Bentley prepares to weather a tough 2009

Ever since Bentley came out from under the shadow of Rolls-Royce after the Volkswagen takeover in the late 1990s, the marque has been on a roll. The venerable British brand started getting its first bespoke designs in over half a century, which paid off in a huge spike in sales. After topping 10,000 sales for the first time in 2007, Bentley is feeling the same force of gravity as everyone else (except Audi it seems) this year. So far sales have dropped by 30 percent in 2008 and the Crewe factory has already cut production by 15 percent. Further cuts are likely and Bentley is providing assistance to dealers who have too much inventory. With the situation on Wall Street unlikely to abate anytime soon, it appears that Bentley's 37 U.S. dealers will be feeling the pain for a while longer.


[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]