About to buy Turbo R
Discussion
Without wishing to put you off buying a very characterful car, I should put you in the picture about the reality of such a move. I bought a 1991 Mulsanne S in 1999 and ran it for 10 years as a daily driver, adding 100,000 miles to the odometer.
Buying a 10 year old Bentley such as a Turbo R is a risk, and service history and receipts for work done should be examined closely. Many heated rear windscreens fail to work because water corrodes the point at which the heater wires enter the glass. The remedy is a new rear windscreen. The hydraulic service is an occasional necessity, and can cost £3,000 or more. If new shock absorbers are needed, you'd be lucky to pick up a (front) pair for less than £2,000 I think I put two steering racks in, but forget the cost. Also two windscreen wiper mechanism, which I think were £600 a time. The problem with these is that they are very sensitive to being set up properly, due to the two-stage parking operation. Get the sensors in the wrong position, and you strip the threads, as it were. Only have them fitted by somebody who knows what they are doing. Then we come to the top of the engine. At the age of car you contemplate, exhaust manifold gaskets and rocker cover gaskets may be at the end of their lives, and the valve guides may be worn. You only have to look at the top of the engine to see how much stripping has to be done before you can get to these items. It would pay you to have these done simultaneously, rather than strip the fuel injection gubbins off time and time again. You need to get friendly with a Bentley breaker, such as Montagues at Bramley, south of Guildford.
In the end,in 2009 I was faced with spending £10,000 on a car that was worth considerably less. I allowed head to rule heart, and put the money towards a Continental GT. I've had the usual electronic niggles, and whilst it does not have the street presence of the big 3 box saloon, I have grown to love it to bits. Why ? Because on a day to day basis, you'll not see anything that you can't blow off the road. The driver runs out of bottle long before the car does.
There are 250 Continental GT's for sale on this web site. A 'normal' service is only about £800, versus a bottomless pit on a Turbo R.
In your position, I know what I'd do.
P.S. Some Bentley models at the Turbo R/ Arnage interface had head gasket problems, since they could not cope with the 400 HP output. YOu need to check that either the car is not in this window, or that the head gaskets have been done.
Good Luck.
Buying a 10 year old Bentley such as a Turbo R is a risk, and service history and receipts for work done should be examined closely. Many heated rear windscreens fail to work because water corrodes the point at which the heater wires enter the glass. The remedy is a new rear windscreen. The hydraulic service is an occasional necessity, and can cost £3,000 or more. If new shock absorbers are needed, you'd be lucky to pick up a (front) pair for less than £2,000 I think I put two steering racks in, but forget the cost. Also two windscreen wiper mechanism, which I think were £600 a time. The problem with these is that they are very sensitive to being set up properly, due to the two-stage parking operation. Get the sensors in the wrong position, and you strip the threads, as it were. Only have them fitted by somebody who knows what they are doing. Then we come to the top of the engine. At the age of car you contemplate, exhaust manifold gaskets and rocker cover gaskets may be at the end of their lives, and the valve guides may be worn. You only have to look at the top of the engine to see how much stripping has to be done before you can get to these items. It would pay you to have these done simultaneously, rather than strip the fuel injection gubbins off time and time again. You need to get friendly with a Bentley breaker, such as Montagues at Bramley, south of Guildford.
In the end,in 2009 I was faced with spending £10,000 on a car that was worth considerably less. I allowed head to rule heart, and put the money towards a Continental GT. I've had the usual electronic niggles, and whilst it does not have the street presence of the big 3 box saloon, I have grown to love it to bits. Why ? Because on a day to day basis, you'll not see anything that you can't blow off the road. The driver runs out of bottle long before the car does.
There are 250 Continental GT's for sale on this web site. A 'normal' service is only about £800, versus a bottomless pit on a Turbo R.
In your position, I know what I'd do.
P.S. Some Bentley models at the Turbo R/ Arnage interface had head gasket problems, since they could not cope with the 400 HP output. YOu need to check that either the car is not in this window, or that the head gaskets have been done.
Good Luck.
fromserenity said:
I just received a few more photos of the keys, books and some other documents.The car has been serviced as follows:
2.3.98 at 12345km
16.3.00 at 20137km
27.10.00 at 38861km RR&B
3.4.01 at 52362km RR&B
And that's it.
I will go and check the car anyway next week or the following.
blimey for 40k euros, you can buy my RT... black on black, huge service history at Phantom Motors here in the uk, including engine top end/gaskets, front suspension rebuild, rear rebuild, proper servicing, 18" bentley wheels, and so forth. Fantastic drivers car, goes like a rocket. Simon and Stuart @phantom love it.
jhoneyball said:
blimey for 40k euros, you can buy my RT... black on black, huge service history at Phantom Motors here in the uk, including engine top end/gaskets, front suspension rebuild, rear rebuild, proper servicing, 18" bentley wheels, and so forth. Fantastic drivers car, goes like a rocket. Simon and Stuart @phantom love it.
In your profile you say your RT is valued at 38.000 pounds, which translates in 42.560,- euros. So I guess you're underpricing it ? 
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