As an everyday car you are absolutely right. As a classic, used for a few thousand miles a year, they are relatively affordable and in recent years have also appreciated in value. Not as scary as you might think although head gaskets are an issue on the Turbo cars.

He meant a well-heeled idiot earning over £100,000 and a former editor of car magazine.

And the fact that it didn't fit in his garage so he had to rent a garage for it about 7 miles away from his flat then would use a portable scooter to commute from the rented garage to his flat 😅

ROFLMAO!!!

You mean it's an under-rated financial black hole of a car? Probably right.

Same

Precisely because of its abyssal money pit issue, it’s an underrated gem.

I’ve driven very expensive cars in my life and on them for numerous amounts of years without having to do any major services on them because I don’t drive them very much. If you’re owning these types of vehicles and you already own a reliable vehicle for daily use that it’s not that big of a deal if you’ve got the money to burn.

Reading this comment 10 months after you posted - hope your road trip went well? Would be good the hear an update if you still have your car? Always liked these back in the day but wondered how usable one would be today, and the cost of running parts wise, I know the fuel costs will be fairly high. Just wonder on the age the turbo needs replacement and the situation on head gaskets which are an issue on higher performance Arnage’s….

A fair number of pianos use burr Walnut veneer, or sometimes birds-eye Maple veneer. Just saying...

I come across lots of burls when i am chaga hunting , but not walnut , chaga only grows on birch trees ..a very rare mushroom indeed ..medicinal of course !

@@scottnaish-theheartpatient2016 carpenters and luthiers would pay you some good money if you find any decently sized burls for them

This is my car and It is indeed burr walnut veneer. It's also bookmatched so it's mirrored across the car, you can see this best around 4:50 if you look at the panel on the passenger side above the glove box.

Mine needed headgaskets at 30k miles. £5.5k at an indie. I swapped the front shocks for better ones. That was £5k. A door lock went. That was £1.5k. With other bits and bobs it was £14k in one year. This was 10 yrs ago. I’d have another in a heartbeat. 😂

Ben are you able to give a better indication of the cost breakdown based on the £16k figure James mentioned only paint and suspension….. Interested in one of these but the high costs do seem very disconcerting 😥

@@goodfest007Sure thing! The first session in the garage was around £4.5k, that was for a new indicator stalk, resealing the four front calipers, new front discs and pads (all 8 of them!), replaced some of the power steering pipes, and 5 new tyres (that was £1400 on its own I think). Next visit was £2.5k, for a 6000 mile service, new thermostat and sender, replaced one of the rear spring pots, accessory belts and a couple of engine mounts and a few other bits and pieces. Next was £1000 to sort the alarm and tachometer out, then £3500 to cut out the rear wheel arches and a chunk of the front ones and repair and paint them. The arches do tend to go on these, I knew they needed doing when I bought it but it was a bit worse than I thought. After that there was a £3300 bill to sort the air con and a spare key, recondition the radiator and replace the rear gas spheres, and £800 to remove a bit of rust between the headlights and the bonnet. That takes us up to when the video was filmed, since then I've had a bushing replaced which annoyingly took one of the tyres with it, with a full alignment that ended up being £1200, then another £840 for MOT and service (oil change, new filter and washers, transmission fluid change). I'm coming up on three years of ownership in May, the vast majority of these costs have been in the first two years. I still have the car and use it regularly, I did just over 160 miles in it this weekend, and it still puts a great big smile on my face every time I drive it. I say go for it, but buy the best example you can afford!

I thought that name was familiar (I went to Coventry car design 2001-2006 and I'm sure I remember a chap by that name coming in)

I always wondered whether they were better than the Turbo R. Something tells me they wouldn’t be as complex to keep on top of, although I’d imagine parts cost is silly

C'mon Smokey...Name your passengers....!!! 🤔🤔🤔

@@petervirnuls7879 Don't touch a 'T'. Best one (for me) was/is the 4.4 BMW engine version....

