Flying Spur family car?
Discussion
01WE01 said:
A Blue/Ivory FFRR p400e AB. Because countryside, innit.
Do as I say, not as I do.
Though I'm pretty certain once I've settled a few things in the next year or two I will be spur-ed on to get one.
A nice thing to waft around in I bet too.Do as I say, not as I do.
Though I'm pretty certain once I've settled a few things in the next year or two I will be spur-ed on to get one.
With my sensible hat on I'd go for a Cayenne plug-in hybrid, but can't get excited about them.
I do like the FF RRs, but the wife would not countenance one. plus we're city dwellers.
01WE01 said:
Mine says "meh" to flying spurs, I just showed her the one you posted to test that was still the response, it was.
Crazy, the lot of them.
LOL!Crazy, the lot of them.
To be fair it is upholstered like my club in London. My wife-was less "meh" more "that's preposterous buy me a Corsa so I don't die of embarrassment when I drive to work"
fflump said:
I know what you mean but its a numbers game. A warranty is essentially insurance, and insurance is always by definition geared to make money for the seller and give peace of mind to the buyer. That is why we all insure our homes against fire. That said, many of us will not buy extended warranties on our fridges or TVs, not because we cannot afford the extra cost, but because we don't see value in the premium, and if we're unlucky and it goes kaput well it's not a big enough hit to lose sleep over. If you buy a Bentley out of warranty and are prepared to hope for the best but not to be bothered emotionally or financially by the worst then you'll be better off more often than not.
As you say, most people avoid the extended warranties on things such as fridge freezers and telly's because worst coming to worst,you can buy a new one for minimal outlay, and even then you can almost guarantee that you will definitely get a year or three worth of usage before any issues.You can't be certain a 43k mile spur is going to last 3 months without issue, and being your Maserati + £23,000, you're going to be in deep enough to grin and bare the 20+ hour bill (in reality ~40 hours for a good job, but Crewe slashed the book time in half for some reason) for when a blown turbo, duff starter motor or some obscure inaccessible sensor tucked away means the engine and trans have to be dropped. And before any work or parts have been replaced. And engine outs are extremely common, Our retailer had 4 engine beds, and it was a rare occurrence for one to be free.
Given the rather reasonable cost, comprehensive list of covered items (given you choose the "top" tier) and fact that at least when I was working on them, you HAD to purchase through a vehicle Bentley retailer to be able to purchase the scheme, I genuinely suspect the approved warranty scheme may be a loss leader for Bentley. Almost every single claim would outstrip the year's cost...
And I am not one of those "if you can't afford it new, you can't afford to run it" saddos. I run and look after high mileage V12 twin turbo barges for fun with relatively little fear and stress, but after seeing the invoices and doing the work on these cars at the beginning of my career, I wouldn't and couldn't recommend anybody buy one without a proper warranty. Unlike the V12 Mercedes I came to love, they do not lend themselves to being worked on by anybody who doesn't known them extremely well. Many bits require the engine to be dropped and strange issues can take weeks of solid work to diagnose and repair not to mention Crewe only parts...
And I stress, this is before we get to "consumables" like brakes, tyres and suspension arms, which at 5k miles p.a will be every 2/3 years...
It was also the only workshop I've ever seen were efficiency figures were meaningless and in truth the true labour charges never came close to reflecting the man hours that actually went into diagnosing and repairing these cars properly entailed.
*Not sure if this is a V8 or a W12 car. I know much less about V8 specifics as they only started to trickle in as I moved to pastures sliver, but given a lot of the running gear and electronics did not change massively with the "new" model my caviates will still apply to the V8s in terms of running costs.
Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 24th February 23:35
Thanks for taking the time to write this advice-hugely helpful and plenty of food for thought. I value your insight if there is little for them to make from a warranty then it makes much more sense to go used approved. I've a local dealer who wants my car and has official Maserati and Bentley franchises. They don't have the Spur in the spec I want currently but their prices are certainly reasonable so might be better going though them. Plenty to chew on-and thanks again.
fflump said:
Thanks for taking the time to write this advice-hugely helpful and plenty of food for thought. I value your insight if there is little for them to make from a warranty then it makes much more sense to go used approved. I've a local dealer who wants my car and has official Maserati and Bentley franchises. They don't have the Spur in the spec I want currently but their prices are certainly reasonable so might be better going though them. Plenty to chew on-and thanks again.
No worries. The dealer with a Maserati and Bentley franchise sounds like an ideal scenario, and I can virtually guarantee that the wait and potential extra you'd spend as opposed to this particular car and deal will pay for itself over a surprisingly short time.I was a little bit spoiled by doing my apprenticeship at Bentley because that set standards that I've never seen any other of the subsequent "premium" brands even get vaguely close to, either in the workmanship, skill and knowledge required, plus the costs + time required to effect such skill,. Put a W12 bentley in for a spark plug change at a competent but otherwise unfamiliar to them technician, and I'm almost certain that they will break something, and I'm already 95% sure of exactly what they'd break and how to avoid it before they even got the spanners out. They really are that kind of car.
The approved warranty was genuinely excellent, we would about once a week have the assessor come down and look at our diagnosis on particular cars covered, grumble a bit and then approve it all with no fuss. Compare this to virtually every other "premium" retailer I've worked for that will flat out reject claims on their own 3 year manufacturer warranty because the claim was missing a particular screenshot or online form or because we didn't change a specific non important £1 bolt the workshop manual advised, let alone the mickey mouse warranties that barely covered anything in the first place (that goes for both "approved used" and 3rd party)
Things may have changed as it's been a long time since I last spannered on a Bentley, so please do your own checks to see what the state of play is nowdays especially with the warranty, its excess and exclusions, but as someone who would think absolutely nothing about spending the very top of their realistic budget on a nice V12 Twin turbo S600 or S65, a similarly priced and aged Spur or Conti GT would have me running for the hills screaming "NOPE" at the top of my voice, and that's despite my ability to (in theory) be able to carry out a lot of the work myself.
