轉載自12月6日的Business Week
http://tinyurl.com/6tyvb
原網址：
http://www.businessweek.com/@@yDSLeYcQ5tmhphMA/magazine/content/04_49/b3911105.
htm
如果我有這筆閒錢（35萬美金！！！ -.-'''）可以讓我在Bentley Continental GT,
Maybach, RR Phantom間三選一，那我會毫不猶豫的選 Continental GT。雖然GT在定位及
屬性上都稱不上是後兩者的同級車，但我怎麼看都覺得GT比Maybach和Phantom更具這個層
級豪華車所應有的風範呀！ XD
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VW Steals A Lead In Luxury
Sales of its speedy two-door Bentley are leaving high-end rivals in the dust
James Bond didn't just drive Aston Martins before switching to BMWs. As origi-
nally written, 007 was a Bentley man. But not since the suave secret agent
sped down England's country roads in that 1953 Mark VI in Moonraker has the
British auto maker been so chic. Bentley's newest model, the revved-up Conti-
nental GT, is sold out through 2005. Customers who have snapped one up include
Oracle Corp. (ORCL ) CEO Lawrence J. Ellison, and actors Denzel Washington,
James Caan, and Jennifer Lopez.
In the language of marketing turnabouts, Volkswagen-owned Bentley has done a
Gucci. In one short year, the British maker of staid and stately limousines has
suddenly become the raciest fashion on wheels. Sales of the $160,000 Continen-
tal GT coupe should top 5,000 cars this year -- more than 40% higher than
forecasted. "The Continental GT has a sense of exclusivity, like wearing a
designer brand," says Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Retail.
SLIDE SHOW: LUXURY CARS -- FROM STAID TO SEXY
By throwing off its pipe-smoke-and-Pimms image, Bentley has stolen the spot-
light from its super-luxe rivals, BMW's Rolls Royce and DaimlerChrysler's
(DCX ) Maybach. The irony is sweet. Volkswagen outbid BMW in 1998 to buy Rolls
and Bentley and their ancient British factory from Vickers PLC for $917 million,
with Rolls viewed as the crown jewel. But an odd twist in the deal allowed the
Rolls-Royce aerospace company to sell rights to the Rolls-Royce brand to BMW
out from under VW for a mere $78 million. Meanwhile, DaimlerChrysler opted to
compete by reviving a 1930s brand. They all came to market in 2003. BMW weighed
in with its Rolls-Royce Phantom starting at $320,000. DaimlerChrysler revived
a version of a prewar luxury nameplate, Maybach, at $318,000 per copy.
Bentley's choice was the most radical, pricing the GT at half the cost of its
competitors. Says James N. Hall of auto industry consultancy AutoPacific in
Southfield, Mich: "They took a stratospheric nameplate and made it attainable
for people who are wealthy and never considered Bentley."
BRAGGING RIGHTS
VW reached back 50 years or more to tap Bentley's pedigree as a consistent
winner at Le Mans. The less expensive Continental GT is the fastest four-seater
in the world, with a top speed of 198 mph. The coupe's 560 horsepower twin-
turbo engine takes the car from zero to 60 mph in a tire-screeching 4.7 seconds
. By contrast, the Rolls-Royce, which tops out at 149 mph, looks tame.
Attention to such bragging rights, combined with a sleek design, is
establishing Bentley as the "driver's car" in the field. "We really positioned
the car, and people got the message," says Bentley Global Marketing Director
Adrian Hallmark.
To reach car buyers with seven-figure incomes, Bentley ties into caviar events
lke boat shows and classic car meets. But Bentley also created anticipation
for the new GT with one of the longest time lags in recent memory between spy
photos of a new car hitting the Internet and cars arriving in showrooms. The
company's executives even held intimate dinners with loyal Bentley owners,
corporate chieftains, and celebrities to whet appetites and stir interest among
the fat-wallet brigade. And Bentley pairs up with other luxe brands such as
watchmaker Breitling, leaving GTs at the company's retail store in Las Vegas
to woo high rollers. "You'll never see Bentley advertising during Monday Night
Football," says David Coggins, Bentley's U.S. marketing chief.
"THE ODOR OF IRRELEVANCE"
The GT's fast start shows there's a market hungry for over-the-top luxury cars.
You wouldn't know that, though, from Rolls-Royce and Maybach in the early going
For the first 10 months of 2004, Bentley sold 4,200 Continental GTs, way beyond
the 3,500 it expected for the full year. By contrast, Rolls and Maybach, which
at twice the price insist they don't compete against the Bentley, will miss
their 2004 targets of 1,000 cars by miles. Rolls may pick up when a
convertible is launched, but suffers now from the debatable appeal of a nearly
three-ton sedan seemingly designed around the tastes of oil sheikhs and aging
dukes. It has also had to rebuild a global sales and supplier network from
scratch since VW won those assets in the deal that split Rolls from Bentley.
And despite Maybach's unique features, such as glass roof panels that tint at
the push of a button, the posh sedan is struggling for attention. "Maybach has
the odor of irrelevance, and it's not being talked about the right way," says
independent marketing consultant Dennis Keene.
Volkswagen Chairman Bernd Pischetsrieder, who ironically was head of BMW in
1998 when it snatched the Rolls-Royce name from VW, has to make VW's investment
-- nearly $2 billion -- pay off by raising Bentley sales to 10,000 cars a year,
up from 2,000 before the purchase. Given its new cachet, analysts say, Bentley
may well hit that number in coming years as new models come to market. Next
year it will launch a four-door sedan designed off the GT, and a convertible
the year after. The company's older Arnage four-door, which competes head-to-
head with Rolls and Maybach in the prestige "big car" segment, is already
benefiting from the glow of the GT.
A superluxury brand may need more exclusivity than the Continental GT provides;
for that there is said to be a a brand-new $300,000-plus convertible in
development. For now, though, Bentley is rebuilding the brand, very nicely,
from the bottom up.
By Gail Edmondson with David Welch in Paris
--
Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ...
all others are games.
~~~ Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
American novelist and short-story writer, 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.
--
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