@@BibtheBoulder why the 4.4 bmw engine please? let me know because i will buy one maybe in sept 2023

It is way more reliable than the 6.75l RR engine that followed it.@@jeanmarclambert9127

Thanks Keiran, that's what inspired me!

3k a year isn't that bad really

A Bentley as first car takes some beating awesome!

These cars will be worth ££ in the future I reckon; Good Investment 👍🏼

@@nicknocturnal652 yes fingers crossed

£18,000 for insurance???? 🤣

@@nicknocturnal652 people have been saying that for 20 yrs. Maybe one day they’ll reach the prices 5hey probably deserve.

Cornice is ten times better looking.

It really is incredibly deep pile, and very soft.

Is that the one with the knurled aluminium dash? Always thought they were really cool!

Absolutely agree with you about the prior owner issues. I'm the second owner of a 1965 Silver Cloud III, which I've owned for 41 years. I keep it regularly serviced and, as you say, any good mechanic can look after it. Unlike the new Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars. The problem does come when the price is low enough to appeal to the buyer who wants a prestige car but finds that they can't afford to maintain it properly. That really is when the problems start.

Thanks! You only get a first car once, I thought I should get something special.

Shame you can’t drive past the factory anymore. I always used to feel a sense of pride.

@@beardedtit7692 me too, It’s more like a small town than a factory now

Yes agreed, I’ve also owned one of these for the last 6 years and can confirm it has been super reliable & affordable. However it clearly is a good one that has been looked after

Two? So that you could drive one, while the other one is being repaired?

I used to work in an old school petrol station 30 years ago when I was at college. We had a regular customer with one of these. Back in 92-94 it would take nearly 90 quids worth of petrol.

108 litres! I mostly fill up before it gets below half way though so I don't spend too long at the pump each time.

“Disappointed” was the car well sorted, have you ever driven a Bentley of this era before or a 6,000 lb car that is this old? Never heard anyone say they were “disappointed”. This is where you list out your experience with all the cars you own (no Bentley’s or Rolls Royce’s) I suspect.

You do feel the bumps, but you don't really care much about them.

Enjoy it, hope you get as much fun out of it as I get out of mine!

@@benofbrown Its epic !

I'm lucky to have Prestige Services just up the road from me, I'm not sure I would have managed so far without them.

More like late 60's really, it's not a huge move away from the Silver Shadow/T series that preceded it. I love it though, yes those cars were better (and also models I was considering when looking for a car before buying this one) in almost every way, but they're not a stately home on wheels like my Turbo R ;)

@@benofbrown this era of Bentley and Rolls do have an awful lot of charm. I’m waiting till my kids are older and then I may well take the plunge!

From Sydney, Australia. Define outdone , and MORE IMPORTANTLY , what price life ?? At REAL WORLD SPEEDS, and if you wish to die, then pick the German "junkers". When in heaven, just ask Princess Diana, re her experience with a real-world speed accident in a w140 Merc. In 2001 , when taking my niece to Sydney Airport at Mascot we witnessed what happens if you skitch a Rolls Royce Flying Spur onto a recalcitrant W140 Merc' at the same real world impact speed. let me tell you if you were in the Merc, your day had just been numbered as final. Total fool Mercedes w140 driver made an illegal right turn directly in front of the Rolls Royce Flying Spur, this Bently's twin at identical speeds. OUTCOME, Rolls Royce EXTERMINATED ALL the w140 OCCUPANTS at an equal 100kph/60mph impact speed. The Mercedes basically self-destructed on impact breaking up the same as Princess Di's car had 4 years prior. The occupants of Rolls stepped out of a car with an extremely bashed up front clip (front nose cone, bonnet & front mudguards) awaiting the arrival of the police. Whereas all the bodies of deceased in the Mercedes only needed but the morgue. Fact. Was also depicted on all the TV news due to the traffic hold ups caused. The Crewe cars are solid bespoke cars and an almost road fortress, the Mercedes overrated Euro trash.

