£22k Bentley Continental GT - running costs?
Discussion
Hi, sorry I haven't read all of the thread but I own a car sale and tuning business and I currently own a Continental GT Monaco Elite and have had countless other Conti GT's and Flying Spurs.
You need to go into this with your eyes wide open, as I tell all of my customers these are expensive cars to own and run. Despite what people think the build quality isn't traditional Bentley and things do go wrong, especially electrical gremlins. There are lots of shared parts with VW group cars but equally there are a lot of bespoke parts and some of which Bentley force the suppliers to only produce from them, and Bentley's mark ups are high as you would expect.
Hugely rewarding car to own from a performance and pleasure perspective and if you have the disposable capital I would well recommend it, however, be cautious as they are a fair way away from a 530d even 550i to keep on the road.
As a quick footnote, I remapped my vehicle through my tuning company and the mpg has gone from 14mph to 19mpg and it's dyno verified at 604bhp. A lot faster but uses a lot less fuel. Also specialist independents can be just as good for servicing and often at 1/3 of the price of OBC.....me and a friend both use a guy in Manchester with the full VAS diagnostics and good knowledge of Conti's yet he's about a quarter of the price of OBC Knutsford.
Good luck if you do/have bought it and enjoy the experience, it's certainly one you'll never forget.
You need to go into this with your eyes wide open, as I tell all of my customers these are expensive cars to own and run. Despite what people think the build quality isn't traditional Bentley and things do go wrong, especially electrical gremlins. There are lots of shared parts with VW group cars but equally there are a lot of bespoke parts and some of which Bentley force the suppliers to only produce from them, and Bentley's mark ups are high as you would expect.
Hugely rewarding car to own from a performance and pleasure perspective and if you have the disposable capital I would well recommend it, however, be cautious as they are a fair way away from a 530d even 550i to keep on the road.
As a quick footnote, I remapped my vehicle through my tuning company and the mpg has gone from 14mph to 19mpg and it's dyno verified at 604bhp. A lot faster but uses a lot less fuel. Also specialist independents can be just as good for servicing and often at 1/3 of the price of OBC.....me and a friend both use a guy in Manchester with the full VAS diagnostics and good knowledge of Conti's yet he's about a quarter of the price of OBC Knutsford.
Good luck if you do/have bought it and enjoy the experience, it's certainly one you'll never forget.
Hello everybody, I am looking at a gt, have been for along while, just waiting for the right one to come along.
The question is am I prepared for the expense of ownership of a 2004/5 model?
To put things in perspective, I have owned a supercharged 4.2L V8 Range Vogue for 2.5 years, when something went wrong it was never pennies. I sold that. For the last year I have run a 2011 Dodge Ram 1500 sport, nothing gone wrong but servicing cheap compared to the Range, fuel costs similar.
Is the GT really that much worse? And can one get a Bentley warranty for a vehicle not bought approved-used form their dealerships? My local Bentley dealer says he cant help me if I don't buy from him!
Moreover, how much depreciation is suffered if sold on to trade after one year? 8-10K?
Help Appreciated!
The question is am I prepared for the expense of ownership of a 2004/5 model?
To put things in perspective, I have owned a supercharged 4.2L V8 Range Vogue for 2.5 years, when something went wrong it was never pennies. I sold that. For the last year I have run a 2011 Dodge Ram 1500 sport, nothing gone wrong but servicing cheap compared to the Range, fuel costs similar.
Is the GT really that much worse? And can one get a Bentley warranty for a vehicle not bought approved-used form their dealerships? My local Bentley dealer says he cant help me if I don't buy from him!
Moreover, how much depreciation is suffered if sold on to trade after one year? 8-10K?
Help Appreciated!
to answer my own question it seems Bentley leicester are selling accredited warranties for vehicles up to 10 yrs old.
Insurance wise (for me anyway) a gt is 60% what I pay on the Ram, but then the Range Insurance was 50% of the Ram.
I think I will go for it anyway, and report back on my experiences.
On the subject of depreciation I bought the 2005 Range Vogue Se fully loaded spec, with 63K miles on it for 23,000GBP, sold for 15,000GBP 2.5 years later with 90K miles.
The Ram I want to keep because it is the most hilarious vehicle but I miss luxury transport.
Insurance wise (for me anyway) a gt is 60% what I pay on the Ram, but then the Range Insurance was 50% of the Ram.
I think I will go for it anyway, and report back on my experiences.
On the subject of depreciation I bought the 2005 Range Vogue Se fully loaded spec, with 63K miles on it for 23,000GBP, sold for 15,000GBP 2.5 years later with 90K miles.
The Ram I want to keep because it is the most hilarious vehicle but I miss luxury transport.
whoami said:
Rollcage said:
You'll lose a bucketload of money chopping like that!
Running costs would be in a different league to a FFRR.
In what way?Running costs would be in a different league to a FFRR.
http://www.nsandell.com/service.html#Bentley_Conti...
http://www.famousfour.co.uk/wshop/wshop_rrl322.php
Rollcage said:
whoami said:
Rollcage said:
You'll lose a bucketload of money chopping like that!
Running costs would be in a different league to a FFRR.
