2008 Bentley Continental Gt on 2040-cars

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Bentley courting Maybach celebs with letter-writing campaign

When Daimler let slip that Maybach was on the chopping block, the German automaker reportedly insisted that ultra-luxury editions of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class would replace the doomed marque. We're all for a smattering of low volume, seriously pricey S-Class variants, but will the richest and most influential Maybach buyers feel the same way?
Automotive News reports that Bentley is betting that stars like Jay-Z and Samuel L. Jackson will want more than a gussied-up Benz, and the luxury car make is sending out olive branches in the form of a letter campaign. The premium Volkswagen brand is asking the high-rollers to step into a Bentley Mulsanne or perhaps a top-shelf Continental GT. To help persuade VIPs to switch to Bentley, the automaker is inviting select Maybach owners to tour its Crewe, England home.
Given the fact that many typical soccer moms and dads can afford an ML-Class, we can see why some movie stars and sultans would want to steer clear of the Three-Pointed Star. But is Bentley really going to gain much by wooing the 200 annual Maybach buyers? If a few more rap stars roll in a Bentley in their next music video, then the answer would appear to be yes.

Baby Bentley studied for 2020, but it might not be cheaper

Bentley may step down a segment with a new, smaller luxury car that it hopes to have ready by 2019. The British luxury marque's fifth model line, assuming that its SUV ever makes it to market, though, is still in the earliest planning stages.
Kevin Rose, Bentley's head of sales and marketing, spoke with Autocar at the Geneva Motor Show about the proposed new vehicle. "At the moment, our line of thinking is for a smaller car. But smaller doesn't necessarily mean cheaper," he said. The brand believes the price floor of its models should be 100,000 pounds ($167,240).
The smaller Flying B isn't the only project being worked on. Rose hinted that it is considering an even more expensive model above the Mulsanne priced at around 300,000 pounds ($501,735) that would compete with the Rolls-Royce Phantom. "The twin pillars of the Bentley brand are performance and luxuriousness. Any car that offers something unique, with both of those bases well covered, is on the table," he said.

Bentley Flying Spur pictures leaked early

We can imagine that automakers are among the groups salivating at the prospect of a colony on Mars - perhaps a photo studio on the red planet will be far enough away from the terrestrial Internet to keep everything they've got from leaking all over the web. In the midst of Bentley's teasing for the next-generation Flying Spur, someone got in early on a set of photos and decided to share them with us.
The transformation is all about character, the super sedan's lines getting injected with a whole lot more of it. The family face of the Continental line is evident, the new Spur getting a more upright grille than before and a Mulsanne-esque undivided lower grille. The front fenders get narrow, horizontal vents, and behind that the character line that starts with at the hood shutline runs in a long arc to the rear door, then rolls up into haunches that terminate at the very back. Lower down, a character line cuts up the bulk up the sides. In profile there is a definite hint of this being a junior Mulsanne.
The only item we see at the moment that could take some getting used to are the horizontal taillights. Housing a large single element topped by curved red brows, our initial impression is that they lack the flow of the rest of the car. Inside, it's what you'd expect from a Bentley.