Bentley comes to town

Calgary ready for $400,000 convertibles, Bentley judges
British luxury car company chooses 'top-tier' city for its fourth Canadian location
Last Updated: Thursday, March 8, 2007 4:29 PM MT
CBC News
The British luxury car company Bentley is rolling into Calgary, choosing the city for what will be only its second new dealership in North America in the past five years.
"Bentley is bringing its hand-crafted, luxurious and powerful automobiles to Calgary because of the city's position as a top-tier city in North America," the company said in a statement.
The company released details of the new dealership's Deerfoot Circle location during a press conference Thursday.
Three 2007 models were on display: a four-door sedan called the Continental Flying Spur for about $237,000, the two-door coupe called the Continental GT for about $238,000 and a Continental GTC convertible for just over $264,000.
Bentley also makes the Azure convertible, which sells for about $400,000.
"The nice attraction is having something that is very rare," said Calgary salesman Andrew Baker.
"There are probably going to be … somewhere around 200, 250 in the whole of Canada this year. If you narrow that down to Calgary, we are looking to sell somewhere between 35 and 40 this year."
Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are the only other cities in Canada to have Bentley dealerships.
The only other Bentley dealership to open in the past five years was in Florida.
Calgary's economy has been white-hot in recent years, as the oil and gas industry pumps money through the entire province.