@@gregharvie3896 Hi Greg - very interesting to hear your observations regarding the safety of these old cars. I suppose their weight, design and construction does make them a sort of castle on wheels. To answer your question about how the these Bentleys and Rolls’ were outdone by the w140 (and contemporary 7 series) I would suggest the following points for consideration: 1. Handling and chassis design. The old Crewe cars were way behind in terms of braking, cornering and active safety systems such as traction and stability control. That’s unavoidable when the basic chassis design dates back to the 1960’s and 1970’s. In fact these old Crewe cars didn’t get fuel injection and ABS until about 86. And I don’t think stability control or side airbags ever appeared on them unlike the Germans. 2. The V12 engine. The fact is that the Germans moved the game on by offering a V12. The old Crewe cars offered a V8 engine that also dated back to the 1960’s. It was tragic to see Crewe’s refusal to quote horsepower figures because everyone knew they were embarrassingly low compared to the V12 Mercedes and BMW at the time. 3. Features and options. Have a close look at the Crewe cars and you’ll see odd things like seat belts that were black rather than matched to the interior colours. This was almost unforgivable in cars that claimed to be the height of bespoke luxury. For comparison the 1996 model E-class was available with belts that matched the interior colour but not a Rolls / Bentley costing four times as much. The w140 offered variable assistance power steering which Crewe cars never had. The BMW and Mercedes both offered a five speed automatic which again never appears on the cars from Crewe. I also don’t think parking sensors or satellite navigation ever appeared as factory options in the 90s for Rolls or Bentley whereas they certainly did for Mercedes and BMW. 4. Performance and aerodynamics - sadly a mid level w140 or 7 series from the 90s could outpace the Crewe cars in both acceleration and top speed whilst returning much better fuel consumption. You didn’t need a V12 Benz or BMW to trounce the Crewe cars in terms of pace. Aerodynamics were also a major issue for the Crewe cars. Having driven all of them at motorway speeds the low wind noise and cross wind stability of a w140 or 7 series were on a different planet to the Rolls / Bentley of the 1990s. The W140 was also assisted by having double glazed windows as standard which greatly reduced noise from the outside. And, subjectively, I felt the w140 was quieter inside than the 90’s Rolls or Bentley. Subjectively, the Crewe cars are utterly charming and wonderful. Objectively, I hope you can see why they were indeed hopelessly outdone by their German rivals.

@@gregharvie3896 so to sum up your comprehensive post, if you plan to hurtle through a Paris underpass at highly illegal speeds whilst being chased by a pack of photographers on motorcycles, your preferred car to crash in is the Bentley and not a Mercedes. Duly noted and if I’m ever in Paris anticipating the aforementioned scenario I’ll be sure to follow your advice.

You're welcome! I'm hoping to spend a bit less on it, I already have so far this year so 🤞 Most of the things I've had to spend money on shouldn't need spending on again for a good while.

@@benofbrown I hope you don't have to spend anything more for a long time!! That's the trouble with these cars, they get under your skin & lure you in! Enjoy many relaxing miles!

Watch yourself. You've just invited the gods of classic cars to come after your wallet.

or even better, buy one with broken engine and transmision, LS swap it.

Agree.

Yes, only came in the later years of pre-VW RR/Bentley, I love it.

I was considering an XJ40 when I ended up buying this car, I decided you can only buy your first car once so if I could I'd go for the Bentley

@@benofbrownIt's an intriguing choice! I, alongside many, took my first steps in car mechanics on my first car. So, if you did the same, you'd have another unusual story for dinner parties!

True, but but not an issue if you buy one thats had it replaced which is what I would do. As a weekend, nice days toy, they are great fun and relatively inexpensive to run and good ones are now appreciating.

It really has, though as I've just said in another comment I'm hoping to spend a bit less now, a lot of the spend so far is for things that should last a while.

@@benofbrown Thought of as maintenance cost alone it can seem bad but as combined cost of ownership I'd say seems quite good compared to what you'd have to buy for anything else with similar characteristics.

Absolutely, anything Spirit shaped is a bit of minger in the looks department.

Thanks!