mosesbotbol

2005-2007 Bentley Continental GT's have piqued my interest for a next car. Does anyone have any experience with them? Are they reliable? Can't find much on ownership experience with this model. I'd think the V8 is better one to buy, but they are out of my price range. W12 sounds scary to me, but maybe it's not?

NoBottleJustThrottle

I don't have any personal experience with them, but from what I have read on other forums (Luxury4Play, 6Speed, etc.) they are hugely expensive to upkeep. There have been similar inquiries to yours on those forums and the owners basically say something along the lines of "yea, they are relatively cheap to buy into right now, but once a maintenance fix comes up you will be hurting!"

Not that they are necessarily any better in terms of maintenance, but have you looked at M6's? I put them together as similar cars, but the M6 (previous generation) has that glorious V10. Just some food for thought.

mosesbotbol

M6 styling does little for me. The 6 series was a car I was considering when I bought my current car as it's available in a manual, but I could not warm up to the looks of it. I am just not a BMW fan at all. X6 and Z4 are nice, but that's it.

I've never seen the Continental at my Indy mechanic who's a British car specialist. Arnage and Turbo R's he works on a lot. I should ask him the deal, but I doubt he has the computer stuff of the newer Bentley's. How much more could they be to fix than anything else that is "fancy"? Shop rates are the same.

Is it more of the frequency of repairs or just the parts costs? My mechanic was on the fence whether Rolls & Bentleys (90's models) were really reliable as all his customers don't drive them enough and the issues he sees are due to non-regular driving. I suppose that's similar to Ferrari too? The daily drivers are better runners, but then you don't have a low mileage garage queen.

Continental GT's keep rearing their head "buy me buy me", and it's hard to resist on the looks alone.

dam2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAlRfviEWrw

Saki GT

Don't want convertibles? What a wuss.

mchi5

To OP

I thought about them too, because used ones are becoming very affordable..relatively speaking

But ive also heard they are expensive to maintain, and I've already got too many cars like that. Don't need another one

NuncoStr8

LOL at the guy in the video buying a new Bentley every few years to avoid "getting hit with a crazy bill" !?! It costs you ~$20,000 a year to drive the car for a few years given depreciation. So to avoid maintenance costs, you spend $40,000+ every two or three years? If you hang onto it for five years your depreciation costs are only ~$10,000/year. In other words, unless the last two years out of five costs you $80,000+ in out-of-warrantee repairs & maintenance, you come out ahead by keeping the car for five years vs. replacing it every two or three.

Obviously if one was greatly concerned about car ownership costs one wouldn't be driving around in a Bentley. But it's especially silly to hear people talk as if it's somehow more fiscally responsible to pay massive depreciation every couple years than pay for routine maintenance.

Saki GT

I guess he's betting on avoiding a big problem, but I don't think he's playing his cards right.

mosesbotbol

Drum roll; I'll be here all week. 150k+ car has to have expensive replacement parts.

jimboslice

Badummm tssh!