Bentley, and luxury cars generally, face life or death struggle
Neil Winton: European Perspective
One headline made me do a double-take at the annual Geneva Car Show early in March.
“Geneva 2008: Bentley to go 120 G/km by 2012″
Let me try and explain some of that gobbledygook. “G/km” is short for grammes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilometre. That’s European shorthand for how much a car apparently threatens the climate with its emissions of CO2. This formula is simply a more opaque way of expressing a more familiar measurement of miles per gallon. After quickly consulting my conversion table I can tell you that 120 g/km is really 46 miles per U.S. gallon.
Perhaps my astonishment is becoming clearer.
Neil investigates the European Union political emission rules in his article. He also covers the industries rage over this. His thoughts are provoking read further to see if radical change is needed. He ended his article with some statements from Autopolis’s Wormald (an activist? for hybrids and the emissions rules).
“The car will no longer be seen as a success icon.
“Luxury vehicle sales will be reduced and there will be a change of attitude to motoring and the use of cars; no more using cars as a prestige and status symbol,” Wormald said.”
I say PoPPyCock! to Mr. Wormald statement! I’ll will still want to drive one of those success icon such as the Bentley and Aston Martin. And DFW Elite Auto Rental will be the place for those success icons availability.
Terry on March 29th 2008 in Exotic Car Rental