China has two types of vehicle maker – homegrown brands and importers.

‘Importer’ here means non-Chinese brands, ones we’re all familiar with. They’re not strictly importers, mind – Chinese law and economies of scale all means they actually build over there, too (by forming a joint venture with a home maker).

So, what were they doing at the Shanghai Auto Show this year? Providing us with a means of gauging just what the Chinese market is all about, mainly.

This is familiarity with a twist specifically for China. The differences provide a clear indicator as to what the Chinese market demands. So, to what was new at Shanghai Auto Show 2011…

Peugeot

Peugeot is planning 1 new model a year for China in the next few years. This year’s car is the 508, developed from scratch with China in mind. It joins the 207, 207 CC 308 CC, 308 SW, 408, 3008 and (soon) the RCZ in a surprisingly Euro-familiar line-up. A popular one, too: this year, Peugeot will sell 200k cars in China.

Peugeot also showed the SxC, fully designed in its China Tech Centre and displaying what China wants from a car. Hence, it’s a tall crossover, with a petrol version of the Hybrid4 drivetrain. With a 1.6 THP turbo, the four-wheel drive setup pumps out 313hp. Why no HDi engine? Because China’s predominately a petrol-driven market.

Subaru

Subaru chose China to reveal its compact crossover XV, again showing what’s important to Chinese buyers. The 2012 Impreza saloon and wagon? That was reserved for New York…

SEAT

SEAT is not yet in China: Shanghai 2011 was its debut. It plans to go on sale there next year, with exports of the Leon and Ibiza from the massive Martorell plant. This will give SEAT much-needed extra volume as it carries on justifying itself to VW Group paymasters.

It’s actually a good fit, though, said SEAT MD James Muir. China likes cars with young, sporty, design-led attributes, conveniently displayed in all SEATs. The market also likes distinctive European cars, with lots of performance and good dynamics. Hence, the late-minute China debut, using show stand real estate from brand partners Audi and VW.

Bentley

China was Bentley’s 3^rd largest market in 2012. In Q1 2011, it had already jumped up to second place, with 302 cars sold chalking up a 64% increase. That’s why Bentley’s expanding the dealer count by a third, and that’s also why it’s making a special Flying Spur China edition: China is the single largest market for Flying Spur.

The Mulsanne is also now going to China. Astonishingly, Bentley plans to ship 300 over there this year, ‘each one of them different’. These are rapidly becoming very big sales of cars that command very big price tags. Making Bentley another brand VW Group needs worry about no longer?

Audi

ANOTHER A3 concept saloon – yet another category Audi’s inventing (or, rather, reinventing)? It’s a petrol-electric hybrid, called e-tron, which can do 34 miles under electric power only, before the 211hp 1.4 TSI takes over. Behind the rear seats, there are 12Kwh of lithium ion batteries, but this doesn’t affect interior space: Audi’s given it the longest wheelbase in the compact sector, for bags of rear passenger knee room.

China, of course, likes saloons. Thus, a prediction: the Chinese market is going to lead to more ‘world’ compact saloons such as this. Making that VW Derby prescient?

Volvo

Massive 5 metre long Volvo Concept Universe previews the replacement for the S80. But, because it’s massive, it’s also THE perfect car for China, even though Volvo says its plan is to make world cars. It’s in China first to gauge what ‘the most demanding Chinese customers think’: an illustration of the market’s importance is that Europe and the US will have to wait. Volvo will show it in these markets. But only once China’s seen all it wants…

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce is another posh Brit brand going great guns in China. That’s why it’s showing the Ghost Extended Wheelbase there for the first time – even though it don’t be ready for series production until 2012. It’s the first Rolls-Royce ever to be revealed in China, ‘underlining the strategic significance of the market and the Asia-Pacific region’. 170mm in the wheelbase means a doubling of rear knee room: just what well-heeled Chinese buyers are after.

