Bosh to build new Bentley

Newswheel staff :: 28 January 2005 :: Filed under Saloon, Bentley, Bentley Continental Flying Spur, Europe & UK

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VW Phaeton clone grows a pair of doors and decamps to Europe

It’s Autocar again, this time with the not terribly shocking news that Bentley’s all-new (ish) Continental Flying Spur  is “almost certain” to be knocked up in Dresden, Germany. That’s the location of VW’s presumably underutilised Phaeton production line. Makes sense, given that the Spur (like its doppelganger coupe sibling) is effectively a heavily reworked, wood-n'-leather rehash of VW’s flagship cruiser.

Bentley’s Crewe, UK facility probably won’t feel too hardly done by if production does move to Germany. It has plenty on its plate thanks to ever-burgeoning demand for the Continental GT. And make no mistake, they can’t make the things fast enough. In one or two of the swankier parts of London, the bulbous and just-a-little-naff Conty GT can be found parked three abreast. Meanwhile, Rolls Royce’s  beautiful, statuesque, iconic (you name it…) Phantom remains stubbornly welded to showroom floors. It’s truly one of life’s great mysteries.

For the record the Spur packs the same 550-odd bhp, turboed-up, bent-12 lump and four-wheel-drive chassis as the Conty GT. Sales start this spring and the cost of entry in the UK is £112,750. Which is probably a little too expensive to avoid the Eurotrash riff-raff.