Its here. The 2017 Bentley Mulsanne. New tech and some styling changes have been recently added to Bentley’s flagship sedan, the Mulsanne. Although there is no novelty about the engine, we can talk about the extended wheelbase version.
The Mulsanne took a lot of work to be completed, about 400 hours for assembly and painting. This is because all was done by hand.
Add another 12 hours for polish, and we can see the dedication and attention offered to this vehicle.
Exterior Design
Indeed, Bentley has a reputation to take care of and the Mulsanne had to exceed expectations.
Most of the changes that can be seen on the facelift include revised hood, lights, fenders bumpers, and stainless-steel grille. To give it a special touch and distinguish it from the rest of the luxury car service in the Bentley range, the new Mulsanne was embellished with the help of a flat, vertical grille inspired by old models such as the 8 Litre, Embiricos, and R-Type Continental.
The grille is flanked by the LED lights and the outer lamps include concealed washers. As for the vents on either side of the lower bumper, these have been placed on the corners.
The updated flagship Mulsanne features 20-inch wheels. 21-inch ones can be installed at extra cost and standard on the Mulsanne Speed.
Redesigned LED taillamps that incorporate a “B” element alongside a wider bumper are found at the rear.
Customers can choose from a wide range of over 50 colors, and also a two-tone paint for the exterior.
Interior Design
As for the interior design, this luxury car features the good old near-vertical dash covered in burl veneer, which, in fact, is characteristic to all British luxury vehicles.
If you’re ready to make an investment, you should know that you can choose from 13 available wood trim choices, while every single element of the interior surface is either covered in leather, wood, stainless steel or wool. And maybe you’d like to know the fact that it took the workers about 150 hours to handcraft the cabin.
Fluted or Quilted are the two new styles available that have been used to redesign the 14-way front and 8-way rear power seats. There are 24 color choices when it comes to leather upholstery.
And because we’re talking about Bentley here, of course all four seats come standard with ventilating, heating, and massaging functions.
Your rear passengers will be spoiled because they get their own illuminated fold-down vanity mirrors, extra 9.8 inches of legroom, their own separate sunroof, and separate controls for the quad-zone electric curtains, climate control, and folding tables.
Instead of the pointless rear middle seat, the extended wheelbase version comes with a console with USB ports, and pen holder, and a storage area covered in glass. And it also offers airline-style electronic leg rests that are integrate into the bases of the rear seats.
Bentley didn’t convert the instrument panel into all-digital and kept the analog speedo and tach with an extended TFT display between them; somewhat of a disappointment.
A nice feature of the Mulsanne consists in the fact that the fuel and engine temp gauges are found on the center console and not on the instrument panel.
The infotainment system offers an 8-inch touch-screen, but, sadly, the controls on the center console have not been modernized.
Gadgets
If you want an office on wheels then the Mulsanne is the car for you. It offers an integrated wi-fi hotspot, 60 GB of multimedia storage via a solid-state drive, and two 10.2-inch, 32-GB Bentley Entertainment Tables installed into the backs of the front seats that allow the rear passengers to access all the apps available on their smartphones. And what makes them even greater is that they are detachable so you can take them with you and work from the comfort of your home or during a meeting in the office. Visit www.SMM-World.com for more details.
The 2017 Bentley Mulsanne also provides electrically-deployed iPad picnic tables that feature Mac keyboards and a charging function.
Performance
This updated Mulsanne runs using the same 6.75-liter V8 inherited from the outgoing model with an output of 505 horsepower and a maximum torque of 752 lb.-ft. Considering the fact that this car weighs almost 6,000 lb., at 1,750 rpm, 60 mph comes in 5.1 seconds.
The 2017 Mulsanne has a fuel consumption of 11 MPG city and 18 highway due to new technologies such as cylinder deactivation and variable cam phasing added to the V8 engine.
On the other hand, Mulsanne Speed features a V8 engine that releases 530 horsepower and 811 lb-ft of torque, which helps this luxury car reach 60 in 4.9 seconds and a top speed of 190 mph.
An 8-speed ZF automatic transmission is used both by the Mulsanne and the Mulsanne Speed.
There is a dial next to the gear selector that helps you switch the Drive Dynamics Control system between Bentley (default option), Sport, Comfort, and Custom.
Safety
Because it’s a modern luxury car, the Mulsanne could not rebate from the high-end safety features. These include blind spot monitor, collision mitigation, adaptive cruise control with stop and go function, rear view camera, and front cross-traffic camera.
Aside from all these, the high beam assist system is the best of all because it not only switches from high to low beam when it detects traffic, but it also shifts the shape of the light beam.
Depending on the speed of the car, there are three different modes operated by the system: Town, Country, and Motorway.
We can admit the fact that the Mulsanne Speed is a beautiful beast despite the fact that it’s no racer.
What do you think about this new Bentley? Are its features attractive enough? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