Good luck with the hunt though. Despite the negative comments and hate you might get, nothing comes even close to the quality of materials and attention to detail you'll find in a Bentley or Rolls Royce
Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 25th February 01:44
Thanks again-I think going down the Certified Bentley route is wise. I don't see much difference in sticker price, 1 yr Bentley warranty is included, and extendable, and fixed price servicing can be paid up front. Also several fixed price consumable costs are stated for cars over 4 yrs like pads, discs, plugs etc. Then the er simple costs of tax, insurance tyres etc etc. Bargain lol!
anonymous-user said:
As you say, most people avoid the extended warranties on things such as fridge freezers and telly's because worst coming to worst,you can buy a new one for minimal outlay, and even then you can almost guarantee that you will definitely get a year or three worth of usage before any issues.
You can't be certain a 43k mile spur is going to last 3 months without issue, and being your Maserati + £23,000, you're going to be in deep enough to grin and bare the 20+ hour bill (in reality ~40 hours for a good job, but Crewe slashed the book time in half for some reason) for when a blown turbo, duff starter motor or some obscure inaccessible sensor tucked away means the engine and trans have to be dropped. And before any work or parts have been replaced. And engine outs are extremely common, Our retailer had 4 engine beds, and it was a rare occurrence for one to be free.
Given the rather reasonable cost, comprehensive list of covered items (given you choose the "top" tier) and fact that at least when I was working on them, you HAD to purchase through a vehicle Bentley retailer to be able to purchase the scheme, I genuinely suspect the approved warranty scheme may be a loss leader for Bentley. Almost every single claim would outstrip the year's cost...
And I am not one of those "if you can't afford it new, you can't afford to run it" saddos. I run and look after high mileage V12 twin turbo barges for fun with relatively little fear and stress, but after seeing the invoices and doing the work on these cars at the beginning of my career, I wouldn't and couldn't recommend anybody buy one without a proper warranty. Unlike the V12 Mercedes I came to love, they do not lend themselves to being worked on by anybody who doesn't known them extremely well. Many bits require the engine to be dropped and strange issues can take weeks of solid work to diagnose and repair not to mention Crewe only parts...
And I stress, this is before we get to "consumables" like brakes, tyres and suspension arms, which at 5k miles p.a will be every 2/3 years...
It was also the only workshop I've ever seen were efficiency figures were meaningless and in truth the true labour charges never came close to reflecting the man hours that actually went into diagnosing and repairing these cars properly entailed.
*Not sure if this is a V8 or a W12 car. I know much less about V8 specifics as they only started to trickle in as I moved to pastures sliver, but given a lot of the running gear and electronics did not change massively with the "new" model my caviates will still apply to the V8s in terms of running costs.
Thread update-despite ending up buying a Cayenne back in 2022 I've now pulled the trigger on a Flying Spur through the Certified by Bentley scheme having listened to the sage advice on this thread. Also opted to extend the warranty to 3 years for £4k which is good value IMO and less than if you opt to extend later. So insured against most borkage and mainly "just" consumables to worry about. You can't be certain a 43k mile spur is going to last 3 months without issue, and being your Maserati + £23,000, you're going to be in deep enough to grin and bare the 20+ hour bill (in reality ~40 hours for a good job, but Crewe slashed the book time in half for some reason) for when a blown turbo, duff starter motor or some obscure inaccessible sensor tucked away means the engine and trans have to be dropped. And before any work or parts have been replaced. And engine outs are extremely common, Our retailer had 4 engine beds, and it was a rare occurrence for one to be free.
Given the rather reasonable cost, comprehensive list of covered items (given you choose the "top" tier) and fact that at least when I was working on them, you HAD to purchase through a vehicle Bentley retailer to be able to purchase the scheme, I genuinely suspect the approved warranty scheme may be a loss leader for Bentley. Almost every single claim would outstrip the year's cost...
And I am not one of those "if you can't afford it new, you can't afford to run it" saddos. I run and look after high mileage V12 twin turbo barges for fun with relatively little fear and stress, but after seeing the invoices and doing the work on these cars at the beginning of my career, I wouldn't and couldn't recommend anybody buy one without a proper warranty. Unlike the V12 Mercedes I came to love, they do not lend themselves to being worked on by anybody who doesn't known them extremely well. Many bits require the engine to be dropped and strange issues can take weeks of solid work to diagnose and repair not to mention Crewe only parts...
And I stress, this is before we get to "consumables" like brakes, tyres and suspension arms, which at 5k miles p.a will be every 2/3 years...
It was also the only workshop I've ever seen were efficiency figures were meaningless and in truth the true labour charges never came close to reflecting the man hours that actually went into diagnosing and repairing these cars properly entailed.
*Not sure if this is a V8 or a W12 car. I know much less about V8 specifics as they only started to trickle in as I moved to pastures sliver, but given a lot of the running gear and electronics did not change massively with the "new" model my caviates will still apply to the V8s in terms of running costs.
Edited by anonymous-user on Wednesday 24th February 23:35
Now to finds the wife low insurance city car for buzzing round town and the eldest to learn in. Any suggestions on the latter purchase welcome too.
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