Hi all, I'm interested in buying a 2005/2006 Bentley coupe or sedan with < 30k miles.

I prefer lower miles (for obvious reasons) so these model years fall into my price range.

But I'm unsure in regards to some of the differences.


With regards to the coupes, are they all GTs?

What is the Mulliner package?

Are there any other models/versions?


In sedans, Ive seen a GT and a "Flying Spur", what are the differences?

Are there any other models/versions?


What are some common issues/problems and what should I look for when buying from a private seller?

 

Wow, many basic questions. Please look online as many questions are answered there. As for problems, please use the search engine here as the 05 has many, with the 06 being not far behind. Some common, and expensive, problems seem to have been solved with 2012 and newer models.

Bottom Line
Make sure you always have around $5000 to $10,000 in cash reserve to fix her when something goes wrong. This is part of the reason why the 2005 and 2006 models are easy to get at 'reasonable' pricing.

 

Hi.

A little confusion here I think.

All of the coupes & convertibles are GT's and are all 2 door.
The Flying Spur is 4 door and there is no Flying Spur GT.
There are however 'Speed' models in both GT & Flying Spur.

The Mulliner package is quilted seats and door cards basically, plus a knurled gear ****.

Just one point. Low mileage on these cars means nothing. Some of the faults seem to be age related rather than how many miles they have covered.

One example. Vacuum air hose failures, (engine/gearbox out to fix), have been know on cars with less than 20k, whist my own it went at around 50k.

Choose wisely!

I'm not sure how many adverts you can see in the States, but if you take a look at the Autotrader in the UK, you will find loads of these cars of all ages and options.
Here's a link for you; http://www.autotrader.co.uk/used-cars In the distance box, choose the national option and your good to go.

Les.

 

More like a LOT of confusion.

Actually, my questions were based on the listing titles for the cars. My guess is that either the owners themselves are confused or the titles are being incorrectly auto populated.

But thank you for the info.

 

I also found this thread by stevenrmusic:

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...-bentleys.html

A lot of auto forums will sticky threads which summarize common issues/known problems.

There will also be a DIY (Do It Yourself) section.

So if I were test driving a Bentley, how would I know that it has a vacuum leak? A typical vacuum leak is usually characterized by restricted air flow thru the defroster vents and a rough idle.

Other issues mentioned in that thread: upper control arm bushings and the front struts (for $5000?).

I dont know if I could detect whether the car had bad bushings or needed new struts. Maybe if it "crunched" going over a speed bump?

 

Pre-purchase inspection, usually costs a few hundred.

 

The only clue I had when the vacuum hose went was a slightly uneven tickover.
Other than that, I wouldn't have known.

Les.

 

These issues that you guys mentioned, are they common to both the coupes and sedans in those years (04-06)?

 

For early models, you are almost guaranteed to get a sagging headliner. This can cost between $500 and $800 US at and indi.. A dealer would probably want your first born.

 

Get the Carfax. Carfax will catch the export process and state where vehicle went. Some of these cars were exported when they were relatively new and low miles to countries like Finland or neighbors of Russia. Wealthy Russians were doing this to avoid paying Russian importation taxes.

The cars were driven on bad roads and maintaind minimally. Frequently these cars were cleaned up detailed and fixed with stolen parts. The odometers were turned back to slightly more than when they first came into Russia ( early Bentleys were open source to digitally turn back the odometers) Then they are sent back to the United States. I found two such cars at one independent dealership. Both looked terrific and had roughly 30,000 miles each. I certainly would not touch one of them. There is a story online of one individual who bought such a car and couldn't understand why it didn't run well.

The Carfax will also show when the car was repatriated in America. What will be missing is anything that occurred while the car was overseas in the Carfax report.