2003 Bentley Arnage T Sedan 4-door 6.7l on 2040-cars

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$10,000 champagne bottle cooler? Only in a Bentley

Bentleys are expensive. They wouldn't be Bentleys if they weren't. Even so, the ~$200k list price for a new Flying Spur is just the starting point. The company's Mulliner customization division offers a wide array of optional extras – all of them suitably pricey – and just introduced a new selection for the sedan. Highlighting the options list for the Continental's sedan counterpart is a champagne bottle cooler mounted between the rear seats behind the armrest. The on-board mini-fridge fits two standard-size champagne bottles – no magnums, we're afraid – canted forward, as well as a stopper and a pair of flutes with bases designed to evoke the shape of the wheels outside. It all fits in behind frosted glass trimmed in chrome, just in case it wasn't blingy enough for the hip-hop set, and takes Bentley's craftsmen 15 hours to make. No wonder the company charges $10,135 for each one installed, which comes within a Bentley buyer's pocket change of a new Nissan Versa. The manufacturer does not typically "disclose to the public prices for bespoke features," Bentley spokesperson Erin Bronner told Autoblog, "as these are private commissions" and pricing varies from region to region. But the options list, as you might have guessed, does not start and end with the wine cooler. It also includes specially painted veneer panels, quilted stitching, scent atomizers in Stirling silver, and a leather-trimmed storage compartment for jewelry. Related Video: BESPOKE MULLINER FEATURES MAKE DEBUT IN FLYING SPUR - New range of Mulliner bespoke features available in Flying Spur - Refrigerated bottle cooler, sterling silver atomisers and painted veneers now offered - Mulliner specialist coach-building division brings Bentley customers' visions to life - Bentley Flying Spur combines class-leading refinement with effortless performance (Crewe, 01 February 2016) Mulliner, Bentley's in-house coach-building division, is revealing its latest range of bespoke creations for the Flying Spur, enabling customers to personalise the four-door luxury sedan to an even higher level. For the first time, the Flying Spur can now be specified with a refrigerated bottle cooler between the rear seats, painted veneers, Mulliner quilted leather, sterling silver atomisers and hide-trimmed stowage boxes.

Volkswagen Group names Paefgen head of classics program

You may remember the name Franz-Josef Paefgen. Until recently, the German engineer and executive was head of both Bentley and Bugatti. Before that he was chief executive of Audi, after working for several years at Ford. He technically "retired" earlier this year, but like the cars he helped create, an executive like Paefgen could never really retire. So it should come as little surprise that the Volkswagen Group has named Dr. Paefgen head of its Classic program.
In his new capacity, Paefgen will oversee the historic automobile activities of the entire VW Group, including those of Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda, Audi, Lamborghini, and of course Bentley and Bugatti. It strikes us as a suitable semi-retirement for the man responsible in no small part for the Bugatti Veyron and Bentley Mulsanne, to name just two, and who was decorated in 2006 by the ACO as the "Spirit of Le Mans" for his contribution to endurance racing. Read the official announcement after the break.

Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark explains carmaker's situation and plan for recovery

In August, we posted on some of the issues plaguing Bentley at the moment, namely the large loss the carmaker's posted this year. The same Autocar piece we referenced, carmaker CEO Adrian Hallmark said Bentley would not be making more sports cars. Bentley wrote to us to clarify that a single year's loss isn't a calamity, that "it is a mistake to suggest that sports cars are the same as GTs," and that the brand "will continue to design, engineer, and craft" GT cars. We must note, though, that at the time, Hallmark himself said, "The sports car sector – like our own...." More recently, Hallmark expounded on some of the factors slowing the company down this year, from delayed launches to exchange rates. Through the first nine months of the year, Bentley sold 6,654 units, an 11 percent decline from the 7,498 units sold through the first nine months of 2017. In addition to other matters like huge investments in new technologies, that helped the Crewe carmaker to a $44.7-million year-over-year drop in revenue, and a $156-million overall loss, compared to a $35 million profit over the same period last year. On top of declining sales overall, the nine-month delay in launching the Continental GT, the brand's second-best seller, was the first of two big issues causing red finances. Hallmark said the Continental GT "just wasn't ready for launch. But we'd paid for it – we'd paid all the money out, but not got any money back in." Having got that sorted, the second issue arose: WLTP certification. Unlike the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) before it, the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure requires every model variant get tested for certification. Hallmark told Automotive News Europe, "We were not quick enough unfortunately to book capacity or prioritize our derivatives within some of the group processes to get them certified on time." Bentley wasn't alone in this; Volkswagen had only managed to get seven of its 14 models approved by September 1 when the WLTP rules took effect. Bentley's much smaller scale exacerbated the problem, turning the situation "close to catastrophic." Hallmark said the snafu robbed the Bentayga of 300 to 400 sales - a gigantic number with respect to a $200,000 vehicle - and pushed the Bentayga plug-in hybrid launch back to March 2019 so Bentley could get volume models certified. Furthermore, preparing for Brexit hasn't been easy on any of the UK's manufacturers.