People’s car key opens prestigious new Bentley

The Financial Times uncovered the design tragedy of a car and a key last week.

Bentley’s beautiful leather- and wood-finished Continental GTs, which were delivered last month for the VW group, come with the same plastic key used for a £12 000 VW Golf.

How fitting is that for a set of £110 000 wheels? It seems that turnkey technology at VW can’t accommodate a non-standard lock.

‘To change the design of this key seems to be more expensive than making a whole new car,’ confided chief executive of VW Bernd Pischetsrieder.