15 Minutes in a Bentley Azure!!!

[mgescuro]

It's Memorial Day weekend and I'm part of my best friend's wedding as a groomsman.

He had the wedding at a very pricey, classy resort -- The St. Regis Monarch Beach -- http://stregismb.com
This place is a 5 star resort. Service in impeccable. And the cars that pull into the place are simply to die for. (I felt like a complete tool in my rental Taurus... )

As it is with most of these places, they park the REALLY nice cars out in front. By far the most impressive lineup I saw at one time was....

Quattroporte, Murcielago, Diablo, XLR-V (), Flying Spur, a Rolls (I don't know their lineup well), 612 SCaglietti, Azure, DB9. I was more shocked to see XLR-V. But it's nice to see Cadillac slowly but surely making inroads into this class of automobile. Oh... ironically enough, I saw ZERO Lexus... and tons of new DTS Executive cars. I wanted to take a picture sooo badly, but I didn't want to look like a pathetic gawker.

I was sitting at the Hotel bar, and chatting with one of th eother guests, and we started chatting cars. He's a fairly young guy... 34 years old, just spending time at teh ST. Regis to get away from it all. He asked me if I liked Bentleys. I told him I do, but I preferred the older designs to the new German influenced concotions. He did too. Then he mentioned he had just bought one and if I'd wanted to see it. But I figured, he'd have ConGT or something. Nope. He had the Azure that was sitting outside.

Just sitting in that thing was breathtaking. There is wood EVERYWHERE. THe leather was sooooo rich. The dials on the center stack and the IP were elegant and sophisticated. I think the arm rest comes from an A8... but stilll it fit the surroundings quite well

Performance was solid. Not neck-breaking speed, but you can feel the power the car has ready to unleash if needed. It's more of a cruiser with the top down. It's a car to see and be seen in.

It's VERY elegant and it was definitely an opportunity of a lifetime for me to just cruise around in that car!!!

To thank the guy, I bought him 4 rounds of scotch... and a $22 Kobe Beef burger at the resort. It was the VERY least I could do... and seeing as the scotch was $20 a glass ... my 15 minutes in an Azure cost me about $115 including tip.

Not bad.

[paul8488]

Ha! Cool 15 minutes man! When I read the title I thought you were all excited about sitting in a Hyundai Azera! Hahaha!

[mgescuro]

Originally Posted by paul8488

Ha! Cool 15 minutes man! When I read the title I thought you were all excited about sitting in a Hyundai Azera! Hahaha!

Ummm.... no. :p
I still haven't sat in an Azera... but I'm interested in seeing how it stacks up for myself.

Azure is a totally different car than Azera.... and entirely different level of excitement for sure!!!

[Bravada]

At first I thought the thread read "Azera" too and it will be a horror story like "a driver spent 15 minutes in the Azera and ran away screaming". I'm glad it isn't so - congratulations mgescuro!

The St. Regis here looks like almost like a Four Seasons! You surely had a great stay. As concerns the rental car, get some advice on renting cars from expyfan next time you are going to stay in a St. Regis :p

When I was a kid, my parents used to take us to the Netherlands to spend a month or so every summer. We stayed at Bastion Hotels (I recommend them to anybody looking for inexpensive and convenient accomodation in the Netherlands), so imagine my surprise when one morning we went to the hotel car park and next to our Astra stood THIS:


This might actually be the one, the colour fits and it also had some badges like that

By comparison - just a usual day at a Bastion Hotel:

[adaca]

There's a local dealership of new exotic vehicles that had their vehicles unlocked. Sat in a Continental when they were still using Rolls Royce engines. The carpeting was thicking than any house I've been to. It's so soft you could sleep on it comfortably. That's the closest experience I have to sitting inside I also did sat in a Gallardo and Murcielago at the same dealer, but got chased out by the salesman both times I also did get a 20+ min test drive in a Lotus Elise there too. They had a guy who's job was to take people on test drives and he was having more fun than me.

That aside, I see many Continental GTs in Singapore, the first "affordable" Bentley. These days, a lot of the people who can afford and want to buy these cars tend to be people who are middle aged, more likely with new money than old money. Bentley seems to have done a great job of capturing them with the GT.

[mgescuro]

Originally Posted by Bravada

At first I thought the thread read "Azera" too and it will be a horror story like "a driver spent 15 minutes in the Azera and ran away screaming". I'm glad it isn't so - congratulations mgescuro!

The St. Regis here looks like almost like a Four Seasons! You surely had a great stay. As concerns the rental car, get some advice on renting cars from expyfan next time you are going to stay in a St. Regis :p

Well, I did check out Jaguar S-Types at Hertz. And if they were $60 a day... I would have totally gone for it. I've seen them at those prices before. But they were $140!! Since I was paying $400/day to stay at teh St. Regis, I wasn't going to spend that much on a mere car.

