That seems awfully high. I have owned a Silver Wraith II, which is a much more maintenance intensive car than an Arnarge for 15 years. Maintenance has averaged $2,500 per year, which is dead on target with what the dealer told me when I bought it. For what it is worth, a replacement engine for my car is about $28,000.00.
Yes, those numbers came from Transco in NC when I was looking at an Arnage Le Mans edition a while back. I've been there and done that with an S-class Benz and there are just too many systems on the car that are expensive to fix when they finally go bad. Everyone (except the salesmen) have tried to talk me out of getting one. Maybe I should start to listen...
If you are looking for wheels, bentley of long island I believe has a set of 20s on sale on ebay made by Lorinser. Otherwise you can contact HRE and have them make a custom set up for you with a bit of deep dish lip and some more rubber. Erik, I talked to a few owners, and it seems the maintenance on these cars are much lower than quoted. If you spend about 2K-3K per year, you should be in the perfect range to maintain a 00 Arnage.
Yes, but remember that the car will "get old" during your ownership. For example, on my S class Benz, when it was 4-6 years old, it was only about $1500 a year in maintenance, when it was 7-8, it jumped to almost $3k. You're getting into that time frame that the big stuff starts to fail.
If that's the case, you've got nothing to worry about. We've had Karen's Lexus for 10 years now and the 365 GT4 for 7years. My short term ownership days are over.
Wow quite a feat! I can't even imagine owning anything that long (cars that is). My SC was longest. My current LS has been in the garage for about 4 months and I am itching to get rid of it.
The cars I buy now are the cars that I want to keep. I'll probably keep the Carrera 4 for a while longer as a daily driver and Karen wants a Jeep, so we'll have kept her Lexus for ~12 years before we get rid of it. All of the Ferrari purchases are long term toys. I hate depreciation when I sell, but love it when I buy.
See because I buy and sell so often, I usually break even all the time. My cars barely get any mileage on them. My 11 month old Cooper S is at 2800 miles and the LS currently has 951 miles in 3 months.
They are less expensive than a 2000 Arnage and look better (to me at least). But I already have a front engine 2+2...
All of my service work is done by Transco. Before I moved to Charlotte 8 years ago, I drove 550 miles one way to have my car serviced by them. Can't say enough good things about Mel Robertson, the senior service tech there. Anyway, that figure still seems high. The figure quoted to me for my car was from Hermann Albers and Cal West, and was based on actual information as the car was 10 years old at the time I bought it. Sure, some bills have been higher (way higher) and some lower but over the 15 years it has averaged $2,500.00. I am going to have to talk to some of my friends to see what their experiences with their Arnages have been.
All this speculation of crazy service cost is BS. I actually have an Arnage and know a couple other people with various Bentley models and none of them have any horror stories of service costs. Its just like the guy without a Ferrari that tells people that it costs 15k a year to own a ferrari in maitenence.(doesn't matter what kind, it applies to all Ferraris). If you take care of the car and do regular fluid/filter changes it should be fine. I just had my 10k service and it cost me 900 and change. Other than that, the car is solid and hasn't had any real issues. As far as the real old stuff goes, thats anyones guess. It all depends on how it was maintained by the owner the same as anything else. Knowing what I do now, I would be much more cautious buying a used Ferrari than a Bentley.
Jeff - beautiful car. My wife has a Continental GT (via Matthew at EuroM)and loves it, but there's something about the ... well ... real Bentleys! Have you ordered a DB9? I'm waiting for the 575 Stradale, if it's for real. Cheers, Will
Hi Will, Kevin is my guy at Euro and they had a few corporate cars last week for a special demo so we took one and ran it hard for an hour or so and then had lunch at Flapps on Friday. Have you driven it much? I know it feels like it has a little less pedigree but it is still a pretty cool car. I am waiting for the convertible to come out and am looking for something cool until then. Unfortunately the DB9 won't be here for a couple months and the Volante won't be here till March and already has a wait. They have a funky blue color Cont. GT at Euro that was bought by someone who couldn't get in and out easily so they brought it back. It is available now close to sticker with 200 miles but I couldn't live with the color. Also, I already have the Arnage so it really wouldn't serve another need like a convertible or another exotic to justify it. What color did you end up getting? I would love to see the Stradale one day, I haven't seen one in person yet. Jeff
Jeff - Is the CGT the bright blue? If that's the one, it's a pretty strong blue, too much for my taste. We have a navy blue + beige CGT; really my wife's car (she's been hogging the driving time), but as you know it's got a great engine and over the top luxuries. I've thought about getting on Euro's list for the convertible, that should be terrific. Looking for something until the convert CGT arrives ... hmmm, that's a good problem to have ... SL65 on sale in the US yet? Probably a big wait for that, but I'd like to try one just for the torque. Phillip at HBL seems to have the occasional Vanquish - I want a V, just to listen to the engine note on start-up! I suspect Criswell would be delighted to sell its Gallardos, if they still have any - I thought I read somewhere that they have 3 in stock. Of course, you also could buy my '03 575 from Ralph at FWash where it's on consignment . Too many choices and, to be honest, all I really want to do is test drive most of the cars out there, not own them. I live just a couple miles from Flaps, and get to FWash fairly often. The Stradale's spent the last month at Karosserie having a roll bar installed, but I should have it back next week and plan to drive it a lot to make up for lost time .... Cheers, Will
Are complete service and parts manuals available for a Bentley? I really like the new Cont. GT.........however, I don't think I would want one, if I had to go to the dealer every time..........he is 250 miles away!!!!!!!!!!!!! I plan on looking for a used one next Spring.
