RE: Bentley Bentayga - official

RE: Bentley Bentayga - official

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Discussion

DonkeyApple

55,545 posts

170 months

Saturday 19th September 2015
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amg master said:
DonkeyApple said:
amg master said:
WCZ said:
sorrel said:
So this car has been produced so people with more money than sense can show the world they are "rich".

What a sad world we live in... frown
the world has always been like this, it's human nature
Is it human nature to show off,or is it that we have been told to act like this?
I suspect that you can go back to the dawn of mankind and find Dave who needed larger stone wheels on his cart to impress the ladies.

As blokes we are all competitive and this manifests itself in many ways. It is afterall why all societies have always regulated debt as people cannot control their basic need to to compete.

I do have to at that what I like about things like this Bentley is that it generally appals the type of people who enjoy touring English country estates and being close to landed folk, little realising that the people who built those houses were the brash, vulgar and nouveau punters of their age, showing off their wealth with ghastly and ostentatious displays of wealth.

Only time separates. biggrin
thats what I mean everything seems to be about impressing other people so that they might like you for what you have and not the person you are.what happened to people having class/style humbleness.
Yes. It's part of being human but certainly appears to have been growing exponentially in recent years but then there are absolutely no social or cultural controls any more. There is nothing remaining to control those who have no self control. You can spend whatever you like with no need to save or invest for the future. There are no consequences.

sorrel

223 posts

139 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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Would that imply then that a lot of people are insecure as the only way they can feel good about themselves is by showing others they have money (or at least the appearance of)?

DonkeyApple

55,545 posts

170 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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sorrel said:
Would that imply then that a lot of people are insecure as the only way they can feel good about themselves is by showing others they have money (or at least the appearance of)?
There would seem to be various factors. I think it's cultural as much as anything. You have the competitive nature of man, on the one hand, that will manifest itself in any way. Whether it is having the best collection of Lego and having articles written about you in a Lego magazine, or knowing more than the next person in a particular subject. Then you have the 'famine and feast' aspect where people who grew up starved of something are very likely to then gorge on that thing later in life.

If you look at an awful lot of the people who display ostentatious wealth then a very common link is that they step from backgrounds of poverty and uniformity. Whether it is growing up in an identical, small property to everyone else in a depression town, growing up in Communist Russia or China there is a uniformity that people crave to break away from. And at the same time this is combined with a lack of cultural heritage or appreciation.

As for whether it is an 'insecurity'? Well most things are. And everyone has insecurities.

threespires

4,297 posts

212 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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Good reply Donkey..

Many years ago a close friend did extremely well and he bought into an F1 team. He once said to me that although it was great to have so much money, new super cars, trophy wife, house with pool etc, he actually felt poor because he couldn't afford a helicopter and so many other team owners had them.
So it becomes a keeping up with the Jones'es exercise that ultimately feeds ones insecurities and doesn't lead to happiness.
My friend lost all his money and now lives in a flat with his sister, drives a 15 year old rusty estate and has never been happier.

DonkeyApple

55,545 posts

170 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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threespires said:
Good reply Donkey..

Many years ago a close friend did extremely well and he bought into an F1 team. He once said to me that although it was great to have so much money, new super cars, trophy wife, house with pool etc, he actually felt poor because he couldn't afford a helicopter and so many other team owners had them.
So it becomes a keeping up with the Jones'es exercise that ultimately feeds ones insecurities and doesn't lead to happiness.
My friend lost all his money and now lives in a flat with his sister, drives a 15 year old rusty estate and has never been happier.
That as well. Strangely, people seem swift to forget that our competitiveness and desire to not be identical or the desire to fit in does operate on a 'cell structure' basis.

So if your peers all park Mondeo's on their uniform driveways then a BMW on yours should do the trick. I think that some people do it maliciously so as to show off but for the vast majority it is much more simple and works on the benign assumption of relativity. If you feel that you earn more or have more than the chap next door then you aren't likely to then buy the same product as him but one up. And as most people naturally think they and their family are better than the monkeys next door then so starts the suburban arms race that will always end up in the majority borrowing money in order to maintain the escalated lifestyle that they have sleep walked into.

I've worked for 20 years in the City where because of the very fast and large money on the table, arguably the behaviour of many is infinitely more pie key and vile than anything Cheshire, Essex, the Middle East, China or Russia can muster but it is masked by the veneer of civility afforded by the public school educational system. They may not compete using Bentleys as that is to overt and base but instead they do exactly the same through joining certain clubs, holidaying in key venues, owning the right amount of square footage in the right part of London and the countryside, getting as close as possible to the Royal family, having as many children as possible and getting them into the most expensive schools. The 20 years before that I went through an education system that was no different. I always found the neaveau riche kids at school more fun as they weren't constrained by the mystical boundaries that is the curse of the true middle classes. And to this day is rather sit over a beer with the chap who is vulgar about money and spending it than the chap who is confined by his social rules and uses code to tell me exactly the same.

