Is The New Bentley Mulsanne The World’s Most Luxurious Car?

You may never see a 2016 Bentley Mulsanne in real life. Bentley can only build about 1,000 copies of its flagship sedan a year, and at prices starting at $300,000, seeing one on American roads outside of the largest cities would almost count as a UFO sighting. And yet, what Bentley has done to remake the car as the most luxurious ride in the world speaks to some deeper truths about the cars we drive everyday.

Take the door handles. Car door handles today have to be plastic so that the signal from a key fob can penetrate and allow a smooth keyless entry. Bentley doesn’t really do plastic. Every piece that looks like wood and leather and crystal is just that in a Bentley, and so the door handles on the $300,000-plus Mulsanne are smooth ingots of chromed, signal-blocking steel.

But Mulsanne owners should be able to keylessly open their doors just as any Corolla owner can. To solve this, Bentley also put a chrome layer on the door’s scallop, and a knurled plastic window in the back of the pull. That scallop serves as a mirror for the signal from the key fob, bouncing it through the window to unlock the door. No other automaker goes to such trouble to make sure it’s owners never touch something fake.

The Mulsanne’s redesign successfully fixes the old’s model’s big flaw—that odd headlamp placement—while giving the car more of a commanding road presence. At the front, the new grille looks of a piece with the body rather than a Photoshopped addition; out back the new “B” shaped taillights could have been pure Velveeta, but have enough detail to look tasteful. There are now three distinct sub-models; the Signature and Speed editions will differ in some coloring and wheel choices, while the long-wheelbase model gets a more expressive rear door that adds to its luxury. Power as always comes from the 6.75-liter V-12, making 505 horsepower and 752 lb-ft of torque in the regular models and 530 hp/811 lb-ft of torque in the Mulsanne Speed, enough to toss two and a half tons of British land dreadnaught to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds.

(And there’s one more new model: a six-passenger Mulliner edition that’s a full three feet longer than a regular Mulsanne. Clearly aimed to fight for hauling the world’s billionaires and potentates with the Mercedes Pullman, Bentley already has an order for 12 copies of the stretched Mulsanne—from the same buyer.)