Bentley Motors Limited is a British
manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs, founded by William Owen
Bentley. It was established in Cricklewood, North London. The first car to bear
his name emerged on the streets of London in 1919. From modest beginnings, the
company moved from strength to strength – in a relentless pursuit of both
luxury and performance. It is evident from the brand’s five victories at Le
Mans in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930 and its sixth victory in 2003.
Located in Crewe, England and owned
by Volkswagen AG since 1998, Bentley Motors remains the definitive British
luxury car company. It crafts the world’s most desirable high-performance grand
tourers.
Prominent models extend from the
historic sports-racing Bentley 4.5-litre and the Bentley Speed Six to its
current model line. The current models include the Continental Flying Spur,
Continental GT, Bentley Bentayga and the Mulsanne—which are marketed worldwide.
China was its largest market as of November 2012.
Today most Bentleys are assembled at
the Crewe factory with a small number assembled at Volkswagen's Dresden factory
in Germany. The bodies of the Continental and the Bentayga are manufactured in
Zwickau and the Volkswagen Bratislava plant, respectively.
In 2003, Bentley reached India by
appointing Exclusive Motors in New Delhi as its sole authorised dealer in
India. This became the first Bentley dealership in the country. In 2005,
Bentley went on to expand its footprint by opening its second dealership in
Mumbai. As of 2018, Bentley had 3 exclusive dealerships in India, with the
third facility set up in Hyderabad in 2017. Hyderabad had then accounted for
the greatest number of registered Bentley cars in the entire southern Indian
region.
Bentley had a rich heritage and a
strong association of the brand with the Royal Family of England. Therefore, Bentley
found good number of Indian buyers, selling 10 vehicles during its initial two
years of India operations. In 2005, with 2.5 crores worth of asking price,
Bentley car Arnage RL had found six potential customers. The company, however,
had allotted only 3 cars for sale in India. It resulted in some heavy premiums
being paid by the three bespoke individuals who bought the new Bentley car.
The first Bentley in India was the
Arnage R with a price tag of ₹2 crore. The entire range of Bentley cars, sold
in India currently, has been listed on this page below.
