Bentley Mulsanne UK and US Pricing and Market Launch Announced

tell that to an owner of this beaut. and he or she will laugh in ur face and most probably be like. "thanks for that".

Uh no its not. You'll find the Mulsanne is a size larger than the Continental GT and Flying Spur, and is in fact a Phantom and Maybach 57 rival.

I'm very aware of what segment this is competing in. The problem is this models lack of brash aristocracy. Would you upgrade from a Phantom to this? No! In this class its less about the better product and more about what the product sais about you when you're seen in it. This is nothing more than a warmed over VW. The Phantom may be a Bimmer, but it can convince anyone its a Rolls!

not every model in this class must brag about how rich you are. if you want to show off your wealth, then by all means, get the phantom with its ridiculous parthenon grill. bentleys were never as brash. for the longest time, they didn't even have a hood ornament to advertise to the world what they were. this car is not an upgrade from the phantom, nor is the phantom an upgrade from this. they're different, albeit competing, cars for different tastes. what the mulsanne says about its owner is that he likes to drive his own luxo-barge. he doesn't need to shout out his wealth. he prefers a small dash of sport to his sedan. the phantom doesn't say those things. it says that its driver prefers to be driven. he has become successful in life and would like to be recognized for it. and a warmed over vw? what part of vw is in this? the electronic goodies? if so, the same can be said for the phantom. i would agree with you if you were talking about the flying spur in that it's like the rolls ghost--platform shared from "lower" rung models. but the mulsanne is all bentley. in fact, as wikipedia put it: "The Mulsanne is also notable as it is the first flagship car to be independently designed by Bentley Motors in nearly 80 years; the last being W.O. Bentley's iconic 8 litre model in 1930." even the engine is the tried-and-true bentley 6.75-litre v8 unlike the phantom's v12 which is based off a bmw v12. so how is the phantom more convincing as a rolls than the mulsanne a bentley?

You will find there is no successful vehicle in this price range that does not brag of how expensive it is. That's the entire point. An S600 is plenty of car for anyone considering a large, luxury sedan. Nothing past that is needed (a 600 is not particularly "needed"). However, vehicles such as this Mulsanne are created to establish a difference. A more expensive, exclusive vehicle designed to announce your superiority over all plebeians in there "mass produced" V12 Mercedes-Benzs and BMWs. The majority of customers purchasing this car will be "upgrading" from their older Phantom, Arnage or Maybach (so yesterday). As far as VW parts go, everyone is aware electronics and electronic architectures are shared between VW/Bentley and BMW/Rolls. However, the suppliers chosen for this Bentley are many of the same used in Audi vehicles. Materials are more expensive, but the same suppliers and supplier designs carryover. ex: Check out the rear interior door panel on a Panamera, the new A8 and this Mulsanne. While materials quality differs between the three, the same molding process is used to construct the door skin. They are all visibly similar in construction. The old Arnage was technically inferior to the Flying Spur, but at least it was Old-school in its presentation and supplier base, something some (not many) potential owners will be paying attention to. The "independently designed by Bentley Motors in 80 years" line is a great PR move by VW, even you believe it! And, the 6.75L Bentley V8 is only in the show-car. The production model gets an all new 6.75L V8, not another go at the old one.

