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Check out King Charles III's $17.6 million car collection

King Charles III's coronation will take place in England on May 6, and being crowned a monarch comes with a long list of perks with four wheels. He will gain full access to the Royal Family's fleet of cars, which is valued at about GBP14 million (approximately $17.6 million). The two most expensive cars in the collection are nearly identical: they're a pair of Bentley State Limousine models (pictured) built for Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III's mother, in 2002. Only two units were made, and they're both part of the Royal Family's fleet, so they're difficult to put a value on; it's not like one is going to end up listed on your favorite auction site anytime soon. British company Nationwide Vehicle Contracts, which compiled the list, estimates that each armored, 245-inch long sedan is worth at least GBP10,000,000 (roughly $12.6 million). Dropping below the eight-digit threshold, the second-most-valuable car in the Royal Family's fleet isn't really a car. It's the Gold State Coach, which Matchbox recently released a 1/64-scale replica of, and its value is estimated at GBP1.6 million (about $2 million). At 275 inches long it's even bigger than the Bentley limousine and it weighs about 9,000 pounds. It's 261 years old and designed to be pulled by eight horses, and has been part of every coronation since 1831. The rest of the Royal Family's vehicles are relatively mundane. There's a 1965 Aston Martin DB6 Volante that Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Phillip, bought for King Charles III on his 21st birthday. It's worth GBP1 million (about $1.2 million). The collection also includes a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI (about $627,000), a Bentley Bentayga (about $201,000), a Land Rover Range Rover long-wheelbase Landaulet ($133,000), a Jaguar XE (about $41,000), and a Land Rover Defender ($38,000). "Luxury cars have long been associated with the monarch and King Charles III, in particular, is known for his fondness of motor vehicles. His impressive collection features sentimental value with motors passed down from his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, to cars bought for him by his parents," explained Keith Hawes, the director of Nationwide Vehicle Contracts, in an interview with CBS News. Being at the head of a car-making nation's royal family also comes with drawbacks: Every vehicle in King Charles III's fleet is British.

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8 First Drive Review | Losing cylinders but not much else

There's no such thing as a cheap Bentley. Even though the new-for-2019 Bentayga V8 is $30,000 less expensive than its W12-powered sibling, the twin-turbo V8's $165,000 window sticker still puts it well into the upper echelon of pricey luxury vehicles. Bentley is loathe to compare the two versions of the Bentayga — what parent wants to pit siblings against one another? — but does frame the V8 edition as a somewhat sportier alternative to the full-bore, glitz and glamor W12. Let's examine that line of reasoning. Under the hood of the Bentayga V8 is a 4.0-liter turbocharged engine that shares most of its bits with the latest Porsche Panamera and Cayenne Turbo. The engine is specifically tuned for use in this new application, with a unique sound signature and a cooling package that Bentley says will keep it running comfortably even in the face of the largest desert sand dunes in the world. The V8's peak of 568 pound-feet of torque hits below 2,000 rpm and stays exactly there until 4,500, with a horsepower peak of 542 at 6,000. From behind the wheel, the Bentayga's V8 engine feels a bit higher strung than the effortless W12. Instead of instant torque, there's a strong rush of power that builds nicely until it nears its 7,000-rpm redline, the highest rev limit of any engine the brand has ever installed in a passenger vehicle. If such a peaky-sounding engine seems incongruous with the intent of a luxury SUV, just know that there's plenty of stonk available any time the driver decides to push a red-bottomed Louboutin into the plush carpet. It's just a little less than what'd be on call from the W12, but there's not enough of a discrepancy to really matter. The V8 is a bit less sprightly to 60 than the W12 — 4.4 seconds versus 4.1 — and, with its 180-mile-per-hour top speed, it's a meaningless 7 mph slower at the top end, too. So, that doesn't really support the idea of sportiness. Neither too does the V8 handle any differently than the W12. There's only about a hundred pounds separating the two vehicles, with the new V8 edition weighing in at 5,264 pounds. And since only half of that weight savings is centered over the front axle, there isn't any real change to the Bentayga's driving dynamics or steering feel. That's not to say the Bentley Bentayga V8 doesn't drive well, it just doesn't drive differently than its more powerful, more expensive sibling.

Weekly Recap: Mercedes continues the pseudo-coupe craze with AMG-tuned CUV

But as BMW's X6 has demonstrated, sport sells in in the crossover segment, and Mercedes is giving the people what they want. BMW proved there is a market for crossover utility vehicles designed to look like coupes – as much as a vehicle with four doors and noticeable ground clearance can look like a coupe, anyway. Now comes the reply from Mercedes-Benz: the GLE Coupe. The rakish crossover is a harbinger of things to come from Mercedes, as it begins the company's transition to a new nomenclature and marks the debut of the AMG Sport line. It also continues the recent coupe craze. Designers from many automakers, like Nissan and Volkswagen, have increasingly turned to swoopy, dramatic styling to make utility vehicles and sedans seem more desirable. By revealing the GLE 450 AMG Sport model first, Mercedes is clearly hoping to cast the GLE Coupe as a sportier, lifestyle-oriented alternative in its lineup of beefy crossovers and SUVs. Mercedes used the word "sport," or a variation of it, 53 times in its press release, so uh yeah, it's sporty. It's not an empty promise: Benz means business with the AMG Sport line. This GLE Coupe gets a 3.0-liter biturbo V6 rated at 362 horsepower and 384 pound-feet of torque paired with Mercedes' new nine-speed automatic transmission, and it runs with 4Matic all-wheel drive. Specs on the other GLE Coupe models were not disclosed. But as BMW's X6 has demonstrated, sport sells in in the crossover segment, and Mercedes is giving the people what they want. After all, more than 260,000 people have bought X6s since 2008, and Mercedes wants a piece of that. From certain angles, the GLE Coupe even looks vaguely like an X6. "This is really a vehicle that is all about status," said Dave Sullivan, product analysis manager for research firm AutoPacific. "You can buy a SUV that doesn't have the inherent qualities of a SUV, such as cargo hauling. People will likely be drawn to the looks. Coupes are all the rage." BMW, however, isn't running from the fight, and the updated 2015 X6 is arriving in showrooms this month. It also added a smaller sibling, the X4, to its coupe-crossover stable in July. The GLE Coupe arrives next year, though Mercedes hasn't specified exactly when it will hit showrooms from the factory in Alabama, or specified details on the rest of the non-AMG Sport models. In 2008, it was surprising the X6 was a hit. In 2015, it will be even more surprising if the GLE Coupe isn't.