RE: Why Bentley has to build its SUV
Discussion
The thing that annoys me is it's not like Bentley don't build heavy cars. They have built upright cars in their coachbuilt days as well. They have a platform to build on that gives good mechanics.
In my opinion Bentley are actually a great brand to build the ultimate 4x4 in many ways.
There is no need to make such a woefully appallingly ugly car. This is a bad car.
They need to think along the lines of a mass produced coachbuilt-designed off road arnarge. As strange as that sounds.
In my opinion Bentley are actually a great brand to build the ultimate 4x4 in many ways.
There is no need to make such a woefully appallingly ugly car. This is a bad car.
They need to think along the lines of a mass produced coachbuilt-designed off road arnarge. As strange as that sounds.
Edited by 0a on Monday 12th March 15:02
chickensoup said:
Is it just a reskinned Cayenne?
Wouldn't surprise me. I thought Bentley were back on track with the Continental GT V8, but this is just plain wrong.Thing is, if you're the sort of person who is rich enough to afford a Bentley, if you want an off-roader too, you'll already have a Range-Rover. In the mindset of the kind of person who can afford this sort of thing, it's totally unnecessary - it will only really make sense as a kind of one-car-downsizing cost-saving.
Also, the reason why these emergent economies like their 4x4s is because their road networks aren't as polished and developed as the Western world's, so the extra grip and ground clearance is important. Are those wheels really going to cope with the rough stuff?
Contrary to what the spokesman said, Bentley doesn't 'need' an SUV. Bentley is part of the Volkswagen-Audi Group, and therefore Bentley already 'has' an SUV. It's called the VW Toureg. Or the Audi Q7. Or the Porsche Cayenne. Doesn't matter how many people buy one over the other, the money ends up going to the same central source.
I think what he actually means by 'Bentley needs an SUV' is 'We are VAG and we therefore have to platform-engineer ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. We can't help it. It's an addiction. Help. Please. Get help.'
VAG are creating far too many overlaps and it's running the risk of rendering entire marques irrelevant in the way British Leyland did. look at Skoda and Seat - Seat's in trouble because there's nothing to differentiate them from Skoda. Then look at Volkswagen - people only really buy the models with equivalent Seat and Skoda counterparts because of the old build-quality-led 'image' of a car with 'prole cart' stamped on its nose. Then there's Audi, half the range of which is joined at the hip with Volkswagen and only really bought because of marketing and the nebulous concept of 'residuals', which only make sense if you sell your new car every coulple of years. Now, with these SUVs (plus the Porsche SUVs), it seems Bentley, Porsche and possibly Lamborghini are becoming yet more VAG badge-engineering projects.
Why can't they rationalise things? If I was running VAG, Bentley would only make luxury saloons and cabriolets, Volkswagens would be cheap and dull, livened up with the odd GTI. Skodas would be quirkier, used to try out offbeat design concepts. Seats would be genuinely sporty Alfa Romeo contenders, entered for every Touring Car championship going and with no MPVs or 4x4s in the range. Audis would only be available with 4WD, and I'd enter them in rallying rather than VW. Porsche would do sports cars and nothing more. Lamborghini would do supercars and nothing more.
It's called 'delegation' and 'specialisation'. Tends to avoid making things irrelevant, then redundant.
As for the big SUVs - what's wrong with the Audi Q7? You could stick any one of these engines, from the big VW diesel to the silently refined W12 petrol via the sporty turbocharged V8. The same factory makes all these SUVs, the engines come out of the same place. Audi's the marque in the stable with the 4WD prowess and the off-road experience, and people are willing to spend any amount of money from VW basic up to near-Bentley opulent on them.
Bentley does not need an SUV. This is just a case of VAG saying 'because we can, we will'. BL used to think like that, and as a result we no longer have Triumph, Wolseley, Riley, Vanden Plas, Austin, Morris, Rover - et cetera. All because before they were killed off they were all forced under the same umbrella and platform-engineered into irrelevance to the point where they were sold on image alone.
The minute the economy wobbles, or one car's image slips, it's bye-bye-umpteen-decades-of-engineering-heritage.
Hugo a Gogo said:
Gorbyrev said:
Given the Bentley tradition of naming vehicles after places and the somewhat challenging brickwork, how about naming this after a prison - perhaps the Bentley Wormwood Scrubs or the Bentley Saughton. Ah - what about a French prison.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bentley Bastille, complete with rigid safety cell and doing time drive. Keyless entry not an option.
The Bentley Barlinnie has a certain ring to itLadies and gentlemen, the Bentley Bastille, complete with rigid safety cell and doing time drive. Keyless entry not an option.
Edited by Gorbyrev on Monday 12th March 14:34
Gorbyrev said:
Given the Bentley tradition of naming vehicles after places and the somewhat challenging brickwork, how about naming this after a prison - perhaps the Bentley Wormwood Scrubs or the Bentley Saughton. Ah - what about a French prison.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bentley Bastille, complete with rigid safety cell and doing time drive. Keyless entry not an option.
I know it was meant in jest, but I quite like Bentley Bastille as a nameLadies and gentlemen, the Bentley Bastille, complete with rigid safety cell and doing time drive. Keyless entry not an option.
Edited by Gorbyrev on Monday 12th March 14:34
The annoying thing about this is that in many respects this class of vehicle should be a natural for Bentley. In my mind there's a direct correspondence between the coachbuilt shooting brakes (often on Bentley/RR chassis) which would be a natural adjunct to a posh country house between the wars (or just after WW2) used for picking up well-heeled shooting parties from the station or delivering them to the Grouse moor and a well executed prestige SUV like a Range Rover. If Bentley's designers can't pull something better than this out of that heritage then something's gone badly wrong somewhere...
I don't know, maybe it just needs more wood :-)
I don't know, maybe it just needs more wood :-)
dean_ratpac said:
"...we brought out the Cayenne and suddenly we had this balance,"
=
We suddenly had this new revenue stream
well....yes. Business in making money shocker. They didn't have a broad enough model range, and bringing out the Cayenne stablaised everything, as the portfolio was more solid all round. =
We suddenly had this new revenue stream
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff