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Bentley SUV to get W12 engine

The Bentley SUV will get a W12 engine option Back in July we had the talkative Bentley boss Wolfgang Dürheimer musing that Bentley will produce the ultimate luxury SUV, with plans to take the underpinnings from sister company Porsche’s Cayenne and make the most opulent SUV on the planet. The plan for a Bentley SUV has been around for a while, but the perception by car makers that big SUVs were unpalatable to the general public in these eco-obsessed times meant plans by many car makers to build an SUV were left to gather dust on the shelves. But those car makers who chose to ignore the brickbats directed at big SUVs have proved that there is big demand for luxury monsters (the Cayenne has turned in to Porsche’s biggest cash cow) and that the anti-SUV lobby was simply a very small bunch of eco-mentalists making headlines.

New options make Prius pricey

High-tech features and luxury options will push the redesigned Toyota Prius into new territory--namely, $30,000-plus. The 2010 Prius hybrid will offer options found on luxury cars: systems that automatically park the car in a parallel parking space and slow the vehicle when a crash is likely. But Toyota is aware of a new competitor--the 2010 Honda Insight, a hybrid that is a little smaller and expected to be less expensive than the Prius.

Volkswagen trots out Mini Vader for Chattanooga plant inauguration

Volkswagen is hoping that a little advertising goes a long way. The company brought its Super Bowl star Mini Vader back for an encore during the opening ceremonies for VW’s new Chattanooga factory. The pint-sized Dark Lord gave a final blessing to the plant before pushing a red button to make things official.