Here's All The Discounts Luxury Brands Are Offering Right Now

Great deals are to be found this time of year.

It’s that time of the year. The holiday season is fast approaching but, above all for automakers, the end of the year is only a few weeks away. That means it’s time to not only get rid of excess inventory but also to aim for a strong end of year finish. BMW, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz know all about this. And speaking of those luxury brands and some of their competitors, Cars Direct has discovered that many are offering some pretty sweet deals right now on many of the most popular premium cars and crossovers.

Here's several luxury makes and models that are very likely experiencing the best prices they've had all year. If there was ever a time to buy or lease, it's now. Remember, if you snooze you lose.

Audi

Thanks to a Season of Audi Credit when buying or leasing a vehicle, you can now get a $1,000 credit on either a 2018 or 2019 Audi Q7. The 2018 A4, A5 Sportback and Q5 are also each be offered with a $750 credit. The A3 sedan has a $500 credit of its own, while the Q5 has an additional $2,000 off. Note that Audi is offering dealers unadvertised incentives from $1,000 to $17,500 on select models. Of course, the amount you could save will likely vary from dealer to dealer, so it’s best to shop around.

Cadillac

Cadillac is really pushing end of the year deals. For example, you can buy a new Escalade SUV with as much as $7,000 off, depending on trim. That figure could potentially increase to $10,000 if you plop down a $2,000 down payment and finance through GM Financial. If you don’t want a big SUV but still like to sit up high, the XT5 is also being offered with some attractive discounts, like $2,000 in rebates on select trims. If you were to trade in a competitor and also finance through GM Financial, another $2,000 could be slashed. Lastly, there’s a $3,000 Flex Cash incentive. Do your homework, put your bargaining face on and you could drive home quite happy.

Jaguar

Fancy a new XE, E-Pace, F-Pace, or even an F-Type? Jaguar is now offering its Winter Sales Event bonus which entitles buyers to a $1,000 discount on a 2018 or 2019 XE or E-Pace. There’s another $3,000 discount option happening for the latter. The F-Pace has a $1,500 discount of its own that can also be combined with another $1,000 bonus. As for that F-Type, how does an $11,000 discount sound? We thought so. And yes, this applies to the supercharged V8 F-Type. The turbo four and supercharged V6 variants each have a smaller but still solid $8,000 discount.

Lexus

Lexus is no stranger to end of the year deals. Remember its December to Remember sales event? It’ll soon be back and there’ll be 0 percent financing and extra cash offered. Several 2018 models, including the IS, RX, and LS are eligible for 0 percent APR for 60 months. However, there’s a bit of a catch. If you go with the financing you could potentially be sacrificing other attractive rebate offers. Here’s one example: in California, a 2018 LS is eligible for a $5,000 discount plus another $3,000 when trading in a competitor for a total of $8k in savings. Your call.

Mercedes-Benz

The German automaker is bringing back its attractive low APR after over a year of no factory financing. For example, you can get 1.99 percent APR for 72 months on the 2018 and 2019 C-Class sedan or 2.99 percent APR on a 2019 E-Class sedan and the GLC. Prefer to lease? No problem. The 2019 GLA 250 Premium is receiving a $20/month price reduction for a final price of $359 a month for 36 months, but there’ll be $3,707 due at signing. You could also look at the offer like this: with its effective cost of $462, a new GLA is only $8 a month more expensive than the CLA 250.

All Car Brands In The World

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Bentley Continental GT First Edition Celebrates The Brand’s British Roots

Just when you thought Bentley's luxury grand tourer couldn’t get any more quintessentially British.

Cars don’t get much more quintessentially British than the Bentley Continental GT. While orders for the all-new luxury grand-tourer have yet to be delivered to customers, Bentley has launched a special First Edition of the new Continental GT that commemorates the brand’s British roots and adds additional standard equipment. Bentley describes the Continental GT First Edition as the “ultimate expression of the Grand Tourer” that “represents the pinnacle of Bentley craftsmanship, handcrafted and designed in Great Britain.”

Admittedly, the cosmetic changes aren’t immediately obvious. Squint, and you may notice the unique 22-inch wheels in bright paint, black and hand polished or fully polished finishes, and the oil and filler caps now have a swanky jewel-finish as part of the Mulliner Driving Specification included as standard. Elsewhere, a discreet Union Flag has been added to the front fender and interior dashboard. Inside, the Bentley Continental GT First Edition is appointed with a diamond-in-diamond quilt pattern on the seats, door panels and rear quarter panels, all featuring unique contrast stitching exclusive to the Continental GT First Edition.

Customers can also choose between one of four unique veneers for the dashboard fascia: Tamo Ash, Liquid Amber, Dark Stained Madrona, and Dark Fiddleback Eucalyptus, combined with Grand Black which is also exclusive to the First Edition. Bentley says these premium finishes help make the sumptuous cabin appear even more spacious. Further enhancing the plush cabin is mood lighting and illuminated sills emblazoned with ‘Bentley’ which is visible when opening the doors. Also included is the brand's Rotating Display allowing the driver to switch between three different fascia panels ranging from a 12.3-inch touchscreen, three analogue dials, or veneer-only.

The latter is only available when the engine is off. The Continental GT First Edition is also generously equipped: as standard you now get parking assistance, pedestrian warning and traffic sign recognition. Bentley’s 650 watt audio system can also be upgraded with either a Bang & Olufsen system with 1500 watts, or the top-of-the-range Naim audio system with 2200 watts designed for true audiophiles. The specification of the Continental GT First Edition was curated by the award-winning Bentley design team, but the automaker isn’t saying how many examples will be produced of the limited edition grand tourer.

The Four Brands VW Could Clump Together For Super-Premium Spin-Off

And it could be worth how many billions?

Volkswagen is still working to recover its reputation and other related spending in the wake of Dieselgate, and launching an entirely new line of state-of-the-art electric vehicles is just one way of doing that. While we’ve heard some past rumors regarding this, it seems like there’s a fairly good chance VW may be open to selling shares in a potential new super-premium brand group.

Speaking to Bloomberg, VW Group chief financial officer Frank Witter acknowledged that the world’s largest automaker remains opens to the possibility of selling shares of a potential new ultra-premium brand consisting of Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and Porsche. Doing so could generate billions of dollars. However, VW has yet to make a final decision.

"It is a legitimate question, without a doubt,” Witter said last week at an investment seminar in London. Spinning off those brands as a single clump isn’t entirely without precedent. FCA is the best example when now-former CEO Sergio Marchionne made the decision to spin off Ferrari a few years ago. It has been an extraordinary success so it’s not surprising other automakers may take a similar path.

However, VW is not in any immediate rush. Perhaps the main reason being is that it’s currently preparing to spin off its heavy-trucks division for an IPO. It also wants to make its current 12 brands work together more efficiently. "Every other consideration might be down the road, but it’s currently not a priority the management is working on,” Witter added.

Now that VW’s new CEO, Herbert Diess, has had a few months in the big chair, it’ll be interesting to see what corporate structural changes he’ll make, if any. At the moment, for example, Lamborghini is tied to Audi, but that could change. Diess may ultimately decide to further link Lamborghini with Porsche, and then combine them with Bentley and Bugatti, as stated above.

By acting as a separate entity from the more mainstream VW brands, would allow those four premium brands greater autonomy to act in their more specified interests, potentially allowing for faster innovation and model development.

This premium division could be valued at more than $139 billion, twice that of the entire group’s current evaluation. See the attraction now, if you didn’t before?

Ford Mustang, lone survivor of brand's car cull, takes on bigger role

Ford Mustang, lone survivor of brand's car cull, takes on bigger role

DETROIT — After 10 million vehicles over 54 years, the Mustang remains one of the most vital nameplates in Ford's stable.

It's Exhibit A for what the Ford brand wants to stand for: bold, emotional designs that elicit passion among its customers.

The rest of its cars lack that cachet, which is why, after the Fusion sedan disappears from showrooms early next decade, the Mustang effectively will be Ford's last car standing as the brand shifts to a lineup dominated by pickups and utility vehicles.

