Nine years ago, I paid fifty-eight thousand dollars for a new VW Phaeton, after paying seventy-seven thousand dollars for a different VW Phaeton six months previously. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.* I was very active on a VW message board at the time and it was not uncommon for me to get random private messages from teenagers:
99VWJettaSlushbox: lol suck it u loser the FAILton is the worst VW ever
I enjoyed my Phaetons tremendously and drove them everywhere from Manhattan to VIR. However, I was virtually alone in my enthusiasm for the model. My second Phaeton, the black 2006 V8, was one of just 300 brought into the United States that year. When VW discontinued US sales before the 2007 model year, most people took that decision as conclusive proof that you can’t sell a $100,000 Volkswagen to Americans. They were correct; however, you can sell a $200,000 Volkswagen to Americans, and you can do it for a very long time.
The Bentley Continental GT and Flying Spur are, of course, the Sevilles to the Phaeton’s Nova, or possibly the Cimmarons to the Phaeton’s Cavalier. Probably the latter, because the CGT and Spur were cheaper in real terms than any other Bentley sold in the postwar era. Although much has been done to differentiate the cars, from completely unique exterior styling to a real Bentley-burnished (well, supplier-burnished) metal ring around the power-mirror joystick, if you drove them blindfolded only the superior thrust from the W12 or turbo V8 would let you know you were in the Bentley.
As a consequence, these are now old cars, particularly when considered in the context of the Rolls-Royce Wraith and Ghost. (For the record, the 7-Series-to-Ghost transition is far more convincing than the Bentley’s bespoke disguise.) Last year, the Flying Spur received a complete suite of upgrades, including a new and very vintage-looking rear body contour. This year, the CGT gets the upgrades, too.
The most interesting change is the addition of variable displacement technology to the W12. This cylinder-deactivation scheme, seen previously everywhere from the Cadillac V-8-6-4 to the Honda Odyssey to the V8-powered Continental GT, improves fuel economy by five percent. Or, “as much as five percent”. Which means “probably less, but definitely not more, than.”
An utterly horrifying new “flying B vent” distinguishes your $250,000 Mulliner Driving Specification Speed GT from the $40,000 deferred-maintenance 2005-model-year specials on eBay and will be very popular with your friends at your private Moscow high school. The current look of the Continental GT, festooned as it is with all manner of chrome and brushed metal and exterior highlighting, makes me almost nostalgic for the debut model, which was remarkably ungainly-looking and almost LaForza-esque the way it sat high on massive wheels but which had unadorned flanks and the courage of its visual convictions.
What Bentley could really use would be an aluminum CGT based on the next (or even the current) Audi A8. Given that they’ve just redone the bodywork on the current cars, however, it probably won’t happen immediately. In the meantime, you can get the same quality of drive from a used Phaeton W12, and have $230,000 left over for unscheduled maintenance. Just be prepared to be told how Americans won’t pay real money for a gussied-up VW, okay?
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