Bentley Defies Crisis with a 20% Increase in Sales

Crisis? What crisis? For you and me, perhaps, but not for Bentley buyers. The VW-owned British luxury carmaker announced today a 20% increase in global sales for the first half of 2011 with 2,978 cars delivered to customers, the best start for the company since 2008.
The luxury marque attributes this surge in sales to the high demand for the new Continental GTas well as the increasing popularity in (least we forget, communist…) China, where Bentley sales have risen by 57% compared to the same period last year, to 680 cars. Thus, it has become the manufacturer’s second best market, behind only the US (George Orwell's "Animal Farm", anyone?).
Not to be outdone by China, the capitalist West has contributed its fair, albeit smaller, share to Bentley’s rise. In Europe, sales have increased by 25% (494 cars) and in the USA by 23% (907 cars). Only in Japan, due to the recent catastrophic natural disasters, and the Middle East, where political unrest rules, have sales declined.
So, well done Bentley - and well done to all the fat cats out there, be they…capitalists or…communists, who are rapidly increasing in numbers each day.

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Bentley Launches Mulliner Styling Pack for The Continental GT

Bentley’s new Continental GT is, without question, a coupe with imposing road presence. But the British firm wishes to offer its customers the opportunity to make their cars even more unique by launching a range of styling options named Mulliner Styling Specification Classic Pack.
This styling package consists of a front splitter, strakes integrated in the front intake grilles, side extension blades and a rear diffuser, all made from glossy black carbon-fibre.
If you think these are not enough, Bentley also offers more options such as a carbon-fibre rear spoiler and mirror covers, as well as dark mesh front wing vents and black 21-inch 7-spoke alloy wheels.
According to Bentley’s head of exterior design, Raul Pires, the Mulliner Styling Specification Classic Pack “with its sharper lines and darker, lower appearance underlines the iconic form of Bentley’s new GT, underscores its extrovert, flamboyant nature and delivers a more personalized, sportive interpretation of a luxurious and refined GT”.
The Classic Pack is already available to order, while the optional features will be available from the following autumn.

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Read more »

Investigators Uncover Multi-Million Pound Tax Scam in India; European Exotics And Foreign Diplomats

In what sounds more like the plot of a The Fast and the Furious movie than real life, investigators at India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence office (a.k.a. India’s IRS) have uncovered a massive exotic car smuggling operation in the nation’s capital of New Dehli. It all has to do with India’s notorious 100% import tax on new luxury vehicles.
It began with one New Dehli luxury car dealer, Sumit Walia, importing brand new luxury cars on forged invoices. These invoices listed the cars as second-hand, which saved Walia – and his customers – some 40% on import tax. Some of the cars – which included Porsches, Bentleys and Aston Martins – were found to have been stolen from the streets of Britain, France, Singapore and Japan.
A month later, another scam – involving a London-based British-Indian car dealer and diplomats from New Delhi’s North Korean and Vietnamese embassies was uncovered. The diplomats would act as middle-men for rich buyers; buying the exotics under their names and therefore getting them tax-free. An official Directorate of Revenue Intelligence office had this to say about the investigation:
“Our investigators suspect around 300 to 400 luxury cars have been imported on fake papers and sold in all major cities across India using the same modus-operandi. The cars have been sold to politicians, celebrities, cricketers, Bollywood actors and many businessmen in the last four to five years.”
Some 40 cars have been impounded, including several Porsche Panameras and Aston Martin Rapides valued at £250,000 and £290,000 per unit. A £350,000 Bentley Continental Supersport was also among those vehicles recovered. Other vehicles have simply been abandoned by their owners on the streets of New Dehli. Investigators found that most of these vehicles were either illegally registered or displayed temporary plates.

Advertisements 

PHOTO GALLERY

Read more In Cars

Read more »

CARS | Bentley Arnage

Bentley Arnage is available in three versions: standard Arnage R, Arnage RL-stretched wheelbase and superior performance Arnage T.
All are powered by two V8 Bentley's venerable 6.75-liter turbocharged to produce massive energy. This power is slightly heavier in Arnage T with 500 horsepower and earth shaking 738 pounds-feet of torque. With the power flowing to the rear wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission is the Arnage T capable of zero to 60 mph in 5.2 seconds. R and RL cope with 450 hp and 645 lb.-ft. of torque.

Bentley Arnage is the last of olde-school, Rolls-Royce Bentley era. Now replaced by Bentley Mulsanne, but we will remember her exquisite artistry and pure sense of the occasion. For more information about Bentley Arnage.

Read more »