2012 Bentley Continental Flying Spur on 2040-cars

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If VW defaults on loans it may sell Bentley or Lamborghini

If something goes catastrophically wrong with Volkswagen Group's recent $21 billion loan, brands like Bentley or Lamborghini could hit the auction block. According to two insiders to Reuters, the beleaguered German automaker agrees with its creditors to sell assets if the company somehow can't pay back the debt in a year. One of these anonymous people claimed the company hasn't yet deliberated over what to sell. However, the sources were willing to speculate that the power engineering portion of Man could be among the first to go. "Volkswagen may also consider divesting luxury car brands Bentley and Lamborghini or motor bike brand Ducati, although these units don't really move the needle," an insider said to Reuters. VW Group negotiated with the banks earlier this week to get the massive loan. The cash is necessary as a buffer in case the automaker doesn't have enough money on hand to repair vehicles or settle upcoming fines. VW would reportedly issue bonds in the spring to begin paying the debt. The company's bills will start racking up quickly in the new year. German authorities mandate a recall there in early 2016, and repair campaigns in the US for the 2.0- and 3.0-liter diesel engines are inevitable. There are also hundreds of class-action lawsuits to settle. The company needs to resolve its CO2 emissions scandal in Europe, too. In response to these financial threats, VW management created a cost-cutting plan to slash the research and development budget by $1.1 billion next year.

Finally, a Bentley Bentayga just for falconers

Bentley is a company that knows what its customers want. For a price, they will turn a customer's desires into a six-figure rolling testament to wealth and excess. Mulliner, Bentley's in-house coachbuilding division, will adapt and modify their products for any taste or hobby. If fly fishing is your thing, Bentley and Mulliner have you covered. If falconry is more up your alley - it is the sport of kings - Bentley has you covered there too. The new Bentley Bentayga Falconry by Mulliner is the perfect vehicle for any well-to-do falcon enthusiast. Not only does it have plenty of accessories and storage specifically tailored for falconers, the dash contains a beautiful, 430-piece wood inlay that displays a saker falcon soaring far above the desert. The scene took nine days to craft, undergoing cutting, sand shading, pressing, and double cutting. A wide variety of woods are used, including chestnut, eucalyptus pommele, holly, lacewood, maple, olive ash, and ripple sycamore. Up front, the Bentayga is fitted with a cork perch on the center console, flanked by the front seats. The hatch contains the real prize. Two cork chests - a flight station and a refreshment case - are fitted perfectly in the Bentayga's hatch. The pair sit on a movable tray for easier access. The flight station has a piano black veneer drawer that holds accessories like a GPS bird tracking unit, binoculars, and handcrafted leather bird hoods and gauntlets. These of course can be had as an additional option. Two additional perches are stored out back. With the hatch lifted, falcons can be prepared out back in the shade. All of this can be had for a price that's most likely far more than you probably think it is. Bentley isn't releasing numbers, but if you're buying a bespoke Bentayga, the cost is simply just another number. Related Video: Featured Gallery Bentley Bentayga Falconer View 37 Photos News Source: Bentley Design/Style Bentley SUV Luxury bentley bentayga

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.