In what way?Running costs would be in a different league to a FFRR.
http://www.nsandell.com/service.html#Bentley_Conti...
http://www.famousfour.co.uk/wshop/wshop_rrl322.php
Oh, apart from depreciation, which is massive on the DBS.
Depreciation is usually the biggest cost in running cars like this and a CGT at the age being considered has already done the lion's share of that already.
That's fair enough - I'm only posting from a position of anecdotal evidence, rather than ownership experience.
Depreciation from new would obviously be pretty hefty for either a FFRR or a CGT, but percentage wise I don't think there is much in it when you look at 7/8 year old examples of both.
Depreciation from new would obviously be pretty hefty for either a FFRR or a CGT, but percentage wise I don't think there is much in it when you look at 7/8 year old examples of both.
My understanding is that Bentley waranties are only available if you bought the car through the dealer network. I was in Bentley Glasgow today regarding extending my warranty and they said if the current warranty date is passed without renewing that Bentley get a bit sticky about it. The only being available if you buy thro the network was to keep the sales dept's busy and as an insentive to buyers due to the large running/repair costs. You can now tho get the full works warranty up to ten years old which was not available before if the car had been out of warranty at all again to try and keep people in the dealership for longer, however I think this is only for cars already in the network who have had type 1,2 warranty cover.
whoami said:
I haven't found a massive difference between the RR and my DBS (which I assume has similar running costs to a CGT).
Whilst competitors in the head-to-head sense, the DBS and CGT are very different cars. DBS a much more old-fashioned car, much simpler, using a lot less complicated stuff.GT is hugely complicated - computers and electronics monitoring other computers and electronics, which themselves do things to further more computers and electronics.
And it's much more tightly packaged. The GT and DBS are the same size, yet GT is c.600kg heavier. Much of that weight, aluminium body aside, is in tech and hardware, all of it tightly positioned over, under and through other tech and hardware.
The rest is wood and leather - probably don't have to worry about that so much!
Edited by SpeckledJim on Saturday 12th January 12:53
SpeckledJim said:
whoami said:
I haven't found a massive difference between the RR and my DBS (which I assume has similar running costs to a CGT).
Whilst competitors in the head-to-head sense, the DBS and CGT are very different cars. DBS a much more old-fashioned car, much simpler, using a lot less complicated stuff.GT is hugely complicated - computers and electronics monitoring other computers and electronics, which themselves do things to further more computers and electronics.
And it's much more tightly packaged. The GT and DBS are the same size, yet GT is c.600kg heavier. Much of that weight, aluminium body aside, is in tech and hardware, all of it tightly positioned over, under and through other tech and hardware.
The rest is wood and leather - probably don't have to worry about that so much!
Edited by SpeckledJim on Saturday 12th January 12:53
whoami said:
SpeckledJim said:
whoami said:
I haven't found a massive difference between the RR and my DBS (which I assume has similar running costs to a CGT).
Whilst competitors in the head-to-head sense, the DBS and CGT are very different cars. DBS a much more old-fashioned car, much simpler, using a lot less complicated stuff.GT is hugely complicated - computers and electronics monitoring other computers and electronics, which themselves do things to further more computers and electronics.
And it's much more tightly packaged. The GT and DBS are the same size, yet GT is c.600kg heavier. Much of that weight, aluminium body aside, is in tech and hardware, all of it tightly positioned over, under and through other tech and hardware.
The rest is wood and leather - probably don't have to worry about that so much!
Edited by SpeckledJim on Saturday 12th January 12:53
Try:
http://www.michaelhibberd.co.uk/Service/Service.as...
Seem reasonable for an independent specialist.
http://www.michaelhibberd.co.uk/Service/Service.as...
Seem reasonable for an independent specialist.
Aside from the bespoke body and trim parts, the vast majority of its transmission, suspension, systems and electronics are all common to the A8 and Phaeton.
As others have mentioned they're 100% compatible with Vagcom which is worth it's weight in gold. Most stuff can be fixed or economically diagnosed and fixed with it. A specialist familiar with high end VAG products shouldn't be at all phased by a CGT.
The hard part is figuring out what Bentley part numbers correspond to the equivalent audi or vw part.
As others have mentioned they're 100% compatible with Vagcom which is worth it's weight in gold. Most stuff can be fixed or economically diagnosed and fixed with it. A specialist familiar with high end VAG products shouldn't be at all phased by a CGT.
The hard part is figuring out what Bentley part numbers correspond to the equivalent audi or vw part.
dvs_dave said:
Aside from the bespoke body and trim parts, the vast majority of its transmission, suspension, systems and electronics are all common to the A8 and Phaeton.
As others have mentioned they're 100% compatible with Vagcom which is worth it's weight in gold. Most stuff can be fixed or economically diagnosed and fixed with it. A specialist familiar with high end VAG products shouldn't be at all phased by a CGT.
The hard part is figuring out what Bentley part numbers correspond to the equivalent audi or vw part.
Waits for someone to say they are a specialist in high end vag....As others have mentioned they're 100% compatible with Vagcom which is worth it's weight in gold. Most stuff can be fixed or economically diagnosed and fixed with it. A specialist familiar with high end VAG products shouldn't be at all phased by a CGT.
The hard part is figuring out what Bentley part numbers correspond to the equivalent audi or vw part.
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