That’s not all. There is a bespoke China Edition Phantom, with a red interior, twin gold coach lines, gold-plated Spirit of Ecstasy and stainless steel pinstripes. In a nutshell, revealing what Chinese buyers like in a car. There are more models from the Centenary Collection (marking 100 years of the Spirit of Ecstasy) too – China is the biggest market for these specials.

Oh, China is also the biggest market for bespoke Phantoms, too. To help buyers choose, Rolls-Royce is expanding from 8 to 11 dealers, which will be the highest number in a single market, and second only to the US. Power to you, Goodwood.

Land Rover

Land Rover sales rose 59% in China last year – it’s the firm’s fastest-growing single market. Thus, the appearance of the uber-expensive Range Rover Autobiography Edition. China loves this edition, which sees each single model crafted  to the customer’s specification. 50 have already been sold in the US. How many in China? 150…

Kia

Further proof the compact saloon is back comes from Kia. The K2 is a stretched, widened Kia Rio platform build especially for China. Is Audi’s trend already being followed?

Friday 18 March

15:00 – Delivered: Bentley Continental GT. It’s not a Comic Relief wind-up, either; I really do have a Conti GT for the next 6 days. What to do with it? Why, go to Tesco. Start slowly and all that: it is Friday rush-hour, after all.

See a Flickr Set of my time in the Bentley Continental GT

17:35 – Need a drink. Conti GT is lovely, of course – incredibly lush auto, smooth and woofling power delivery, extremely crisp steering at slow speed, extreme visuals and THE most tactile interior around (it way, WAY outclasses a Porsche or Ferrari here) – but, my: is it stresful to drive when it’s busy! £150k, first time in the car and people both pointing AND looming towards your wide, expensive, brand-new Bentley does not make for a relaxing drive. Squeezing it between the wall on the drive has near finished me off. Relax, for now: many miles will be put in over the weekend.

Saturday 19 March

06:00 – I’ve been staring at it all night through the window. Musings? Classic British style dictates pumped muscularity and Brutish beef rather than Germanic clinicalness or Italian fuss. The Bentley has this in abundance. Ripped? You bet. It’s the Jason Statham of cars.

06:55 – On a promise: girlfriend Tam has said I can show her the full-on 0-60 dash, just the once. ‘K then…

08:40 – Slight issue: current average eco showing 12.9mpg. That’s being steady, too. Yikes.

13:00 – A morning in the Bentley and everyone loves it. Dad likes the W12, the wheels, the 4wd – but, most of all, the double glazing. There was me thinking he’s a tech-head, too.

14:00 – The key is impressing everyone. OK, deep down, it’s a VAG flip – but no Golf key has ever been this weighty, tactile and lush. Everyone’s copping a feel.

17:00 – Trip up the M5, at motorway speeds, 4-up. Economy? 20.0mpg. Better than last night’s 12mpg. Improvement, indeed, of 65%.

17:30 – Drop mother off after a run out, and dad’s there to greet. As a treat, I blast away ‘fruitily’: the exhausts sound delicious to me from inside… will find out what he made of ‘em later.

19:10 – Jumped in to take a picture of the clock, for Twitter pal @renaultvelsatis. The weight of the doors strikes me (they have closure-assist, luckily), as does the length of the opening and the smooth firmness of the leather seats. Above all, though, it’s the smell: perfumed leather gives a drawing room luxo overload. Also, I have my slippers on: means I sink into the deep, deep wool floormats… man, this car is luxury.

Sunday 20 March

08:00 – Palming through town, it’s SUCH an easy, wieldy car to drive. I’m now over the fright of the £150k price tag, and finding it wonderfully fluid and accurate to place. This must be why footballers have ‘em – well, that, and the firm, supportive, high seats (with, yes, massage function). Who needs a physio.

11:25 – Back from a blast with dad. It’s a childish pleasure, making your parents speechless – this time, it’s in a good way, as I deployed all 575hp out of a junction, uphill. It absolutely takes off, like a rocket; you can FEEL the traction, feel the tyres bite, hear not a squeak of squeal. There’s just the slightest delay while the turbos spool, and then you’re away.

