I think Frogster is on to something...

it's not often that i rant here (is it?) but OMFG doesn't even begin to express my sentiments over this abomination.
Bently is producing an SUV. yes, a freakin' SUV.
The main point is that SUV is supposed to be Sports Utility. I don't see sports, and i certainly don't see utility.
What are people thinking? Seriously, WTF is going on in this world now?
There are no sports or utility in this vehicle. it's just a "i'm f***ing rich!! look at me and my big f***ing ridiculous car, bwahhahhahhaaaaa!"


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MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

It is ridiculous, but no more so than a Porsche Pepper Turbo, BMW X5/X6 M, Range Rover Sport Supercharged, etc. Why shouldn't Bentley profit from the trend too? It will sell, so they make what will sell. It's got 600hp, so it will have a little sport, and it is a SUV (tall station wagon), so I'm sure owners can fit some of the groceries or shopping bags in the back (there's your utility). Lol.

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

but i'll indulge you with a mild version…

as many have pointed out, there are other luxury SUVs out there, but for some reason, a "bentley" SUV really irks me.
and actually, that's not the only thing. look at the new lambo aventador J, holy carp. that is offensively vulgar. pity the pedestrial who gets impaled by one of those batmobile prods at the front end of it.
shall i continue? ok, how about the new 6-series four-door. WTF? the 6er is a two door. that's what a coupe is. if you want four doors, buy a 7 or 5 series.
there's no longer any rhyme nor reason to car manufacturing these days. it used to be that if you wanted a luxury car, you bought a bently. if you wanted an SUV, you bought a ford truck.
look at the absurdity of the X6. is it an off-road car? not really. is it a sport-ute? not really, where are you going to put all your gear? it's just a big, fat, heavy, tall sports car. sort of.
i mean how many cars do we need??
in the words of Devo (group from the 80s) "Freedom of choice is what you want. Freedom from choice is what you need."


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MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

Ummm, there was nothing sport or utility about the Caddy Escalade. It really started this ultra-high-end SUV craze. Other makes just followed suit. All the Escalade said was that I'm wasteful (fule economy) and rich. On top of that, you'd never see a basic production one. Buyers add all sorts of etremely expensive bling inside and out. That's where 20s became all the rage. Those wheels never went off road because the rims were chrome or custom painted and the rubber so thin pebbles would bend those expensive wheels. Plus, the Play Station and CD would skip too much when off road. It was also impossible to watch the video on the screens with all those bumps. This is the main reason why entertainment centers are so big now in SUVs and Vans. Thank the Escalade crowd for that one. They were the pioneers of all the crap that goes into cars/vans/suvs these days. Car makers are just cashing in on the craze. 20 years from now our kids/grandkids will look back and laugh at our auto choices--like we do with the Edsal and Woody Wagon.

People love SUVs. They are filling out the lux end of the segment.

What principle should Bentley use to not make more money by taking advantage of this opportunity? It is a business, not a club.

If you go back to the whole concept of a shooting brake, and the need to carry your guns out to a suitable location for blasting away pheasants that your staff drive out of the corn fields. (No I did not see this just on Downton Abbey, we spent a Christmas on Lord Portsmouth's estates one year in a tenant house). A Bentley version is probably quite more suitable than some.

Plus, you get to sell 99.9% of them to suburbanites in the starter palaces.

[www.motorauthority.com]

I find it fascinating that we humans desire sincerity, honesty, and "purity", but our commercial world provides almost none of this. Just look at our disgust with politicians. Let's be honest with ourselves, our Porsches are not pure sports cars. They are bigger, heavier, and built to targeted price points than what we wish they were: some fantasy of passioned engineers building their dream cars. I think where you may have issue, if you dig deep, is both our desire for something genuine and buying into the marketing hype of commercial companies creates a real cognitive dissonance when we see something beyond what we expect (or want).

I don't like SUV's. I have less problem with the new crossovers and the smaller SUV's. I think there are a substantial number of drivers out there that can justify one of the big honkers because they are sportsman who frequent the backwoods or pull trailors, etc.
It is "wasteful" that even more of these vehicles seldom see no more severe duty than jumping a curb at the mall. And it is an excercise in freedom of choice that we all enjoy. I think many of them wind up regretting their choices at some point. This is a free society and I have to say to each his own.
I am old and experienced. I now enjoy a satisfying "smugness" in regard to the vehicles in my garage in that they are "enough". Once one is really mature, it's about me, cars that are fun, not over the top, no statement really.
It is still the best that we all have these choices. If SUV's were banned, sportscars might not be too far down on the list, either.

We have been given ample warning to get into the bomb shelter. I just saw the presser where Peyton Frigging Manning was released from the Colts! What is this world coming to? I suspect that later today I will see a news report about a snow blizzard in Death Valley.

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

The $28 million and cost your team the players in free agency that could buy/rent to begin to rebuild your team? Not me. Absent George Blanda and Warren Moon, how many others have not started a serious decline at about his age even ignoring the risk of playing a person with a suspect neck in a position liable to whiplash. And you have no line to protect him.

Great respect for him as a person and player but even Porsches age (mandatory P-car content) and lose desirability to me.

I agree. Few quarterback heroes have prospered past their prime years. Add to that the health risk to Peyton, I hope that he decides to retire.

I'm really shocked that RUF could produce something so utterly bad. You really had to "stretch" to like original look in the first place, now you realllllllyyy have to "stretch"!

Steve
Guards Red 1999
I'm not a race car driver, but I play one in 2nd and 3rd gear

that is really disgusting. it's something i would have expected from rinspeed or sbarro or one of the other tasteless swiss tuner shops. i thought ruf had more class than that.

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MY 2000 S, Ocean Blue, Metropol Blue, Savanah Beige.
Bought June 2000 - Sold May 2010

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