Wealth never whispers. Wealth always screams itself from the rooftops for all to see. It is just that as wealth gets older it's language becomes more sophisticated and complex for those outside the 'cell' to decipher.


threespires

4,297 posts

212 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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Again, great reply.

NomduJour

19,163 posts

260 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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Largely agee, but the the City's a pretty narrow window to view from.

DonkeyApple

55,545 posts

170 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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NomduJour said:
Largely agee, but the the City's a pretty narrow window to view from.
Yes. It serves a good example to contrast against how wealth behaves at more conventional levels of society though.

The City, by its nature, is a competitive centre. There's little difference in Richard informing his peers that he now has to pay two sets of fees for Marlborough to Rik turning up at a venue in Cheshire in a new Bentayga. And the same scenarios repeat across the whole strata of society, just less extreme only because there is less wealth. We're all the same as blokes.

Leroy902

1,540 posts

104 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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Thank god the VAG group never got hold of rolls royce, and BMW did...

I dread to think that vw could have done to the rolls royce brand name.

DonkeyApple

55,545 posts

170 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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Leroy902 said:
Thank god the VAG group never got hold of rolls royce, and BMW did...

I dread to think that vw could have done to the rolls royce brand name.
OK, but as Bentley was always for the more 'brash' chap, what exactly have VAG done wrong? All they've done is taken an expensive, high powered luxury product for 'loud' money and made it arguably better.

Massive deregulation of consumer debt has arguably been the reason for seeing more sold than before but the original ethos of the product hasn't really changed in 100 years.

Lester H

2,759 posts

106 months

Sunday 20th September 2015
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trying to fathom pronunciation: is it Ben Tiger or Bent Ego?

foliedouce

3,067 posts

232 months

Wednesday 6th April 2016
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Saw one of these on the roads for the first time on Saturday. OMG what an abomination. I just don't get why you'd buy one.

Approaching from behind I thought it was a new Hyundai then as I got nearer I saw the Bentley emblem, I was in shock, then as I overtook and then saw the front it reminded me of that old Chrysler that wannabe gangsters and low down the food chain drug dealers drive.

Don't get it at all....sorry

Reminds of that Harry Enfield sketch from the '90s "I couldn't help but notice, but I'm considerably richer than yooooouuuu"

RoverP6B

4,338 posts

129 months

Friday 15th April 2016
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Lester H said:
trying to fathom pronunciation: is it Ben Tiger or Bent Ego?
I understand it's Bent-Eh-Ga, but I may be completely wrong.

swisstoni

17,069 posts

280 months

Friday 15th April 2016
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Saw one yesterday. I think we'll get used to them.
A bit like Elephants - nice to see them now and again but you wouldn't want to own one.

sealtt

3,091 posts

159 months

Friday 15th April 2016
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There are a couple around here, seen a black one and a brown one so far, don't think they look that good unfortunately. Certainly not as nice as an L405 from the outside.

Still need to have a drive in one though, as the magic is all on the inside with this thing.

towser44

3,501 posts

116 months

Friday 15th April 2016
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Saw my first one the other day. Between Macclesfield and Wilmslow, how strange!

0a

23,902 posts

195 months

Friday 15th April 2016
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I saw one a few days ago. Both ugly and a bit bland. They should have done the concept car - ugly and imposing! I'd love to try one though, I bet it's a right beast to drive.

so called

9,092 posts

210 months

Friday 15th April 2016
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I live near Crewe so see them regularly.
I find that it depends on the colour as to how I consider them.
I saw a black one yesterday and immediately thought 'black cab'.
The body shape looks much better with the light colours, tan browns etc.
Growing on me.

Edited by so called on Friday 15th April 19:47

Fire99

9,844 posts

230 months

Friday 15th April 2016
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Perhaps being a touch pedantic but for what the car is likely to be used for and considering what it looks like, I'd probably save nearly all the money and buy a new top-spec Kia Sportage.. It's prettier, probably just as comfortable, and saves most of the money for something worthwile..

OK, Someone in the market for a Bentley is unlikely to buy a Kia (I'd expect) but if you take the badge away, I don't see what this actually brings to the table..

sealtt

3,091 posts

159 months

Friday 15th April 2016
quotequote all
Fire99 said:
Perhaps being a touch pedantic but for what the car is likely to be used for and considering what it looks like, I'd probably save nearly all the money and buy a new top-spec Kia Sportage.. It's prettier, probably just as comfortable, and saves most of the money for something worthwile..

OK, Someone in the market for a Bentley is unlikely to buy a Kia (I'd expect) but if you take the badge away, I don't see what this actually brings to the table..
Only on PH