We PHers are inclined to be wary of 'progress', be it the imminent
death of the manualtransmission
wrestling the wheel
out of our increasingly impotent hands.
Bentley's Beijing dealer pushes British heritage
But we need to accept our tastes in cars and how we use them will become steadily less significant. So if, for instance, the Chinese market dictated that the next
Flying Spur
should be steered via an iPhone app, powered by a four-cylinder diesel hybrid and come in a fetching shade of purple with a fur-lined roof then Bentley would build it like that faster than you can say leather'n'walnut.
Thankfully, for now, the Chinese like Bentley's traditional identity, and those of other European brands. Which is why, bleary and jet-lagged, I was bewildered to find myself in the Beijing Bentley dealership, surrounded by pictures of the Queen and idealised images of the English countryside.
But one wonders how a more assertive and confident Chinese market might influence the next generation of cars that we buy too. Buyers in these new markets will have no sense of romance about the things we PHers hold dear and fuss about, like steering feel and interaction. Indeed, many Chinese drivers will never have driven a car from a generation before what's out there now and know no different. On a global scale these things we witter on about will likely become minority tastes, catered for by a few 'local' specialists, but irrelevant for the big carmakers.
To Chinese customers this is a Porsche
On Chinese roads presence and easily accessible acceleration for punching your way into traffic are king. And once in it ride comfort and refinement important. No wonder Bentleys and
Range Rovers
are so popular in other words, 21 per cent of Land Rover's 303,926 sales last year landing here. And in China 'Porsche' means Panamera or Cayenne, not those weird little rear-engined sports cars.
It's starting to happen already too. We'vemoaned about the modern crop of BMW M cars ditching track-honed heritage for brute power, overly aggressive styling and isolating technology. But new markets like China are about making a splash and scrambling to assert your brand values in a very short space of time - a single generation of cars, not four or five. There's no such thing as heritage.
That app-steered Bentley might not happen any time soon. But hybrids might. "Right now our customers do not want it," Bentley's Jan Henrik Lafrentz told us. "But if legislation demands it then we would have to do it." Faced with crippling congestion and air pollution it might just, locally based Bentley man Richard Leopold explaining his car has a 'Monday' numberplate, meaning one day a week he has to get a cab or subway to work instead. Affording to run a sub-20mpg 6.0-litre W12 isn't a problem for Bentley customers but might be made one by the authorities. Desired or not a hybrid might be the only response.
It's no E28 M5 but those in new markets don't mind
Technology is a funny one too. Mercedes, Audi and BMW are pushing ahead with gizmos that increasingly
take control from the driver's hands
. But they're geared to disciplined western driving habits. So you've got steering systems to keep you between the white lines or alerts to scold if you're about to pull out without indicating or looking. Totally irrelevant in China where road markings are of passing concern to many, distances between fast-moving vehicles are measured in centimetres and lane changes conducted regardless of whether there's somebody already there or not. You need wits, not warning buzzers and it was refreshing to see how few of these systems Bentley uses in the Flying Spur. "Luxury is simplicity," said our man Lafrentz.
There aren't many influences from Chinese driving we can rally behind but there's one at least!