"You will find there is no successful vehicle in this price range that does not brag of how expensive it is. That's the entire point. An S600 is plenty of car for anyone considering a large, luxury sedan. Nothing past that is needed (a 600 is not particularly "needed"). However, vehicles such as this Mulsanne are created to establish a difference. A more expensive, exclusive vehicle designed to announce your superiority over all plebeians in there "mass produced" V12 Mercedes-Benzs and BMWs. The majority of customers purchasing this car will be "upgrading" from their older Phantom, Arnage or Maybach (so yesterday)." but this mulsanne is no less or no more brash than the model it replaces, the arnage. this is my point. i fail to see how you can prove to me otherwise. a regular arnage doesn't have any more emblems than the mulsanne, doesn't have a hood mascot, nor does it indicate its engine cylinder count. what announced its presence was its huge upright grille, its sheer size, and its bentley name. the muslanne obviously carries all of these things forward. but aside from those things, the arnage was rather plain. what's worse was that back then, it was identical to the silver seraph. the arnage only starts to look fancy once you get to the special models which were released later on in its life cycle. as the mulsanne is just being introduced, we'd have to wait a while for its own special editions with more brash to appear. " As far as VW parts go, everyone is aware electronics and electronic architectures are shared between VW/Bentley and BMW/Rolls. However, the suppliers chosen for this Bentley are many of the same used in Audi vehicles." many of the parts from the phantom are from the bmw parts bin. they would, of course, also come from the same suppliers. so how is the rolls more superior than the bentley in this aspect? it is ridiculous to create a new car for your subsidiary company without using at least SOME of your electronics and suppliers. another thing that the phantom and mulsanne have in common is that despite sharing the same suppliers from their mother companies, their parts appear unique enough that you can't call it out as being ripped right off another, lesser, vehicle. and the mulsanne isn't exactly unique in this. older british cars were more notorious in sticking common-grade electronics in these cars without even altering their appearances: older astons raided the jaguar electronics parts bin (the steering wheel were straight off the jag), used ford focus window switches and mazda miata door handles. the first arnage (the car which the mulsanne is apparently unworthy in succeeding) blatantly used the older 7's climate control system--despite it obviously not fitting in with the style of the rest of the car. after being passed down to vw, it then switched over to vw electronics, but at least vw tried to make it look as if it weren't ripped off the phaeton. " Materials are more expensive, but the same suppliers and supplier designs carryover. ex: Check out the rear interior door panel on a Panamera, the new A8 and this Mulsanne. " sure, i'll bite: mulsanne: http://www.netcarshow.com/bentley/2011-mulsanne/1280x960/wallpaper_17.htm panamera: http://www.netcarshow.com/porsche/2010-panamera/1280x960/wallpaper_23.htm new a8: http://www.netcarshow.com/audi/2011-a8/1280x960/wallpaper_29.htm now, i would agree with you that the panamera and new a8 look suspiciously similar in the door panel design (the door handles are positioned in the same place, the door grabs look almost the same, etc), but there is nothing that ties the mulsanne door panels to either car. so how are they visibly similar in construction? "The old Arnage was technically inferior to the Flying Spur, but at least it was Old-school in its presentation and supplier base, something some (not many) potential owners will be paying attention to." if old-school, you mean everything is hand-built, then the muslanne is too. the arnage's supplier base is no more special and old-school then the muslanne. as i already pointed out, both cars used parts from other cars, BUT the mulsanne did it without being obvious unlike the first iteration arnage. "The "independently designed by Bentley Motors in 80 years" line is a great PR move by VW, even you believe it!" can you prove to me otherwise? we all know that the phantom's parts are built in germany, and only then shipped to britain so that the rolls people can put on the supplier's choice of leathers, woods, and paint. "And, the 6.75L Bentley V8 is only in the show-car. The production model gets an all new 6.75L V8, not another go at the old one." if true, then even better--as we know that this engine will be specifically designed and made for the mulsanne or other bentleys to come with a similar pricetag. no other vw product will have it. what's best is this engine would retain the same base configuration as its predecessors while being modernized to befit an all-new car. if anything, it sure can't be worse than merely enlargening a bmw v12 just so that it can achieve that displacement number.... and finally, the original question remains: even if the mulsanne is a vw hackjob, which it's not, how is it less convincing as a bentley than the phantom a rolls-royce? if anything, both the phantom and mulsanne prove one thing: that british car manufacturers can no longer, on its own, build luxury cars worthy of pricetags that double or tripple the german's standard flagship luxo-cruisers. it takes hundeds of millions of dollars to develop a new car like this. and you need to sell a lot of cheap cars using other brands to get such a capital.

the ghost is a flying spur/gt competitor. the front really grows on me. i start to like it. and allthough the interior isnt as good as the one of its predecessor it still looks better than the phantoms.

as a billionaire this shouldnt matter to you lol in europe the phantom starts at ~320.000? i believe.

great explanation! i totally agree!