Indulge your fantasies.
The Mulsanne is the ultimate Bentley sedan, combining tradition, engineering, and luxury. Its aluminum front fenders and composite trunk lid comprise a largely vain effort to save weight, but that hardly matters since there’s a twin-turbo V-8 under the hood sending an incredible 752 lb-ft of torque through an eight-speed automatic transmission. Bentley quotes a top speed of 184 mph, not bad for a 5700-pound sedan lined with your choice of eight wood veneers and twenty-four leather colors. Assembly specialists spend 170 hours handcrafting the interior of each car, and it shows in everything you see, touch, and smell. The infotainment system hides discreetly behind a power-operated veneered wood door. The rear-seat compartment has its own hidden treasures: the new $33,000 iPad package provides twin electrically powered picnic tables that deploy at the touch of a button to reveal two beautifully integrated iPads and Apple wireless keyboards for internet access via the Wi-Fi connection. Another new option is a cooler that stores two champagne bottles in a canted position (to keep two open bottles ready to pour) and three flutes hidden behind a powered glass door. Pile on the options, and the Mulsanne’s $300,000 base price quickly leaps toward the stratosphere, but who cares when you’re indulging your fantasies?
COMPETITORS
Rolls-Royce Phantom
A motor yacht
A small condo in Miami
new for 2013
A moonroof is now standard, a double-iPad package offers on-the-move Wi-Fi, a theater package has a 15.6-inch drop-down monitor and eight-inch headrest screens, and a cooler holds two open bottles of champagne. It’s good to be rich.
SAFETY EQUIPMENT
Front, side, and side curtain air bags; traction and stability control; ABS; a backup camera; and a tire-pressure monitoring system are standard. Precollision warning (part of the active cruise-control system) is optional.
MPG
CITY 11
HWY 18
PRO
Super-exclusive
Stunning build quality
Surprisingly athletic
CON
Stunningly expensive
Sucks gasoline like a 747
Can’t park it just anywhere
Base Price: $302,425
SPECIFICATIONS
DRIVE: Rear-wheel
TRIM LEVEL: Mulsanne
BODY STYLE: Sedan, 5-passenger
ENGINE: 6.8L twin-turbo V-8, 505 hp, 752 lb-ft
TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic
PASSENGER VOLUME: N/A
CARGO SPACE: N/A