mercedes. For many decades, Mercedes achieved higher sales figure than BMW and Audi. But world has changed, one decade ago we did not have chance to use mobiles phone as a computer, internet was not fast enough to stream movies and many internet companies were bankrupted. Now, everything is totally different! Mobiles are used mainly for their computers functions. We use Skype to talk overseas, Google people are the new rich and it is very easy to watch HD video on internet. This shows that, if you don’t change youself, you are out of the game.
Mercedes has changed significantly during last one decade, nobody can deny this! But they didn’t change enough to keep up with the demands of consumers. Now, Aston Martin has a small luxury car, Mini has a Rolls Royce edition. Like the world, automotive world also changed! Being too conservative and traditional is not good that anymore. Bentley and Rolls Royce are still traditional but, they integrated the tradition with contemporary environment. Mercedes also changed their design philosophy and offers more sportive vehicles. But, I cannot say the same things for Mercedes like I said to Bentley or RR!
Mercedes is still too conservative and traditional for this era. I do know that, Mercedes doesn’t wish to lose it main customers and destroy the brand loyalty but as they are more loyalty to traditional customers, they kind of ignore the contemporary world. That is the main problem, being too much conservative and traditional will not help to increase market share while BMW and Audi offer more contemporary vehicles. Mercedes offers better technology compared to other, but it is still packed with too much of conservative elements. Especially the design. You feel the excess amount of conservative and tradition bits in each Mercedes car, even with the new ML and CLS. They are really nice vehicles but when you have alternative like Range Rover, BMW X Series, BMW 6 series and Audi models, many people think again.
Thinking again is not good for consumption. If your consumers think your competitor as serious alternative, this means one thing; you are not that good anymore! If your consumers liked you, they wouldn’t consider the others that much.
I hope Mercedes will change this conservative and traditional look, Bentley is a great example for Mercedes. They should do the same, integration!
Pictures’ Copyrights
Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls Royce
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Bentley Accident in Monaco
I am reporting this a bit late but I couldn’t stop myself writing this. The most stylish car crash happened in Monte Carlo last week. This lady in Bentley Azure gently touched the other cars. As the Azure weighs more than an average house, this gentle touch destroyed couple of cars with reasonable prices!!!
These unfortunate cars are; Porsche 911, Aston Martin Rapide, Mercedes S Class (This is the cheapest one) and a Ferrari F430. Total cost of gentle touch is estimated more than €100,000. This sounds much but all these brands are charging lots of money for repair costs. Unless their owners will take to private workshops, they have to bear this cost. Sorry, the owner of the Bentley’s insurance will bear this cost. Unfortunately, this lady will lose her discount on her insurance!
What can I suggest after this crash? If you have a heavy car, you will always create impressive crashes regardless of the speed.
There is no injury involved with the crash.
Pictures’ Copyrights
Autoblog.com and Small World
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New Bond Car
James Bond loves to drive Aston Martin for quite long time. Yes, for some reasons he changed his mind but Aston Martin is always associated with 007; nobody can deny this. If you are still expecting to see an Aston Martin in next Bond movie, I have a bad news. If the next Bond movie will be based on Carte Blanche novel, which is released couple of months ago, you will not see an Aston Martin any more.
Instead, you will see Bentley Continental GT and many VW models; such as – Jetta, Passat, Golf GTi. How I do know this information! Very simple, I read the first one hundred pages of Carte Blanche novel and while reading this, I noticed this major change immediately. Bond drives his Bentley all the time and in everywhere and of course, there are many VW Group cars going around!
Carte Blanche at Amazon
Pictures’ Copyrights
uygarr.blogspot.com, Amazon
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Bentley Continental SUV
During last one decade, we couldn’t ignore two things. SUVs and Google! They suddenly take a part in our lives whilst we are not aware of their existence. Google started as a basic search engine web site with a plain design. As the years have passed, they developed more and more and more. Finally, end up with taking your home’s photo and publishing on Google Earth.
SUVs are the same, it started with a plain design of Mercedes M-Class and chased by Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park! After this traumatic event, SUVs started to chase us in everywhere. Nearly, each manufacturer thought about an SUV model inside their model range. “It would not be a bad idea to offer an SUV, everyone likes it”. Even the Dacia’s ultra-cheap SUV received a respectful demand from all around the world. I am not saying the demand to BMW X Series, Mercedes ML, Range Rover, Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7 and the others.
As the SUV became so addicted to automotive industry and impossible to take out from the market. Some manufacturers started to think about their own interpretation of SUV. I mean the Bentley Motors. If you don’t know let me tell you, Bentley is owned by Volkswagen and Continental family shares many parts with VW Phaëton. Anyway, Bentley received unexpected demand around the world since it was reveal on 2004. It was offering everything; powerful engine, luxury, four-wheel drive, exquisite design. But, it is not an SUV, that’s the minor problem. People want to have a luxury SUV not a four-wheel passenger car.
If you want to buy a luxury SUV, the alternative is extremely clear; Range Rover. That’s the best luxury SUV on planet. Unfortunately, rest of the competitors are imitating Range Rover’ style but it is not working that well. Ask anyone for the ultimate luxury SUV, they will say Range Rover. From this basic scientific research, we can assume that; there is a great market for luxury SUVs.
Let’s go back to Bentley HQ; most probably they received some reports from Germany for a potential SUV model. It will be explaining how great it would be to have SUV under the Bentley brand and how we can make money from this. Honestly, this is totally right. People would definitely buy a Bentley Continental SUV. Because, it is an SUV and it is a Bentley!
So, the problem is production; and it is easy also. Audi Q7 has meaningless big and long chassis for and Audi but it would be a great match for Bentley. Just change the exterior design and use the chassis. The interior will be same with Continental FlyingSpur, so there is nothing to worry. The drive train would be the same with Q7 but they should have low range gearbox (take from VW Touareg) and a better off road capability than the Q7. It will be expensive and try to compete with Range Rover. Therefore, it should offer state of art off road capabilities. And customer will be expecting to see something similar to Range Rover, even though they would never ever use on off road.
Basically, in next five year I am expecting to see a Bentley Continental SUV based Audi Q7 chassis, using VW Touareg’s off road gearbox and interior from FlyingSpur. They only need to design exterior and do the necessary long term testing, which they would be doing at the moment. There were some rumours about this and Bentley denied the SUV. Let’s make a flash back to year 2001, Porsche mentioned, “we will never use a diesel engine” but they are using now. So, it won’t be a surprise to see one.
Pictures’ Copyrights
Land Rover, Bentley, Audi
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Today’s car is nearly three years old. It was my first time, when I saw the Bentley Continental GT Speed. I took the photo in Istanbul, Turkey. The interesting point of this photo, GT Speed costs more than €400,000 (£ 390,000). Eventually, this price does not include any option! This is the starting price, imagine the rest…
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Le Mans 24, for many people these two words and two numbers do not mean anything. Usually their reaction is le what? Therefore, I gave up talking about Le Mans but never gave up to watch. Awkwardly, it is not that popular like in the beginning of 1900s. Probably you don’t have any idea what I talking right now, what is Le Mans, what is 24.
Le Mans 24 is a 24-hour race happens in Le Mans, France every year for very long time. As I mentioned, in the beginning of last century it was one of the most prestigious motor race. Bentley has its roots from the Le Mans 24 race and they still have the honeycomb front grille, which is used during the Le Mans 24 race.
This race is torture test for everything; the car, the driver, the tyres, the team, the computer, anything related with cars is under extreme pressure for 24-hour! And this torture for diesel engines also, for many people diesel is a smoke maker, noisy and slow but thanks to Audi, they are not like that in Le Mans 24.
I really don’t have any sympathy to Audi but their engineering success should be respected by everyone. They turned the lazy diesel into a racing machine and won many times (10 times but I am not sure, whether they used diesel for 10 times), it sounds impossible but they made it.
During the last race one of the Audi R18 TDi (532 horsepower) lost its control and crashed into wall at the speed of 250 kph (155 mph). When I first saw the footage, I just remembered the accident of Senna and I was not that optimistic for the consequence. However we were all wrong, the Audi driver Allan McNish) got out of the car by walking. This sounds impossible but Audi made a car that is running by diesel and producing 532 horsepower and able to achieve 250 kph and saves its pilot during a catastrophic crash.
This footage may not be used for PR campaign but Audi showed the level of their engineering. Even though, their cars are not that fun to drive :)
Pictures’ Copyrights
Audi, Bentley, Reuters
Audi, Bentley, Reuters
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Motor Expo, Canary Wharf, London
If you did not have time to visit Motor Expo this year, here you have the chance to see all the vehicles!
Mercedes New SLK
Mercedes New C Coupe
Mercedes SLS AMG
Mercedes Actros
Mercedes CLS 63 AMG
Range Rover Evoque
Range Rover
Range Rover Sport
Land Rover Discovery
Tesla
Nissan Leaf
Lexus LFA
Jaguar XJ
Jaguar XF
Jaguar XFR
Jaguar XK
Jaguar XKR-S
Bentley Continental GT
Bentley Continental GTC Ice Record
Bentley Continental GT Flying Spur
BMW M3 GTS
BMW 6 Series Cabrio
Mini Countryman
You can find the album on Facebook Page!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.234307956584199.80236.197690936912568
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