We all know Bentley as a high-end luxury GT, sedan, or SUV, with cars like the Continental, the Flying Spur, and the Bentayga, but Bentley has been around for 101 years, and while at a certain moment in history, a Bentley was more or less a rebadged Rolls Royce, the marketing behind that idea was that you have a driver if you own a Rolls Royce while you drive a Bentley yourself, and generally speaking the Bentley counterpart was a more sporty version of the Rolls Royce version, but things have changed considerably over time, Rolls Royce being acquired by BMW AG while Bentley went to Volkswagen Group.
Historically a Rolls Royce would be marketed towards a more ‘aged’ group of people that have been wealthy for generations, while a Bentley would be more appropriate for the younger ‘new money’ individuals, but that also has changed with the Rolls Royce Ghost and Culinnan, many of which are being owned by so-called new money now too, and while you can spec a Bentley Flying Spur or Bentayga as a very classic beauty, you can get very sporty with carbon fiber and the likes, but what was Bentley like 100 years ago?
Let’s take a look at this 21-minute overview of the history of Bentley:
