Joan Lunden Behind Closed Doors: Bentley Motor Cars

here on A&E if wealth and power were to take the form of a car that car would be a Bentley please join us as we go behind closed doors and behind the wheel of the world's most expensive and exclusive automobile this English import is the ultimate status symbol on four wheels with a price tag to match the basic model will run you a quarter of a million dollars for that you'll get an engine with enough power to launch a three ton rocket a luxurious interior made with old-world craftsmanship and a classic body design that is the epitome of British elegance what all this equals is prestige who buys a Bentley describe your customer I think it's clients who appreciate really great machinery custom-made equipment anything that has a lot of handmade qualities so a person who owns a Bentley may just as well own a Gulfstream jet or a Learjet absolutely in a beautiful boat and wonderful watches the average Bentley owner has a net worth of nineteen million dollars do people tend to finance a Bentley or do they just pay cash probably half financed and half just write a check people just come in and write a check just write a check three four hundred thousand dollars well some people say we start closer to two hundred twenty-five thousand dollars so Bentley owners include a number of celebrities from Shaquille O'Neal to Ralph Lauren only seven hundred Bentley's are important to the u.s. each year here at the Bentley dealership in Greenwich Connecticut they sell around 30 a year now to some of your customers own more than one Bentley I have some customers that have seven eight nine so quite often they keep their Bentley's and keep ordering new ones yeah they get very attached to that cars and they even name their cars like you would name it a dog or a cat or a child yeah they name their cars you got it you got to know some of the names what are they um one is Maggie because that's the color of the car is Magnolia so then does someone call in and say Maggie needs to come in for a tune-up right so I have to get to know what their nicknames are you can buy a Bentley off the lot from the dealer but if you want the ultimate car made to your exact specifications you can go to Crewe England three hours north of London and the home of Bentley motorcars this 64 Acre Factory is where Bentley's and rolls royces heaven built since 1946 Bentley's have actually been around since 1921 when founder wo Bentley came out with his first model a race car called the silent sports car Bentley was sold to rolls-royce in 1930 it stayed that way until 1998 when Bentley was bought by the makers of the bug Volkswagen although it's owned by a German company once you step inside the factory there is a distinctly British atmosphere good morning welcome to Crewe and welcome any much customers the first thing you noticed behind these closed doors is that there are no massive assembly lines Bentley makes only 1,500 cars a year to put that in perspective General Motors produces nearly three million cars a year most of the motor cars in terms of competitors are very very very capable products in their own right but you don't get that sense of occasion that you get with it with a Bentley that shared delight Bentley prides itself on having the slowest assembly line in the world that's because much of the work here is done the old-fashioned way by hand each Bentley is custom-made from paint to leather to wood whatever the client wants they will accommodate every Bentley starts with a bare white metal frame the painting of which requires 120 separate processes and can take up to eight days as for colors the only limit is the buyers imagination we've had situations before where somebody's brought in maybe a bottle top or something from a perfume bottle it's a particular shade of a color and we will be challenged to match it and of course the customer will keep an exact replica of the same bottle top so then the car is delivered they can hold it up to the car and see if it matches and we've not been beaten yet when the paint job is finished every car is examined under high intensity lights for any imperfections before a 10 hour marathon of sanding and polishing that same meticulous attention to detail can also be seen in the wood paneling inside every Bentley it's about 13 days to produce the veneer interior because it's pieced together like a puzzle creating what they call a mirror image effect so if you were in the vehicle now this will be where the passenger is and this is where the driver is you can see that the mirror images are identical as you sit in the vehicle the left-hand side matches the right-hand side perfectly the upholstery in a Bentley can also be customized these craftsmen will use about 550 square feet of leather for each car's interior it can take up to 15 hours just to put the leather on a single steering wheel because they're all sewn by hand they're very impressive aren't they once they've finished and I don't think you really appreciate until they are finished how well they look because at the moment they lose pieces of leather on two wheels but when they actually come finished I think of a nice-looking job just thirty percent of those steering wheels will be installed on the right side of the car for their British customers the remainder will end up on the left side for American and other international clients the heart of any vehicle is the engine the first thing you notice about this one is it's big and so is the cost twenty five thousand dollars that's more than the cost of the average American car Bentley builds a most powerful motor of any car you can buy off the lot it's six point seven five liter turbocharged v8 engine has four hundred horsepower this is like a rocketship it's like a rocketship it goes 0 to 60 in approximately six seconds which is really fast for a car that weighs over six thousand pounds it's a very nimble motorcar it may be very heavy but it's hugely powerful and it can get you out of trouble just as quick as you can get you into trouble the standard Bentley comes loaded including a satellite navigation system but if you want an entertainment center on wheels you can add a TV DVD player refrigerator and bar they will also accommodate any number of security requests we can fit that right up to bulletproof and bomb-proof protection on the whole motorcar so it can be almost an armored car all these special add-ons can double or even triple the cost of the car after the vehicle is assembled each one goes through numerous tests that simulate a variety of road conditions every single Bentley is then taken for an individual test drive on the roads around the factory once they pass they're ready to go only eight cars are