2012 Bentley Continental Gt 2-door Coupe, Mulliner Package, Navigation on 2040-cars

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Watch VW Group Night kick off the Frankfurt festivities

The Frankfurt Motor Show is Volkswagen's home affair. As a result, the whole of the automaker group makes a big splash, even before the show doors open. We'll be live from the Frankfurt floor starting early tomorrow morning, but tonight we're posted up in the stands at the always-entertaining Volkswagen Group Night. To give you a taste of what it's like to be there, we're going to be shooting some man-on-the-scenes video as the night progresses. Below you'll find videos of all the best that VW Group brands – Audi, Lamborghini, VW, the lot – have to offer, as quick as we can upload them. So, enjoy the Short Cut Videos you see here. And stay tuned as we add more to the tally, below. And, of course, be sure to check in on Autoblog early and often tomorrow, when we bring you official debuts of new production vehicles and concept cars, a ton of new video content, live image galleries, and lots more.Seat Leon Cross Sport Bentley Bentayga Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 Spyder Volkswagen Multivan PanAmerican Edition Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo Concept Audi E-Tron Quattro Concept Audi A4 Ducati Monster 1200 R Volkswagen Tiguan Skoda Superb Combi Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupe and Cabrio Volkswagen Tiguan GTE Porsche Mission E Concept Volkswagen Group Night Finale Green Frankfurt Motor Show Audi Bentley Bugatti Lamborghini Volkswagen SEAT Skoda Videos Original Video Frankfurt 2015

2020 Bentley Flying Spur First Drive Review | Take off your shoes and stay awhile

MONTE CARLO, Monaco — The all-new Bentley Flying Spur solves one of the principal dilemmas I faced in the principality of Monaco. Despite the tiny tax havenÂ’s prime location on the Mediterranean, and its reputation as a desirable seasonal seaside resort, the prim government there purportedly outlaws the practice of wandering around town topless, or bottomless. However, chauffeur-driven and ensconced in the right rear throne of the flying-B brandÂ’s second-best four-door sedan, with the power-operated privacy screens covering the gun-slit back windows, the seat coolers set to chill, and the front passenger seat pushed forward for maximum reclinage, I was able to abide my favorite Bentley motto: shades up, pants down. (Remind me never to drive with Berk on a press launch. -Ed) This is just one of the many seemingly unforeseen problems that this Bentley's latest and most-wonderful Flying Spur remedies in Monte Carlo (and, probably, elsewhere.) Other examples? Do you need to demonstrate to everyone that you are extremely rich, but prefer to do so in a way that does not involve revving your matte cloud-cover Lamborghini Aventador for the clots of cruise-ship-engorged, selfie-stick tourists bunging up Casino Square? Do you prefer to experience the golden seaside sunlight through the filter of a pair of sunroofs rather than through the searing defenselessness granted by the retracted roof of Bentley's Continental GT? When pulling away from toll stops, do you enjoy utilizing launch control, putting 626 hp and 664 lb-ft to the ground and freaking out surrounding BMW douchery with consistent 3.7-second blasts from 0-60? Again, the Flying Spur being a sedan, all of this can be accomplished from the back seat, where newly expanded legroom, newly ubiquitous knurling, and newly introduced quilted leather — part of the optional $15,000 Mulliner spec — can cosset your every body part. Well, maybe not your feet, but the carpets are quite good for going shoeless. (Geez, he took his shoes off, too? -Ed). Of course, if youÂ’d rather drive than be driven in the third-generation Spur, you can also accomplish all of this from the front seat too. It is hard to say which is preferable, but I typically lean toward taking the wheel. And this position has many merits.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.