Looked at this GT today - Newbie questions?

[waterden]

That's really kind of you to go to all this trouble in your reply and I appreciate it! Also, I'm inclined to agree with your implied suggestion that specialists are better than main dealers. That has been my experience throughout my 50 years motoring!

[Poshbury]

Hi Waterden.

Those figures you quoted should be per year and not per month.
When I had my vacuum hoses replaced, the Indie did say they were an upgrade, but still plastic. I think the metal ones were done by an Indie in the USA and I haven't read of anyone in the UK doing them.

Good luck in your search.

[waterden]

Well I rather thought they must be per annum but as they have been repeated I did wonder!

Edited by waterden on Sunday 29th April 21:51

[enjoythemusic]

Poshbury said:

When I had my vacuum hoses replaced, the Indie did say they were an upgrade, but still plastic. I think the metal ones were done by an Indie in the USA and I haven't read of anyone in the UK doing them.

Am within the USA and fab'ing up metal pipes is really easy. Am sure someone in the UK should easily be able to do it, as going back to rubber hose seems like a mistake, or at least add some gold foil/heat deterrent to reduce the heating of the stock plastic hoses. Frankly, go custom bent metal and never worry again. The UK is known for F1 teams, etc, so a simply few pipe bends should be extremely easy. Am surprised Bentley did not call for this as a true replacement for their defective design/parts.

[mattman]

Thought it polite to circle back on this after all the advice and thoughts given. After looking at 5 GT’s of 04/05 vintage from £20-25k I just couldn’t find the right one. Each car was nice but had something that wasn’t quite right. Service histories were lacking detail, most advertised with FSH ended up as just a stamped book with no evidence of what work had actually been done, so trying to figure out if the key jobs had been done already was difficult.

After speaking with a local Indy who I trust, I decided to give the GT a miss this time ner come back again when my budget allows a newer car. After looking at a range of different cars I found a lovely 2010 987.2 Boxster 3.4 S with PDK and some choice options. Not quite the luxury coupe I originally was after but a whole lot of fun at a different level.

Thanks again for all your input - Matt

[waterden]

Choices, choices! Porsche is one of the brands I’ve often seriously considered but not yet owned, mainly because I don’t think they are that comfortable. Also, I keep hearing that the 996 and 997 variants are not as reliable as all that!

But which cars are? The list of issues on the Continental GT gets longer and longer the more I read. I do wonder whether these are more reflective of owner neglect and abuse than bad design but, if the latter, did Bentley address them during the life of the Gen 1 car? One reads allusions to this on various forums but nowhere have I seen any categorical statements about Model Years when these were fixed. Like brittle vacuum hoses and single scuttle drain holes. Indeed, Fiammetta in one of his helpful posts here is the first I’ve seen which suggests the drainage was modified at all.

So where to go for a reliable sub £50k upmarket daily driver? Maserati GT? Beautiful car but have the notorious expensive reliability issues been sorted? Porsche 996 Turbo? Hard on the ageing back. Porsche 991? Perhaps. Aston Martin? Electric gremlins! Audi S7 may be the answer with cosseting almost up to Bentley standards but eye-watering depreciation and I don’t suppose it’s free from issues either. Ditto for Range Rover.

First world problems I guess.

Edited by waterden on Monday 7th May 21:47

Edited by waterden on Tuesday 8th May 15:42