We wanted to run a ‘previously cherished’ Bentley as a long-term test car as much for the fact that it’s used as for the fact that it’s a 552bhp, blue-blooded British Bentley. We usually run box-fresh cars for a year, and the build quality of modern cars is such that it’s rare for anything to go wrong in that that time. We’d be disappointed if it did, though it would give us more to put in these reports.
We thought the hand-made Continental GT might be more obliging with stuff to write about as it moves into its fourth year, and by letting us down occasionally, it hasn’t let us down. It needed to go in for a routine recall on the oil filter a couple of months after delivery. That coincided with an outbreak of warning messages about the lights and brakes, all of which seemed to be working fine, an occasionally lumpy idle which would send the car kangarooing forward when idling in gear, the demise of the subwoofer which turned Led Zep in to Aled Jones circa 1986, and a glovebox that developed a definite droop.
This list looks like every recently acquired used-supercar owner’s worst nightmare, but fortunately this dealer-supplied GT comes with a year’s warranty. You don’t get told how much it cost Bentley to replace the oil filter, coils, high-level brake light and parking brake control module, rewire the subwoofer and rehang the glovebox, but I’m sure it wasn’t cheap.
It took eight days to do, or about one-eighth of the time I’d had the car up until that point. But dealing with the dealer is always a pleasure; they deliver and collect the car at short notice and bring yours back immaculately valeted. We’d wondered how the Bentley customer experience would compare to mere ‘premium’ brands; after recent bad experience with Audi (eye-wateringly expensive service, no delivery drivers for days, car returned uncleaned) it seems to measure up pretty well, though I’d rather it hadn’t had to go in in the first place.
There’s also the consolation of a Bentley courtesy car, though this was mostly due to the fact that the recall meant their usual Jaguar XFs were busy. The 500-mile, ’08-plate GT demonstrator I borrowed steered more lightly and rode more deftly than my ’05 car; I was surprised to see the antiquated sat-nav and iPod controls were the same. But I was glad my car has the black trim, rather than the pale magnolia of the courtesy car and which I’d thought I’d wanted on mine. After eight days, the leather-bound steering wheel and seat squab were embarrassingly grubby. I don’t think I’m particularly unhygienic, but maybe I don’t live the Howard-Hughes dirt-free life of a typical Bentley owner.
Finally, a word on fuel consumption. If you’ve been following the reports in the magazine you’ll know that the car initially struggled to hit 18mpg. That turns out to have been the high point so far; the worst from a tank has been 11.3mpg, with an average of 15.3mpg. I started out keeping the fuel figures displayed on the main screen in the dash; now it’s less painful to display something else.
I don’t mean to sound negative; I’m still getting a heart rate fluctuation every time I drive it, or even look at it; few cars can do that without asking your forbearance in other areas. But the reliability issues and fuel consumption ought to remind anyone considering buying something similar to have a long think first, even before we gauge how the tanking economy has affected its resale value. I suspect that plunging markets and the price of Bentleys are connected.
We thought the hand-made Continental GT might be more obliging with stuff to write about as it moves into its fourth year, and by letting us down occasionally, it hasn’t let us down. It needed to go in for a routine recall on the oil filter a couple of months after delivery. That coincided with an outbreak of warning messages about the lights and brakes, all of which seemed to be working fine, an occasionally lumpy idle which would send the car kangarooing forward when idling in gear, the demise of the subwoofer which turned Led Zep in to Aled Jones circa 1986, and a glovebox that developed a definite droop.
This list looks like every recently acquired used-supercar owner’s worst nightmare, but fortunately this dealer-supplied GT comes with a year’s warranty. You don’t get told how much it cost Bentley to replace the oil filter, coils, high-level brake light and parking brake control module, rewire the subwoofer and rehang the glovebox, but I’m sure it wasn’t cheap.
It took eight days to do, or about one-eighth of the time I’d had the car up until that point. But dealing with the dealer is always a pleasure; they deliver and collect the car at short notice and bring yours back immaculately valeted. We’d wondered how the Bentley customer experience would compare to mere ‘premium’ brands; after recent bad experience with Audi (eye-wateringly expensive service, no delivery drivers for days, car returned uncleaned) it seems to measure up pretty well, though I’d rather it hadn’t had to go in in the first place.
There’s also the consolation of a Bentley courtesy car, though this was mostly due to the fact that the recall meant their usual Jaguar XFs were busy. The 500-mile, ’08-plate GT demonstrator I borrowed steered more lightly and rode more deftly than my ’05 car; I was surprised to see the antiquated sat-nav and iPod controls were the same. But I was glad my car has the black trim, rather than the pale magnolia of the courtesy car and which I’d thought I’d wanted on mine. After eight days, the leather-bound steering wheel and seat squab were embarrassingly grubby. I don’t think I’m particularly unhygienic, but maybe I don’t live the Howard-Hughes dirt-free life of a typical Bentley owner.
Finally, a word on fuel consumption. If you’ve been following the reports in the magazine you’ll know that the car initially struggled to hit 18mpg. That turns out to have been the high point so far; the worst from a tank has been 11.3mpg, with an average of 15.3mpg. I started out keeping the fuel figures displayed on the main screen in the dash; now it’s less painful to display something else.
I don’t mean to sound negative; I’m still getting a heart rate fluctuation every time I drive it, or even look at it; few cars can do that without asking your forbearance in other areas. But the reliability issues and fuel consumption ought to remind anyone considering buying something similar to have a long think first, even before we gauge how the tanking economy has affected its resale value. I suspect that plunging markets and the price of Bentleys are connected.
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