Bentley: What Makes it a Good Car?

If that’s the dealership I’m thinking of, I remember when they were selling AMC’s

I went in a vacation to White Fish Lake in Western Quebec. They spoke French, of course. I took a few years of French in grade school, but I don’t speak the language at all well. Still, I greeted the locals in French and ordered my beer in French. This didn’t last long and I mentioned than I was American and asked if we could speak English. They happily obliged. They also treated me like a long lost friend because I tried to speak in their language. A small thing, but it goes a long way.

Everyone in Germany that is under 80 learned English in grade school. If they don’t use it after graduating, they lose it. My wife’s cousin speaks English exceptionally well because she has always used it at work. Her husband is a telephone lineman and he never used his English after grade school. We met him about 20:years after graduation and he couldn’t speak English anymore.

When we were in Germany, we had a partial morning free so I wanted to rent a car for a quick trip to the town of my name sake and get pictures for my dad. I rented the car in German at the hotel desk. 5 am looking for my car, a taxi showed up. Must have missed something. She was a good driver though but I ordered meals in English after that. I had three years in German but the dialects spoken are not the same as book lern en.

A language barrier when purchasing a Bentley? Seems like a lack of focus.

A luxury car has a distinct level of comfort, there is an obvious difference between a sofa to a park bench.

Rt. 22, in Bridgewater

I wasn’t even close, I wouldn’t have thought there was 2 dealerships that would make the same mistake. I was thinking of the old AMC dealer Rt. 7 in Tysons Corner VA. They were AMC/Jeep, something else, Fiat and now Alfa’s and Maserati.

Well, isn’t a mule more useful than a thoroughbred race horse, and much easier to train and maintain?

Yes, more or less (mules are not easy to train), but people don’t buy mules to race nor do people buy Bentleys to just to schlep to Publix or Home Depot. They buy Bentleys to drive, be seen in and to make a statement. It is a status symbol.

Rolls Royce bought Bentley in the 1930s because they wanted to add a “driver’s car” to their offering… The owner is driven in a Rolls Royce… the Bentley owner drives himself!

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There is a Bentley Driver’s Club, seems to only be active in the UK but includes all years and models of Bentley in their gatherings. First heard about them where one car would be on the side of the road with a problem and many others would see the stranded comrade and be running with tools to assist.

Sort of makes a person wonder why we don’t see that sort of cooperation in the usa. Maybe b/c if you pulled up to a road-side car that looked like assistance was needed you might well be on the receiving end of a bullet … lol …

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I’ve heard of the same sort of cooperation on the Hot Rod power tour, had to come up with a hand signal that you were just taking a leak, the way the Bentley group was reported it sounded like a brotherhood with no member left behind.

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There is an active vintage Bentley owners group in the US. They are very tight group that tours their cars long distances. They help each other with mechanical issues.

Early Bentleys won the 24 Hours of LeMans in 1927 to 1930… 4 straight! Very advanced car for the 20s.

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I built a plastic model Bentley about 45 yrs. ago. I’m pretty sure it was this one. It didn’t turn out well.

Actually some of the Bentleys were quite impressive performance sedans, Jay Leno owns one, and some of the Rolls and Bentleys are quite affordable on the used car market.
The problem with both and any other Hyper Luxury or Exotic is that the mantenance alone will bleed you dry!

Long ago when I was young, single and stupid I bought a used Maserati from the US Distributor at a vey reasonable price. Burnished wood, beutiful leather, suede and all the power you could want but went in for the 3,000 mile oil change and got the bill. My reaction was to ask, "Is this in Dollars or Lira?! ".
The Shop Manager assured me that it really was in Dollars beginning with, "We we have to remove the radiator to get to the oil filter and I’m sure your understand that these cars have “special needs”.
Years later my mechanic offered me a Rolls that he was using as a personal car for $5,000 and my response was, “What did I do to make you hate me?”. :rofl:

Bottom line is that they really are great cars, built to the edge of what’s possible and desireable but to keep them that way requires a budget larger than some 3rd world counties.