completed every day some are delivered directly to their new owners the remainder go to the Bentley dealers in more than 80 countries around the world all come with a few additional special touches but I wanted to see for myself all right I want to just check out the trunk okay Beverly absolutely because this is one of the interesting options umbrellas Bentley umbrellas I saw them listed at two hundred and twenty-five dollars that's right now something else that is different from most trunks and I'm doing this right is the pair of boy clothes just in case you have to change your tire you don't want to get oil or dirt on your hands very nice touch armed with the knowledge of what goes into every Bentley I was ready to take one for a test drive on the open road this model is called the ax juror my first impression was that I was driving a luxurious farmer tank it's a heavy car but when I stepped on the gas it felt like I was behind the wheel of a race car when we come back we get a sneak preview of a car built for a queen and it's a special driver's ed class from Bentley chauffeurs behind-closed-doors will continue in a moment here on Andy behind closed doors with Joan Lunden continues here on Amy most owners buy a Bentley because they can't wait to get behind the wheel but then there are some who are just along for the ride thank you at Bentley headquarters in Crewe England there's a long-standing tradition behind closed doors is an academy for chauffeurs which opened its doors in 1922 my name's Steve Tomlinson I'm gonna be your instructor for the week students come here from all over the world to learn the fine art of being a chauffeur it's a lot different to just drive in a car you need you need to know the personal requirements of the people that you drive in you need to understand the comfort levels of driving people long distances there's a lot more on your mind as you're driving along it's not just that trying to get it's ready to be class sizes kept small to allow for personalized training the week-long course covers everything from proper appearance if the boss decides that he wants you to wear the the flying trousers and the boots and the big gauntlets and whatever else then that's your uniform us but you're gonna have to wear but otherwise it would just be a dark grey suit white shirt dark tie to personal hygiene try to use unscented deodorant which will not overpower the scent some perfumes worn by our guests to the right way to hold the steering wheel to the correct way to open the door try not to look inside the car mow let the guests out chauffeurs are also expected to know the basic maintenance of a Bentley you're looking at $60,000 worth of damage we put the wrong royal in the wrong reservoir finally it's time to get behind the wheel out on the driving course students learn skid control and the special handling needed for a three-ton four-door sedan what weed seeds here is maneuverability so the people understand the width of the car the length of the car how much room you need to maneuver the vehicle it's a good safety lesson now as you come in through here John I want it to be no more than six inches away from this forward pole now if you stop there yeah yeah the poles are okay master saw a distance you want to be gay now the easy bit we're going to reverse all the way back through knowing how to get in and out of tight spaces in one of these cars could save thousands of dollars in paint and body repair just leave I've done pole that we're not gonna catch that one then the chauffeur's in training take a Bentley out on the road where they receive extensive driving lessons to get rid of mini from bad habits we're gonna do now is a nice comfortable stop so we're not going forward like nodding dogs yeah so just as we're about to stop just ease off the brakes just a little bit yeah and I'll stop that lurch forward don't we get left of that bounce that's it yeah the different situations call for different measures like what to do when the boss asks you to Florence if there's a good possibility it but a good show for make the boss think is going fast without actually going fast you know drivers anymore you know chauffeurs so remember you never stop learning well done thank you very much upon graduation these students are now ready to drive the rich and famous in style many of these chauffeurs will be driving the top-of-the-line Bentley limousines some of which cost more than a million dollars but under the influence of their Volkswagen owners Bentley is developing their version of an economy model the MSB starting at a mere 150,000 dollars we were permitted to see drawings of the new midsize car which will bring Bentley into the realm of what they consider mass production eight thousand cars a year we are entering basically in competition with with Mercedes BMW Jaguar and American brands of course as well which are in a higher luxury sector the NSB is expected to be in showrooms by the year 2003 at the other end of the price spectrum Bentley has been commissioned to design the new official car for Queen Elizabeth in celebration of the 50th anniversary of her reign the project we're doing for the Queen I would see as the the ultimate project a designer could possibly do for one of the wealthiest people in the world Bentley executives went to the palace to meet with Her Majesty to get her thoughts on the design for the new royal limousine she knows how motorcars you know she she learned to drive during the Second World War and drove ambulances she's a very good driver while the prototype was still under wraps designer dirk van brocco gave us exclusive access to the initial concepts and drawings i can only show that in covered form but I've brought a drawing along here which is actually more revealing of what the motorcar actually looks like this is the very first time that we actually revealed this image as well as the model believe me the factory is really buzzing it's buzzing at the moment because it's great that our queen he's gonna take one of our cars it's fantastic from car enthusiasts to heads of state the Bentley means different things to different people for some it's the craftsmanship of the artisans who build it for others it's the prestige the whether you're in the front seat or back it's a set of wheels you'll never forget I'd like to extend my personal thanks to all those who helped us gain unprecedented access to make this show possible please join us next time when once again we go behind closed doors for A&E I'm Joan Lunden

Channel: JoanLunden

Views: 3,475

Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5

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Id: B41V_d3-SEw

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 18 2016