- Bentley is using an eye-popping Bentayga to show clients its personalization options.
- The Mulliner team painted the SUV Candy Pink and trimmed it with cherry blossom leather.
- Seven out of 10 new Bentley customers specify at least one special Mulliner feature.
It’s not enough to own an off-the-peg Bentley in 2025. Maybe it was 25 years ago when the company sold around 1,500 cars but today, when annual production is seven times higher, there’s a much bigger chance of bumping into another almost identical car. Which is one of the reasons 70 percent of new Bentley orders contain some kind special touch from the automaker’s Mulliner division. These customers don’t just want to buy Crewe’s finest – they want to create their own distinct car.
This growing push for personalization – and it’s one all luxury automakers are capitalizing on – is something of a double-edged sword, though. While pandering to customers’ every wishes generates a ton of extra cash, there’s going to come a point when you’re asked to do something you really don’t want to because it’s not a good fit for the brand. But if you turn the work down, you risk losing touch with some wealthy customers and pushing them into the open arms of the aftermarket industry or, worse, rivals.
Related: Bentley Owners Splurge $43,000 On Options For Every Car Even Before Mulliner Extras
The Bentayga you see in these images is a case in point. What could have been a fairly elegant (or boring, depending on your position) EWB Azure in a subtle shade of metallic blue ended up the color of a Barbie lunch box after a visit to the Mulliner workshop.
Its American owner asked for the SUV to be painted in Candy Pink, which looks marginally less horrific than it could have thanks to the decision to also equip the Bentayga with the Blackline option. This removes all traces of traditional chrome and adds black coloring to the door handles, exhaust tailpipes, lamp bezels, lower grilles, roof rails and wing vents.
Pink and black feature again inside, though perhaps mercifully, it’s the black that takes the lead here, pink being restricted to smaller sections of cherry blossom hide and various bits of stitching. Bentley says its customers are “encouraged to participate in the design of unique vehicles” as part of a process Mulliner terms ‘Co-Creation,’ and you wonder how much steering the designers had to do to keep the project looking even vaguely tasteful.
Whatever you, or the Mulliner team, think of the the color choice, you can be sure this Bentayga was built to the same high standards as any other commission. And I’ll admit it’s kind of fun to see one of Bentley’s stately SUVs in such an unusual set of clothes. The world would be a boring place without people like the lady who ordered this EWB and clearly knows her own mind.
Do you think automakers like Bentley should turn down customization requests like this, or are they right to indulge their customers’ wildest fantasies even if they’re don’t seem aligned with the brand’s values? Leave a comment and let us know.
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