11:40 – Realise something else – how joly hard it is to restrain the Conti when you’re pedalling. Low down, it’s torque, that gets you moving – but as the revs rise to 4000rpm-plus, and the speed starts to get silly, there’s the impression of a huge mass that’s got huge momentum, and doesn’t really want to be stemmed at all. Normally, it feels ‘safer’ to slow down. With this, you simply feel more impenetrable, the faster you go. Remarkable.

15:00 – Naim stereo costs £5200: jolly nice it is too, with good clarity and depth. Shame it can’t quite handle the bass of Kraftwerk, though. On Tour de France, the rear trim was vibrating to the bass in a manner not dissimilar to my friend’s old Vauxhall Nova SR.

15:30 – Off to Bentley Bridge, for a shopping trip and a photoshoot. No signs, alas, and shopping isn’t a success, either. I’m also reminded of how big the Bentley is again. On the road, it’s shrunk, as I get used to it… dipping into a busy Sunday afternoon car park immediately alerts me to a turning circle that needs space. Sorry, other drivers, who had to reverse back for me…

20:00 – Fuel economy seems to have settled at 17.5mpg. That’s near bang on the official average of 17.7mpg, and much better than the 12mpg it was showing when I first got it. I work my magic… but do I have the depth of sorcery to get it up to 25mpg?

Monday 21 March

05:00 – Early start and there’s no waking the neighbours with the Bentley: it surely has one of the slickest starter motor whirrs around. No raucous exhaust blast either, a la Ferrari/Audi RS5/etc: a beefy, bassy burble fires through instead. Such a nice car to palm through town at this early hour – stereo off to appreciate the refinement, particularly from road, wind and other traffic noise.

14:00 – Noticed this morning the xenon-bright lighting in the boot. Bit like that in new Ford C-Max, it is vivid-bright and only adds to the decadence of the wool-lined luggage bay. £5200′s worth of Naim sub looks pretty full on, too.

18:20 – ZF auto ‘box is a trinket. Pull-aways are extremely smooth and cushioned, in a kind of ‘crisp-yet-damped’ way: the right side of absorbent without being lax or soggy. Same gies for the gearchanges, which are swift and totally without hesitation.

Tuesday 22 March

05:00 – There is no richer exhaust startup than the Bentley. It’s not harsh or aggressive, simply creamy as hell and impossibly sonorous.

05:20 – Back home and I’m conscious of how vivid the rear horizontal brake bar is. That, and the massive tail lights, means a night-time visual ID you can see from space. It’s also struck me how ‘orange’ the indicators are, especially the front LED winkers. Proper Tango-ey.

13:00 – Save fuel by cycling to lunch. Come back and notice how pronounced the rear bootlid line is – inspired by the sticky-out bit of the new Mulsanne, and much more distinctive than the old Conti GT.

18:00 – Fuel fill for tomorrow. Sticking the nozzle into the horizontal-flat filler is special, retro and different to any other car apart from a 911. Shame there’s such a distressing lack of sync between the rate of litres and rate of pounds. 90-litre fuel tank means… well, you don’t want to know. Amex is only too aware already.

Wednesday 23 March

04:45 – Even earlier doors as it goes back tomorrow – so I’m taking it down to the office for the chaps to have a go. And what better way to do it, than with an impromptu economy run. It’s the only way I’ll be able to ‘see what she’ll really do’ while staying within the realms of the law.

06:55 – 24.3mpg, that’s what she’ll do. DOUBLE what it was doing upon delivery – and that was over a 94-mile average run. Albeit one messing with the trucks at 50mph…

BENTLEY’S Continental GT amazed me in many ways. Even though I’m not a Premiership footballer, I still quite fancy one.

But, in two respects, it’s bad. Very bad.

Fuel economy.

Obviously so on this one. It does, after all, have a huge W12 engine, fed by turbos, hauling along a hugely heavy car that’s encumbered with four-wheel-drive. Mighty, it sure is: here’s the price.