Now, Ford is trying to re-create that Mustang magic in its crossover and SUV lineup. One vehicle in particular, a yet-to-be-named battery-electric crossover, was heavily inspired by the Mustang; Ford floated the name Mach 1 for it this year, though the production version is likely to get a different moniker.

"It's core to what people see Ford as," Carl Widmann, the Mustang's chief engineer, told Automotive News. "We wanted a vehicle that would draw people to the showroom floor. There's clear evidence that's the case."

The Mustang has been the best-selling sports coupe in the U.S. since its redesign in 2014. Ford began selling the Mustang globally in 2015 and now sells it in more than 140 markets, including China, Germany and Australia.

Despite the Mustang's importance to the company, CEO Jim Hackett reportedly pushed back the seventh-generation program by about a year.

A redesigned Mustang now is expected in 2021. The car rides on an exclusive rear-wheel-drive platform but could move to one of the company's five new modular architectures, presumably the rwd/all-wheel-drive unibody underpinnings it would share with utilities such as the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator. That would give Ford the option of building an awd pony car for better handling in winter and to compete with the awd version of the Dodge Challenger that launched in 2017.

The company also plans the first Mustang hybrid, set to arrive in 2020.

Members of the Mustang team were mum on details about the next-generation car but said the move to a modular architecture won't hurt their design creativity.

"Mustang is still going to be a strong, well proportioned vehicle," the Mustang's chief designer, Darrell Behmer, said. "The modular architectures will still give us flexibility; it's not going to bastardize Mustang."

'A tremendous trick'

Widmann said the move won't fundamentally change the car.

"The general layout of rwd has morphed over time, but it's still the general architecture that it has been," he said. "In the architecture world of a rwd — which you're going to end up with a rwd architecture — I think these pieces of it are pieces that will always work. As you tune it and put a top hat on it, you can get different combinations and can define a lot of the emotion."

The current-generation Mustang resonates so well, Widmann said, because of its styling, diverse powertrains and driveability on or off a racetrack.

The team worked to give the 2015 model a more aggressive look while keeping traditional design elements. The vehicle's footprint was unchanged, but the roof and hood were lowered about 1.2 inches. Visibility also was key, Widmann said, as the team tried to maintain the previous generation's proportions.

"It's critical to always have the ability to keep theme elements but not be stuck in a rut," Widmann said. "It's a balance of not being caught in the past but still moving forward, which is a tremendous trick."

Ford has made incremental improvements since the 2015 redesign, adding a 10-speed automatic transmission and dropping the V-6 engine in 2018. It also has reintroduced special editions, including the Bullitt and California Special, and revived performance variants such as the Shelby GT350 and Cobra Jet.

Although U.S. sales are down 4.8 percent this year to 48,362 through July, the car is outselling its chief rivals: the Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro.

"It's the heart and soul of Ford," Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, said at a celebration this month of the 10 millionth Mustang produced. "It's one of the reasons why we're different and it continues to inspire other vehicles in the lineup."

Performance and utility

The Mustang-inspired electric crossover, due in 2020, likely will borrow heavily from the pony car's front-end design and combine the performance of an EV with the utility of an Explorer-like crossover.

Just don't expect it to be called Mach 1, a name Ford used for a Mustang performance option at various times from 1968 through the 2004 model year.

"We put that out there to evaluate it," Farley said of the name. "There are pros and cons. I don't want to handicap it at this point, but we got a very strong reaction from people."

After Ford released a teaser video for the vehicle this year, one YouTube user responded: "If they end up calling an SUV a Mach 1, I will never buy a Ford car or truck as long as I live. Blasphemy!"

Another added: "As a man who owns a 2003 mach 1 5-Speed, I am DISGUSTED. The mach 1 is the most iconic stang and you're disgracing its name with this. Shame."

Regardless of what name Ford picks, people who have helped shape the Mustang are excited by the prospect of expanding its DNA to other vehicles.

"Mustang has a soul. It's a balance of performance and design," Behmer said. "If you can capitalize on the cachet and let that rub off on the rest of the portfolio, it's a good thing."

You can reach Michael Martinez at mdmartinez@crain.com.

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