This Much I Know: Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen
Chairman and CEO, Bentley
By Paul Horrell
Photography by the Manufacturer
After studying mechanical engineering and economics, Franz-Josef Paefgen started his career at Ford of Germany in 1976, but moved to Audi in 1980. He joined the Audi board of management in 1995 and was made chairman in 1998. He became chairman and CEO of VW Group-owned Bentley Motors in March 2002.
Continental GT buyers are different
They're 10 years younger, in their mid-40s rather than mid-50s. Their net worth is $3 to $5 million rather than $20 million, and they own about two other cars rather than five in their fleet. Those are the statistics. But as personalities, the Arnage owner is less volatile, whereas the Continental GT customer follows trends. Many will go away after a year, which is why we're launching the Continental Flying Spur right now. But for the GT, we'll get a steady stream of other customers, people different from those early buyers.
The Continental Flying Spur won't hurt the Arnage
You need much more self-consciousness to drive an Arnage, to arrive in it. You need to support an Arnage with your personality. Few customers choose between the highest-spec Flying Spur and the lowest Arnage. We always said we'd be a two-car-line company. The volume is in the Continental, but the big cars, the Arnage range, are a substantial part of our image. Well, we call them our big cars. Actually, all our cars are big. Let's say big and very big. The Arnage is all about presence, style, and reliability. It has no gimmicks. When we built that limousine for Her Majesty the Queen, it had only a stereo, air-conditioning, and electric seats.
An Arnage Convertible makes sense
We're collecting deposits [for it], but haven't formally decided to go ahead. The plan is to start building--if it gets the go-ahead--in mid-2006. We've got huge potential for individualization on the Arnage. Our vision is to do fantastic body styles like the early coachbuilders did. That's why we have the convertible, the stretched versions. We have lots of technology to do this on the existing platform, which we have to use because of the jungle of legislation issues. The current Arnage has many years left--an LEV engine is on the way, and smart airbags are coming.