Bentley Continental Flying Spur 6.0 W12
Project Bentley Continental
PART FIVE: As we prepare to wave off our Flying Spur we consider what it’s been like to live with. Paul Wager reports.
If all goes according to plan, this should be the final instalment of our Bentley Continental project and since my last report the main issues have been the windscreen and the looming MOT.
I mentioned last time that the car had developed a crack in the windscreen during a cold snap back in January and as so often happens it had slowly but surely grown since I first spotted it.
With the MOT due to expire soon, it really needed sorting and since it was a crack it couldn’t be repaired, meaning that replacement was the only option. This being effectively a company car, our fleet manager confirmed that the cost would be limited to a £150 excess which underlines the value of windscreen cover on your motor insurance since the glass alone is £2300 from Bentley parts suppliers.
I duly called the number on the policy which directed me to make an online booking for a fitting at home. Inevitably, a few hours later I received a call telling me that because of the type of car I’d have to take it to a local depot. In practical terms there’s no difference between the Flying Spur and a Passat but it seems that as soon as you mention the word ‘Bentley’ it causes consternation.
With an appointment duly booked at the fitting depot I then received an email to pay the excess… but when I clicked the link it wasn’t the £150 I was expecting but £6637. It appeared there was some confusion as to whether the vehicle was identified individually on our fleet insurance. Cue another call to the fleet manager who managed to sort that out and I duly paid up.
The job takes a couple of hours after which the car needs to sit for a further 30 minutes for the bonding to cure, so with laptop in hand I set off to the fitting depot. At which point I was glad to find I’d been allocated a switched-on technician who immediately spotted that the rain sensor on the supplied screen was on the opposite side to the one on our car.
Wrong part arrived
Further examination revealed that the supplied glass was most likely for a lefthand-drive car, since the rain sensor is positioned to be swept by the wipers. Although this discovery was of precious little use since it was clearly the wrong part and the correct screen would need to be ordered. Fortunately, they hadn’t removed the old screen, so I was able to drive away.
A week or so later there was another financial slap when I was asked to pay a further £190 because the correct glass had cost more than expected and as a VAT-registered company we were therefore liable for more VAT. The lady at the call centre told me incredulously that the glass had cost £2300 so I tried to sound surprised…
A couple of