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I never want to be a slave to my possessions. I think about a vehicle as my servant. I will do the necessary service on the vehicle to try to.avoid expensive repairs. A Bentley that is expensive to maintain would make me feel like a slave to the vehicle.
I don’t begrudge anyone the privilege of owning a Bentley or any other expensive car.
In my younger days, the strippo.model of a low priced car suited me just fine. I drove many miles in a bottom of the line 1965 Rambler Classic 550. In my old age of 80, I do appreciate the automatic temperature control, the power sliding doors and the sound system in my Toyota Sienna. I still.transport my musician friends and their instruments to gigs. I am not sure I could fit two cellos, a violin, a trumpet, a flute, my French horn and all 6 players in a Bentley. I don’t think I could remove the rear seats of a Bentley and haul a set of four timpani. I really don’t think a Bentley would fit my life style.
I have friends and colleagues that own BMW and Mercedes Benz vehicles. The closest dealer for these vehicles is 55 miles away. Our Toyota dealer is a mile from my house. I really don’t know what I would do with a Bentley if someone gave me one.

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About 6 years ago a Bentley Continental GT came though the used car department, a crack in the rear suspension sub frame was found. The dealer chose to wholesale the car, a salesmen purchased it for ~$75,000. An auto enthusiast can have this repaired and enjoy a great car.

Rock Auto lists a Mann oil filter for $10.30, is this a high maintenance cost?
Hydraulic suspension fluid for a Lexus is about $40 for two liters, I don’t know what it would cost for Rolls fluid, that might seem to be excessive compared to maintenance on a common compact car.

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Logically, nobody would do it, but some people do things that defy logic. Several months ago, I spotted a nearly-new McLaren at the Whole Foods Market in Princeton. As I was loading my groceries into my car, the McLaren’s owner came out of the store and loaded groceries–obviously not a lot of groceries–into his car.

At the time, I thought that this was an aberration, but I have seen that same McLaren at that strip mall two more times, so it appears that the “older” guy who owns it does use it as his “grocery getter”. Go figure!

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I almost have to believe some of that is because new-rich dopes are willing to pay that much so that they can go around telling everyone they paid 8 grand for a brake job.

Back when I was a little kid my parents lost their minds and sent me to this very exclusive private school for 2 years. It was horrible. I was by far the poorest kid there - we’re talking people who’d had family fortunes for generations. One of the kids lived in a 20,000 square foot named mansion with its own helipad. And here I am getting driven to school by Dad in his stripper-model Toyota Tercel that didn’t even have a radio.

But it showed me something interesting about the difference between the old-money megarich and the new-money rich. Old money doesn’t need to brag. It tends to drive nice, but not ostentatious cars. BMW and Mercedes made up the majority of cars dropping kids off. Despite the fact that most of these guys could pay cash for a Ferrari, I never saw one at school. I didn’t even see any RR or Bentley dropoffs. No one ever talked about how much anything cost.

Then we moved across the country and I ended up in public school with a wider socioeconomic mix. There were a lot of newly-wealthy people there - their parents were first generation college graduates who’d landed upper-mid tier executive roles in large corporations. Those fools went around talking about how much everything cost. There was even one lady, I kid you not, who got the gold accent package for her Camry. She’d park it, then go around unscrewing the gold-painted valve stem caps, letting everyone know she’d paid $5 a piece for them and didn’t want them stolen.

That’s the type who would eagerly pay 8 grand for a brake job so they could tell everyone they can afford 8 grand for a brake job. :wink:

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My mother received a full scholarship to Smith College right at the start of The Great Depression. She was excited about going there until her mother pointed-out that she would likely be the only poor girl at that exclusive school. To make it more specific she told my mother, “The other girls will have a huge closet full of blouses, skirts, and coats. You have 1 coat, 2 skirts, and 4 blouses, and you will feel miserable when you compare yourself to them. And, when they go home for the holidays, you will be stuck there–all alone on campus–because we can only afford the train fare to get you there in the Fall, and to bring you back home in the Spring.”

My mother realized that her mother was right, and instead she attended CUNY–gratis–where she didn’t have to feel inferior.

I am kinda with many here. Even if I had all the money in the world, I probably wouldn’t buy one of these as I am too practical. As mentioned, if one was given to me, I would sell it and buy a Camry since that was the option mentioned at first. A Camry is a good practical car although I hear changing oil on newer Toyotas isn’t as simple as it used to be.

I remember seeing Bill Gates on the news several years ago driving up to some event. He drove up in a Lexus sedan, probably the model based off a Camry platform. This is certainly a nice car and not cheap but not something insanely crazy either. Some of these tech barons really like to show off with trips into space and all so seeing one of them in a Bentley or similar wouldn’t surprise me.