But there’s more.

Bluetooth. Yes, it has it. But it’s staggeringly bad.

I tried it out. Went like this:

•    Find Bluetooth on menu. Eventually.
•    Decipher how to pair Bluetooth with phone. Eventually.
•    Set Bluetooth to discover phone. Does so. Eventually.
•    Find you’re presented with 12-digit pairing code between phone and car.
•    Use torturous turn-and-scroll wheel to do this. Eventually.
•    Be presented with an error message.

That’s right – a heinously complex process, that didn’t work! I was staggered. Particularly as Bentley is, somehow, having the brass neck to charge big for this.

Contrast this to my Volvo long-termer. There, I paired the phone with the car with ease. Took 30 seconds, simple as pie.

And then? Every time I now get in, it pairs automatically. So long as Bluetooth’s activated on my phone, it pings up in the car. Calls fed through speakers, controls mastered by steering wheel buttons, the lot.

This is technology that works. That someone’s thought about, and a team of engineers have tirelessly perfected.

Bentley? That smacks of a box-tick. A plug-in module that the marketing team said had to be fitted, so was done so, but with no understanding or consideration.

You get this a lot on cars. But, £130k ones? That’s a surprise. Bentley needs to give this bad Bluetooth a tug.

Bentley Continental GTC Speed photo stream on Flickr

Just how loyal are the super-rich?

Fuel economy economical with the truth?

Want to see what I’ve been up to on my latest launch event? Well, check out my Bentley Continental GTC Speed photo stream on Flickr.

And be sure to come back here over the next few days. As ever, I’ll be charging through all my notes and feeding back to you.

Check out the images for a feel of what was what in Crewe!

What do I expect from the Bentley Continental GTC Speed? Something very, very fast, that’s what.

Last year, I drove both the standard Continental GT Coupe, and the livened-up Speed variant. Both worked together, to turn me from a Conti skeptic into a convert.

First thing I did when I got back home was check out Auto Trader, to see how much early-gen ones went for. (£40k and no I can’t, to pre-empt any questions).

The Speed line, which brings more power, sportier handling and subtly enhanced looks, has already instantly won the majority of GT Coupe sales, and is doing similarly good business for the Flying Spur saloon. Now, it’s the turn of the GTC Convertible.

Coupled with a mild facelift for the 2010 model year, Bentley’s given us the full fat 600bhp Speed drop-top 2+2, creating its fastest-ever convertible in the process. 200mph do ya?

The overriding impression I took from the GT Coupe was one of completeness. This really was a car that tuned into my psyche – it wasn’t particularly overtly sporting, or dramatic, or intense. It was just ‘nice’. Accurate, agile way (way way way) beyond its size and weight, and generally pretty lush.

I blow hot and cold with convertibles. Currently, I’m on a downer with them – preferred the BMW Z4 when it was imitating a Coupe rather than being a Roadster. How will I get on with the Bentley, then? Well, by now, I’ll already know. And will be letting you know in due course…

Bentley customers are, sometimes, a loyal bunch. 82 per cent of those who bought, back in 2006, an original GTC still own the car.

Why the ‘sometimes’ proviso? Because that’s for the GTC range, Bentley Board member Stuart McCullough revealed. If you’re looking at the Flying Spur, of course, the loyalty rates are even higher. Customers hold onto their cars for years.

The coupe, however, is different. Such is the fast turnover trend in the market, Bentley Continental GT buyers, on average, keep their car for just 11 months. Less than a year!

That’s the luxury car market for you. In certain sectors, it really is less about the car, and more about what’s ‘new’.

Could part of Bentley’s current troubles run deeper than the credit crunch, then? Be down to the fact its Continental GT is getting on a bit nowadays?

Judging by all the activity at the Crewe HQ, I’d wager the maker realises this, and has been working on the solution for years now… ‘new product is always crucial, a spokesman told me.

‘We’re going to be moving the Bentley story on in due course…’

Watch, he implored, this space. OK…