It’s not as if it is mind-blowing hot looking.

Bentley shows $300,000 ‘difficult business case,’ the Mulsanne – Automotive News — You must assume that these geniuses had this thing in the works long before the collapse of the economy. Why it wasn’t simply scrubbed and the prototypes sold off is a mystery.

Recession or not, British luxury icon Bentley Motors Ltd. pulled the wraps off of a new flagship sedan here Sunday that will retail for close to $300,000.The Mulsanne, replaces the soon-to-be discontinued Arnage as Bentley’s global halo car in what the Volkswagen AG unit calls “the pinnacle of the ultra-luxury segment.”"There’s a very difficult business case for this car,” admitted Franz-Josef Paefgen, Bentley’s CEO. “The hope here is not to create volume, but to create a flagship.”

Bentley has suffered along with the rest of the auto industry over the past year. The brand swung to operating loss of 114 million euros $163 million at current exchange rates in the first half from a 85 million euro operating profit the year before.The company will likely sell about 5,000 vehicles in 2009, down from its peak of approximately 10,000 two years ago