British cars used to be plagued with electrical problems. Not any more (usually). Bentley had an off day Thursday when a transporter truck pulled into New York City in the pre-dawn hours with a prototype Bentley Mulsanne for a media unveiling. Alas, the Mulsanne wouldn't start, and for a while couldn't even be pushed out of the transporter. It finally made it off the truck and into the press conference an hour into the presentation, under human power.

The point of Bentley's New York appearance was to show off its 2010 Mulsanne, an ultraluxury car probably costing in the range of $300,000, replacing the Arnage. Bentleys now offer much of the technology you'd expect to find in a garden variety Mercedes-Benz or Lexus -- active cruise control, iPod adapter, better and best audio systems, Bluetooth -- plus coachwork and leather to die for.

Bentley and Rolls-Royce are the major players in the ultraluxury segment, those vehicles roughly costing more than $125,000 or $150,000, in other words where the bottom rung is whatever it costs for a fully-equipped BMW 7 Series or Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Ride and handling are unlikely to be any better, but the doorman pays more attention when you pull up to the Lodge at Pebble Beach.

Bentley has been the better seller recently because of its more youthful image (the preferred ride for upmarket drug dealers, athletes, and hedge fund managers) and also because it offered a more entry level model, the $170,000 Continental, where the Rolls-Royce Phantom runs $400,000. Rolls-Royce will offer a more affordable Rolls-Royce Ghost in 2010 in the same $300,000 range as the Arnage. The market this year is off by half, on account of the lousy economy. Bentley Motors U.S. president, Christophe Georges, noted that customers "lost confidence in the market [so] they are not rewarding themselves with a nice discretionary purchase." With the market ticking upward and bonuses back in vogue, 2010 could be a good year for both.