Besides, the original plan was to drive down the California coast in the 9-5 or the XJ6... and I wouldn't have had a problem, but when teh time came, I really just didn't want to drive 9 hours... so I booked a flight.

But yeah.... the St. Regis is an impressive hotel.

Originally Posted by adaca

That aside, I see many Continental GTs in Singapore, the first "affordable" Bentley. These days, a lot of the people who can afford and want to buy these cars tend to be people who are middle aged, more likely with new money than old money. Bentley seems to have done a great job of capturing them with the GT.

ConGT's are beautiful cars. And they definitely skew to younger, new money type buyers. The guy I met at the St. Regis definitely fit that bill. He was only 4 years older than me... and defintiely wealthier. I had assumed at ConGT, even though he said he didn't prefer the German Bentleys all that much. Which made sense because sometimes peopel jsut buy the car for the image.

I was amazed when he took me to the Azure. Personally, I love the look of the "old-style" Bentleys over the German ones. And the Azure is simple amazing!!

[asim]

Originally Posted by paul8488

Ha! Cool 15 minutes man! When I read the title I thought you were all excited about sitting in a Hyundai Azera! Hahaha!

Whoo! Lets all go sit in an Hyundai! :sarcasm:

[jry]

Originally Posted by mgescuro

Ummm.... no. :p
I still haven't sat in an Azera... but I'm interested in seeing how it stacks up for myself.

Azure is a totally different car than Azera.... and entirely different level of excitement for sure!!!

that bentley was always on my wish list.

[TaHoE]

Originally Posted by mgescuro

Ummm.... no. :p
I still haven't sat in an Azera... but I'm interested in seeing how it stacks up for myself.

Azure is a totally different car than Azera.... and entirely different level of excitement for sure!!!

Don't. It's a disasterpiece. I still don't understand why MT and C&D marvel over the thing.

But congrats on the Bently! Very exciting indeed!

[steverino]

To thank the guy, I bought him 4 rounds of scotch... and a $22 Kobe Beef burger at the resort. It was the VERY least I could do... and seeing as the scotch was $20 a glass ... my 15 minutes in an Azure cost me about $115 including tip.

Geez, $13 tip on a $102 tab, what a cheapskate

[mgescuro]

Originally Posted by steverino

Geez, $13 tip on a $102 tab, what a cheapskate

Do the math... it's approximately 15%. The exact bill was $233... for 2 burgers and 8 glasses of scotch.

[powervette]

You laugh at Hyundai guys,but You surely forgot pictures of a Bentley Continental GT wearing Hyundai badges,that were on the net a few months ago:p

I am glad to hear there was a XLR-V parked there.I have an impression mgescuro that You changed the way You speak about XLR after You saw it among such beautiful machines as Maserati Quatrroporte
And I am not surprised there were no Lexus cars,somebody having a Toyota there would feel as bad as You in Your rental Taurus

[steverino]

Originally Posted by mgescuro

Do the math... it's approximately 15%. The exact bill was $233... for 2 burgers and 8 glasses of scotch.

At a place as classy as the St. Regis a tip would be minimum 20%, so you're looking at $245

but, I'll give you kudo's for the nice gesture.

[mgescuro]

Originally Posted by powervette

You laugh at Hyundai guys,but You surely forgot pictures of a Bentley Continental GT wearing Hyundai badges,that were on the net a few months ago:p

I am glad to hear there was a XLR-V parked there.I have an impression mgescuro that You changed the way You speak about XLR after You saw it among such beautiful machines as Maserati Quatrroporte
And I am not surprised there were no Lexus cars,somebody having a Toyota there would feel as bad as You in Your rental Taurus

Actually, I've always liked the way the XLR/XLR-V look on the outside. It's the inside that I have an issue with... though not as much as I do with STS.

My concern is (and has always been)... "Can Cadillac build cars that stand toe-to-toe with the best in the world??" Maybe not necessarily in refinement or "details" (not yet anyways)... but in sheer looks. And seeing an XLR-V sitting next to those undoubted world class cars, I have to say "YES." It looks like the XLR-V belongs in that class of vehicle.

No Lexus... and No Infiniti either. TONS of German and British cars... and the Executive DTS... which by the look of things is quickly taking the place of the Town Car. And I'm happy about that!!!

[mgescuro]

Originally Posted by steverino

At a place as classy as the St. Regis a tip would be minimum 20%, so you're looking at $245

but, I'll give you kudo's for the nice gesture.

OH believe me....I paid out enough for that 3-day weekend, $10 on the tip is nothing.
But you're right, I probably shoudl ahve padded a bit more. C'est la vie.

I'll chalk it up to being slightly hungover.