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Odds are on Bentley Mulsanne replacement to be a flagship SUV

Volkswagen Group brand Porsche sells SUVs so that it can afford to pour money into its segment-defining sports cars. For fellow VW Group brand Bentley, that math doesn't work; Porsche sold around 280,000 cars last year, more than 190,000 of them the Cayenne and Macan, compared to Bentley's total sales of 11,006. The English maker, recently recovered from trying times, must therefore be especially choosy about apportioning resources when deciding what to build. When the company looked at the prospects for the Mulsanne, Bentley realized that developing a four-door sedan replacement wouldn't pay off, so designers fashioned the new Flying Spur into a kind of Mulsanne Lite. If a new model from Crewe ascends into the $300K-plus arena, odds are it will be a crossover. In comments to various outlets over the past few weeks, including Top Gear, Car, and Car and Driver, Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark didn't explicitly admit the arrival of a big-money crossover. However, he said almost everything one could say without admitting it. His comments were previewed last year by those of Werner Tietz, the Bentley board member for engineering. On the subject of updating the automaker's lineup, Tietz told Autocar Bentley's goal is to sell to new customers, and for that, "There is some potential when you look at SUVs too, especially around a car larger than the Bentayga if you consider its value to the Chinese and American markets. So, yes, that is one opportunity we are exploring." Five years ago, talk about a Bentayga variant centered on a sleeker coupe style, not something bigger and badder, but much has happened since then. Hallmark explained that the market for mid-six-figure big sedans has dropped to 1,000 sales worldwide, chopped up between the Mulsanne and Rolls-Royce Phantom. Roughly 90% of Mulsanne sales are to under-40s in China and over-60s in the U.S. While "it's a great business ... it's a shrinking business" because aging Mulsanne buyers in the U.S. don't want to drop another half million dollars on a daily driver, opting for a Flying Spur or Bentayga instead. As for the Chinese market, the CEO confessed to Car, "[If] we did a — not to give you the answer — if we did a longer wheelbase Bentayga, every single one of those Mulsanne customers in ChinaÂ… would take that instead."  The Bentayga soaks up almost half of Bentley sales.

Question of the Day: What's the greatest British car ever?

The British automotive industry has produced everything from high-production econo-commuters to staggeringly luxurious oligarch-wagons, along the way winning plenty of races and building plenty of beautiful machines. The original Mini led directly to the past half-century of transverse-engine, front-wheel-drive cars built everywhere, the MGB put the sporty little convertible into everyone's reach, and the Morris Oxford became the most beloved motor vehicle in India. So many to choose from, but we want you to pick one. What will it be? Related Video:

2023 Bentley Bentayga Road Test: 'Airline' spec is the way to travel

After nearly a week rolling around town in the 2023 Bentley Bentayga, enjoying its power, comfort and the ability to make a grand entrance basically anywhere, it dawns on me that I’m doing this wrong. Yes, the V8 is great, but of course it is. The story is in the back seat. IÂ’m testing an extended wheelbase Bentayga Azure First Edition outfitted with the Airline Seat Specification. ItÂ’s business class, plain and simple. As darkness falls, I make up a cheese plate and head to the backseat, placing my charcuterie on the veneered picnic trays below the 10.1-inch screens. Leaning back on the pillowy headrest, I feel like IÂ’m about to settle in for a cushy trans-Atlantic flight. ThereÂ’s so much room. The wheelbase extends 7 inches beyond the standard Bentayga and thereÂ’s enough space to do calf stretches. The First Edition offers Diamond Illumination on the door panels and the purple ambient lighting casts a royal glow. ItÂ’s not as dramatic as the Starry Night Sky in the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, but with 22 LEDs shimmering through leather perforations, it is rather cosmic.  The Airline spec seats are the other part of the BentaygaÂ’s charm, with 22 possible ways to calibrate positions. Sure, you can cue up any number of massages, but you can do that in many Jeeps. BentleyÂ’s seats also offer a Postural Adjustment System that is said to apply up to 177 pressure changes over a three-hour period to keep you comfy. Dialing into work meetings with my feet up, I enjoyed it, mostly. I didnÂ’t stay there for three hours, but for my roughly one-hour stint, the adjustments were generally appreciated (I could have updated my Google calendar location to ‘BentleyÂ’, but that seemed pretentious). The cupholders are solid, too. Bentley moved the sunroof back about 5 inches to further focus on the rear passengers, and itÂ’s an airy setting, especially when reclined. ThereÂ’s also an auto climate function that adjusts the surface temperature. After playing around with the many settings, I eventually found the one that pushed the front passengerÂ’s seat all the way forward, a footstool extended down and I leaned back for a brief rest.  Different Bentayga EWB pictured So I did actually drive a Bentley for a week, and it offers a certain gravitas both in motion and at rest. The 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 supplies plenty of power to the tune of 542 hp and 568 lb-ft of torque, and it will get you and your passengers to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, should the need arise.