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Bentley designer calls Lincoln Continental concept a Flying Spur 'copy' [w/poll]

When you first laid eyes on the new Lincoln Continental concept, we'd wager you were likely impressed, because it's an impressive design. But if you also thought it looked familiar, you're in good company. According to Car Design News, design chief Luc Donckerwolke over at Bentley thinks the Lincoln concept bears more than a passing resemblance to another Continental: Bentley's own Flying Spur. "This behavior is not respectable. Building a copy like this is giving a bad name to the car design world," Donckerwolke told CDN, after posting some disparaging comments on Facebook and offering in jest to send over the tooling. "It is very disappointing, especially for an exclusive brand like Lincoln," added Sangyup Lee, his deputy for exterior design. The irony is further entrenched by the name, which Bentley only dropped from its Flying Spur in its latest iteration but still uses for the coupe and convertible models. Both automakers have a deeply routed history with the nameplate, but Lincoln's stretches back further, having first used the handle in 1939 before Bentley did in 1952. However it's not the nameplate that's the subject of controversy here, rather the design of the vehicle to which it's applied. So what do you think, did Lincoln borrow too heavily from its British counterpart? Related Video:

BMW reclaims US luxury sales crown from Mercedes

The numbers, they are in: BMW has reclaimed the luxury-sales crown from Mercedes by a margin of 9,347 cars. Mercedes donned the king's headgear in 2013 after a strong final quarter of 2013 when the new CLA and S-Class poured out of dealerships. This year, led by the 3 Series/4 Series and X5, BMW sold 339,738 units – a 9.8-percent increase year-on-year. Mercedes, led by the C-Class and M-Class, saw its sales go up by 5.7 percent to 330,391 units. We'll have to wait a bit to see if there's another registrations-vs-sales challenge as in 2012, when BMW was anointed US luxury ruler. Behind them, a dark horse named Lexus nudged closer to the leading Teutons, selling 311,389 cars. The Japanese luxury automaker also had the biggest gain among the top three, its sales rising by 13.7 percent compared to 2013. Audi had the biggest sales of anyone among the top five, though, with a 15.2-percent gain to 182,011, which moved it a spot ahead of Cadillac; the Wreath-and-Crest brand dropped 6.5 percent to 170,750. Acura (167,843), Infiniti (117,300), and Lincoln (94,474) took the final positions. Speaking of Lincoln, sales at the once-mighty luxury marque stand as the mightiest jump of any on this list, up 15.6 percent. That's the power of Matthew McConaughey... and better cars and a new crossover, sure. So now that we're back to Round One of 2015, in case no one else has said it yet: "Ok, fight!"

2015 Lincoln MKC

Back in 2012, Lincoln claimed its comeback bid was finally underway with the new-for-2013 MKZ. But don't you believe them - the renaissance won't actually begin in earnest until the shapely compact crossover seen here reaches showrooms in big numbers. That's because while the four-door MKZ was indeed a proper step toward rebirth, the 2015 MKC is the first wholly conceived vehicle under Lincoln as a standalone brand, a move first announced back in 2012.
That's an important distinction, because Lincoln's newfound emancipation from Ford's design and development processes has given the struggling marque both the corporate wherewithal and the will to develop a more fully formed product. The four-wheeled result seen here is a surprisingly cohesive luxury CUV, one with significantly more aesthetic and dynamic separation from its Ford Escape sibling than the MKZ and its Fusion counterpart. Said another way, after flogging Lincoln's latest for hundreds of miles over canyon roads outside of Santa Barbara, we've come to understand that this is far from a re-grilled Dearborn special with luxury tinsel - it's a bona fide standalone product that readily displays the sort of clear differentiation seen in platform cousins like the Audi Q5 and the Volkswagen Tiguan. It's the real deal.