Bentley Mulsanne - will help Bentley sales recover through 2010
Bentley CEO Franz-Josef Paefgen feels that the sales dip at Bentley is over and that buyers are starting to return to the showroom.
The world recession in the motor industry has affected Bentley badly. Very badly. Their sales have dropped to half what they were at the peak a couple of years ago (down to 5,000 cars a year from over 10,000) and at one point last year Bentley had its craftsmen at Crewe making furniture, so little real work did they have.
But Bentley – or certainly Bentley’s CEO Franz-Josef Paefgen – believe they have turned a corner and that buyers are starting to return. Herr Paefgen says that buyers in Europe and the US are starting – cautiously – to return to the showrooms and that China is ‘Exploding’.
He added that the Middle East market was stable and that the US ‘…had been difficult‘. ‘Had been difficult‘ is something of an understatement. Bentley sold 3,900 cars in the US in 2008. In 2009 they sold just 1,367 – a massive 65% drop. Difficult, by any measure.
But Bentley do have the luxury of a parent with deep pockets (VW) so painful though the dip is they have still pushed forward with new models, which will certainly help sales as buyers return. The new Bentley Mulsanne looks a terrific car; we’ve had the Continental Supersports (now with 4 seats) and the Continental Supersports Convertible launched in the last year and we’re due a revamped, 2011 Bentley Continental range this year.
But it will be interesting to see if Bentley sales fully recover in Europe and the US. Our money’s on China shining Bentley’s sales figures in the next few years.
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