RE: Geneva 2012: Bentley EXP 9 F

[Justices]

XJSJohn said:

and yet it will sell like hot cakes in China and Middle East!

The Arabs and Asians will lap this up!!!

Nope. Definitely not in Asia and I am sure the Arab boys won't be ordering this without a serious makeover. It's being universally panned in China today. The Chinese blog world is having a jolly good laugh at this hideous effort and asking if this is a joke. That this abomination makes a Cayenne (a vehicle I absolutely despise) mildly attractive is nothing short of sensational. WHO signs off on these things? Is it so difficult to make something even remotely attractive? They did a good job with the new GTs, then this.. how?

Concept or not, as far as styling is concerned this thing is a joke on four wheels. Not even those with awful taste will take a second look at it. This has got to be one of the rare times you DON'T want the production car to look anything like the concept.

..and breathe.

[SWoll]

As a piece of business this makes perfect sense and will sell by the bucketload to people looking for a step-up SUV pitched above the FFRR, but as a styling exercise it is truly ghastly.

Dreadful from every angle and even the interior is too "old school" bentley IMO.

Needs a serious rethink before going anywhere near production....

[B10]

Pointless turd.

[rotovegas]

Nothing Understated here.......its really nasty!
Clearly designed by a team of idiots with zero Taste......same crew who did the Cayenne Mark One.Fab result really!
Everyone got out of the old dog ASAP and bought the good-lookin new model.....those cunning germans
Its called planned obselesence !

[tuffer]

I am going to take out a loan and open a Bentley dealership in Riyadh. These will sell quicker than they can make them.

[Vocal Minority]

Rumplefugly

that is all

[LuS1fer]

Utterly totally wholly ghastly.

[enroz]

Why? For God's sake WHY?? Think of the children..

[Kaizer]

At first I thought China had done a rip off Rangie.

No actually a rip off Rangie from China will look a thousand times better.

[blearyeyedboy]

This is probably the first ever western car where the Chinese rip off will look better.

I'm now going to soothe my retinas by looking at the Eterniti Motors website, or possibly a bowl of sick.

[Chicane-UK]

The nose!! It works on the "traditional" Bentleys like the Arnage and so forth because it's just been the Bentley look for some time - it's what you expect on your Bentley. But on this it just looks terrible... it looks like some prototype they found on the back of a sketchbook from 15 years ago and decided to make a prototype out of it anyway!

Seriously - whoever penned this design should be ashamed of themselves. It takes a great steaming dump all over good design AND the history of Bentley.

[Vantagefan]

Mini1275 said:

Well it ain't going to win any beauty contests!.

I think this photoshop looks slightly better:

If only it had looked this good (the lesser of two evils by far).

[danielj58]

German humor at it's best. I hope...

What an absolutely ghastly design. You can't even argue it's ugly because it's functional. And that interior is the closest thing anyone will come to sitting in a cliché.

[Negative Creep]

That grille is horrific. It looks like someone cut the plastic slats out and replaced them with a length of Ripspeed mesh

[MadRob6]

Considering how bad the front looks they've done really well to make the back look even worse!

[DeltaEvo2]

I made the mistake of checking it out again...

It's even worse the second time you look at it...my eyes!

[Richard A]

What you lot don't seem to appreciate is that during the last year in Saudi, Russia and China, there has been an unaccountable elevation of the '62 Dodge Dart to cult status.



So Bentley are right on the money with their front end design.

[Blackpuddin]

According to Autocar the EXP 9 F project 'is very much the brainchild of Wolfgang Durheimer, who pushed the Porsche Cayenne SUV through against entrenched opposition from colleagues, dealers and 911 enthusiasts while he was product chief in Zuffenhausen a decade ago. It has since become easily Porsche’s best-selling model.'
America is the target market for this one.

[WillBrumBrum]

Loose that super big fog light and that extra bit of grill to the side of the main grill and it wouldn't be that bad.


This just looks like a regal Porsche Cayenne (ok, the Cayenne is possibly one of the ugliest cars ever made).


I suppose if you drive the car, this is all you will see. It's the same old story of the Kings New Clothes, if this is what you're looking at from the inside then don't worry about the outside and what your slaves have to look at.

[Blackpuddin]

In this market, 'up yours, I don't care what you think' styling is I suspect a plus point.