Hello all, thanks for having me on the site. This site has tons of info thatI am happy with. With that said, I have a few questions that might have already been asked. I apologize in advance.
To get to the Bentley I am looking at. The Bentley is a 2008 continental GTC. It has 44k Miles on it. It has a white exterior and light brown interior. It is a convertible. The dealer claims to have had it fully serviced.

Here are the question I have for the forum:
- What is a good offer for the car pending any issues?
- Has anyone used Performance First for an extended warranty plan? (I live in AZ)
- What should I look for when I go to inspect the car?
- Does anyone have any info on the conversion kit to swap the 6 CD changer to be egilbile to use a USB or Bluetooth for the stereo system?
- Has anyone rode in the back seat of the Bentley that is tall or bigger? Do you think there is enough room for most passengers in the back?
- What should I expect to spend on annual maintenance?

Thanks in advance for all the information.
Happy New Years!

 

Hello @bobthebuilder ,
I have moved your thread from the marketplace, here to the Bentley forum.

Being that you are looking at a convertible, be sure to check for proper operation of the top quite a few times prior to purchasing, be sure the (side) flaps in the rear seating area work as they should, meaning, fully open and close, check the exterior of the roof for any wear marks or holes from inner mechanism and or cables, check the rear roof glass for proper seal and mounting all around.

100% be sure that the vacuum lines along the firewall behind the steering rack, along with the vacuum lines up to the intake manifold have been replaced or serviced in some form, hopefully they were replaced with metal lines by an indy, and not the same oem plastic lines still supplied by Bentley parts.

Check the age on both batteries.

Put the vehicle into jack mode and check for any drop of the suspension at each corner, that is if you have a few hours to hang around, bring a tape measure with you.

If you have the Ross-Tech VCDS or have a friend that has one for their VAG vehicles, bring it with you and scan the vehicle for any faults, if you see no faults at all, that's a flag for me as to the dealership doing a clearing of all faults, as these vehicles will always have a fault pop up here and there, even if only a Intermittent fault, it will still record and save it to show in the scan, so go for a long test drive and re-scan after.

You can add the AMI for music.

I never use a warranty, I do all my own work, see my rebuild thread, .

I am not sure on the convertible, as one has more head room with the top down (open) of course, but not sure of the head room when closed, the coupe (hardtop) is very tight for me in the rear seat, at 5'11".

Happy New Year.
Johnny

 

I love my Bentley, I recommend it. I am nearly certain my dealer cleared the faults before sending it to me though

I would peruse this forum a bit, we have a couple guys who absolutely hate the convertible because the top isn't robust enough and replacement (often required, not repair) is over $15k.

Mine's a hard top and very, very quiet.

It's a bit awkward to work out, but if you're inspecting the car in person, buy a Ross-tech scanner https://store.ross-tech.com/shop/vchv2_ent/ and run the codes like Johnny said. I would not buy a car with a check engine light on unless I scanned it myself. https://store.ross-tech.com/shop/vchv2_ent/ it's only a couple hundred bucks, you're going to need it anyway and it's like pre-paid insurance. If I could shop again and do this, I would scan any car I test drove with the scanner.

I wouldn't worry about TPMS lights on; those things quit and most of us have them turned off.

Super common issues: vacuum leaks, like Johnny said. If the car is rough idling or surging at idle this is probably the cause. Also more minor leaks will send the fault codes through the roof, all sorts of seemingly unrelated stuff. I had to replace my third brake light, this is really common, water gets into the connector. Same with air struts, if the car sinks down, the struts are leading, these are expensive. Brakes and rotors are expensive since they are the biggest in the world, you can't substitute, so don't buy one that needs a brake job, especially a ceramic brake car.

The radio/infotainment is junk, you can replace/upgrade in a couple different ways. The car amplifier is good, the speakers are terrible and the radio is terrible. Don't know why.

This car has sensors on literally everything, including the overhead panel, so plugging into it and looking at what the computer is saying is absolutely the most important pre-buy task you can complete.

In my limited experience with one car, the engine is pretty bulletproof, I've changed the coils and plugs and they looked new, all of my mechanical issues have been with things that need to get moved regularly, and my car sat for a long time. I've replaced waste gate controllers, the third brakelight, the front air suspension (that was caused by a detail shop high-pressure water hose damaging both struts due to over-zealous cleaning I told them to do).

Oh, and I had a weird and small exhaust leak, there is a thread on here about that. Stick your head under the hood and listen carefully.

But vacuum hoses, struts, third brake light are probably the biggest ones.

 

These are great cars, but I would not get one built prior to 2013. The second gen seem to be much more error free.