Lincoln made headlines this week when they pulled the veil from their 2016 Continental Concept in New York City, however Bentley took issue with the American luxury automaker’s big reveal.
According to Automotive News, Bentley believes the Continental Concept is a copy of their Continental Flying Spur sedan. The brand’s chief designer, Luc Donckerwolke, even sarcastically wrote “Do you want us to send the product tooling?” on Lincoln chief designer David Woodhouse’s Facebook page shortly after the car’s unveiling.
The two cars do share several similarities. The Continental appears to have the same greenhouse shape and similar bodylines to the Flying Spur, along with chrome trim in the same places and a similarly shaped grille. Additionally, the two share the ‘Continental’ nomenclature and are apart of the same segment.
If Lincoln goes forward with plans to make a production version of the Continental, it’s possible the brand and Bentley could duke it out over the rights to the name. AN points out Bentley has had a Continental in their lineup since 1984, while Ford also has the rights to the name in any country they like. But Bentley’s main gripe is with the styling.
“This behavior is not respectable. Building a copy like this is giving a bad name to the car design world,” Donckerwolke told Car Design News in an interview.
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