Saturday 11 August 2007

What's outside today 14 - Bentley Azure

This just went back to Bentley about an hour ago. I think it's the most expensive car we've had on the Verdict, with the possible exception of the Maybach that featured a few months ago. How expensive? GBP225,000 - and that's without counting in the value of that number plate which I'm guessing must be worth as much again, recalling as it does the initials of W O Bentley, the original founder of the company.


There's no experience quite like that of driving the Azure - the view out along the long, long bonnet topped with the traditional winged 'B' is simply terrific.


Just like the octagons that appeared everywhere on Austin Rover's reinvented MGs in the 1980s, that Bentley 'B' is ever present in the Arnage. It appears on the wheel centres and on the button on top of the gear selector, for example, and even on the little dust caps on the tyre valves. I was especially relieved that these beautiful and highly covetable items survived until the end of our testing un-nicked.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

£225k for a car to make people think you are Michael Winner? Honestly, I think Bentley made a big mistake with this car, especially when you consider the RR 100EX!
The price tag for that car when you consider the price of a drop-head Continental GT is crazy. Don't get me wrong, we are talking the playground of the uber-rich, but still, it's not that attractive, especially with the top up! Why would you?
Hopefully, Bentley and VW spent millions on target market research before launching this car, I really hope they did! If they didn't, we will be seeing these in canary yellow driven by the latest Manchester United player whilst his Hummer is getting new 24" alloys! - Rant over!