2014 Bentley Continental Flying Spur Sedan 4-door 6.0l on 2040-cars

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Bentley and Skoda capitalize on the coronation

Most likely, King Charles won’t be riding in a Czech-made Skoda this weekend when he is crowned king of England, even though the car company has introduced a Coronation Edition in a “Royal Green” color “in honor of the Coronation.” However, should they ride to the fancy investiture at Westminster Abbey in a home-grown Bentley, the royal tushes of he and Queen Camilla may be resting on bespoke, handcrafted “cabin cushions” created by BentleyÂ’s “Dream Factory” to celebrate the occasion (not likely, since the royal couple is expected to travel in the 260-year-old Gold State Coach). The upcoming, day-long event has inspired lots of tchotchkes of course — chocolate Charleses, crowns for dogs, Lego kings — as well as an outpouring of affection by the public and commercial opportunities to sell them things royalty-related. On the matter of the new KingÂ’s rear end, the Bentley cushions are described as being quite fabulous. It took craftsmen three days to embroider them with the special “Coronation Emblem,” which consists, according to the firm, "of two separate thread colours ... three different colourways of the emblem were used, to contrast the individually-selected hides for different colours of cushions to match the interiors of the Bentleys that will use them." The colors of the cushions include Cricketball and Cumbrian Green, accented by piping of Beluga, Porpoise, Newmarket Tan and Imperial Blue respectively. Should they require more modern transportation, a fleet of Bentleys will be on hand for special guests.  Regarding the Skodas, the Royal Green color will be available to order by commoners as well as by the royal couple, available on selected Superb, Kodiaq and Octavia models in the UK.

Ford GT Mk II at Goodwood, Bentley EXP 100 GT concept EV and driving the Hyundai Veloster N | Autoblog Podcast #588

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and Associate Editor Joel Stocksdale. To kick things off, they talk about driving the Porsche Cayenne S, Hyundai Veloster N and Nissan Armada. Then they recap the Goodwood Festival of Speed, including the Ford GT Mk II that debuted there. Next up is news: the Bentley EXP 100 GT electric concept car, Ford canceling diesel for the Transit Connect and Elon Musk dismissing talk of a refresh for the Model S and Model X. Finally, they take to Reddit to help pick between a 2016 Audi S3 and a 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia. Autoblog Podcast #588 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving: 2019 Porsche Cayenne S 2020 Hyundai Veloster N 2019 Nissan Armada Ford GT Mk II debuts at Goodwood, and other impressions from the event Bentley unveils EXP 100 GT electric concept car Ford cancels diesel engine for Transit Connect Tesla Model S and X wonÂ’t get a refresh Spend My Money: Audi or Alfa? Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video:    

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.