1996 Bentley Continental R

With a flawless history, this delightful Bentley Continental R comes to us via a friend of the business. A man who has forgotten more about this sort of car than most, he won’t mind us telling you that he is unusually pernickety when it comes to his classics for his own collection. With many years of experience under his belt he can spot a good ‘un at a glance – and this is a very good one indeed.

The Bentley’s former owner was an old school automotive engineer, the sort who buys himself a lightly used Bentley Continental R to give himself something to do in his retirement. So, you’ll find a great many recent invoices for parts, plus a few bills from Rolls-Royce and Bentley specialists for more intricate, model-specific work. Prior to that, the service book is full of main dealer stamps. It has, therefore, exactly the sort of service history you would want to see for a car of this type.

And it’s paid off. We’ve looked around and driven it and can confirm that it is one of the best we’ve ever seen; with a low mileage, barely ruffled interior, and coachwork whose condition has to be seen to be believed, this is your chance to buy one of the best conserved cars of its type for a price that you would more normally associate with ratty, high-mileage, abused examples. 

The Silica coachwork is almost certainly all original and is still in fine fettle but that’s only to be expected given the car’s low mileage, pampered life and Bentley’s ridiculously OTT build quality and attention to detail.

For example, just take a look at the three plaques that have been fitted inside the driver’s door at the base of the A-pillar. Reading ‘Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd’, ‘Continental R’ and ‘Bentley Motors Limited’: all are gloriously unnecessary but speak of the pride with which the car was built. Two further plaques reading ‘Coachbuilt by Mulliner Park Ward’ and ‘Jack Barclay Ltd, London’ adorn the front sills, indicating who actually built the car and then first sold it respectively.

The panel fit is every bit as good as you’d ever hope it to be, and that it remains so after all these years hints at a car with no dark periods in its past, no story to tell – and when you’re buying what is essentially a hand-built car the very last thing you want is for a previous owner to contact you with a take that starts: “You’ll laugh when I tell you what happened to me in the old girl one dark and rainy night…”

So, the doors open and close as well as anything we’ve ever driven, and there’s a precision to their alignment and operation that lesser cars simply don’t have. The paintwork is still even and glossy too, and shines beautifully, shimmering in the low winter sun.

There might be the odd stonechip here and there, although if there is we’ve struggled to find anything worse than one fingernail-sized chip in the lacquer…

The alloy wheels are in good shape with only very minor marks. The tyres that are fitted have good tread.

The cherished number plate will come with the car, and we should point out that it makes the car look older than it is; the Continental is a 1996 model, and not a 1994 as the registration number suggests.

If you thought the Bentley is imposing from outside then you’re in for a treat when you step inside. The acres of contrasting green and grey leather is all wonderfully soft and beautifully stitched - and just look at that centre console! A wonderful contradiction of old and new, it really is one of the greatest we’ve ever seen, managing to be both daunting and a model of clarity simultaneously.

The wood, and there’s a lot of that too, is slick to the touch and has been matched and patterned in a way that can only be done by a craftsman with decades of experience.

The pleated headlining is still taut and clean and echoes the pattern on the seats. It again has been beautifully done and stands as a testament to those who installed it with such care almost a quarter of a century ago.

The carpets are soft and deep, and still in wonderful condition thanks to leather-bound and embossed genuine Bentley overmats.

But it’s the chromed controls that really set this car apart from a high-end BMW, Jaguar or Audi. They gleam, of course, but there’s a precision and a robustness to their finish and operation that speaks of an obsessive attention to detail and a determination to make even the most mundane of tasks a pleasure. They really are delightful.

Even the seats, the place that takes the brunt of wear and tear in even the most carefully curated car, are still firm and supportive and unblemished by even the most minor of damage. There is very, very slight creasing to the outer edge of the driver’s and front passenger’s seat but that aside they still look just about perfect.

In fact, the only significant wear we can find to the interior is to the central armrest, which shows some light rubbing too one edge where the driver’s elbow has rested. This is very minor though and we imagine that the area could be professionally recoloured at little cost.

The boot is as perfect as the rest of the car and needs nothing other than admiring, although we must mention one small issue - the struts on the boot and bonnet are no longer quite up to the job of supporting their weight – something the new owner will most likely wish to address. Similarly the vendor notes that the driver's electric window can be a touch intermittent, we can report that it has worked happily with us most of the time and is probably a simple switch or connection issue.

Oh, and the windscreen is a Triplex Sundym, professionally installed by Phantom Motor Cars at a cost of more than £2,500. If anything sums up the money-no-object approach previous owners adopted with this car it is the fact that someone was willing to pay two-and-a-half grand on a tinted windscreen.

The engine bay is as imposing as it is clean. Stuffed full of that gorgeously sonorous V8 turbocharged engine, the care with which Bentley installed even the smallest components is evident.

Everything is beautifully labelled, too; remember, this car was built at a time when Rolls-Royce and Bentley still built the world’s finest cars rather than simply opened crates of parts labelled BMW and VW respectively…

So, it starts with a muted woffle, and ticks over with barely a sound much less vibration. Of course, when you open it up it roars as you’d expect and allows the Continental to proceed with considerably more pep than you’d expect of a car with its heft.

Our boss has driven a few of these in his time, and owned plenty of similarly bespoke and powerful cars, and he says it is “marvelous to drive” and in “extraordinarily good condition”, adding that it passed the model-specific brake test with “flying colours.” He’s not an easy man to please – as my annual staff appraisal with attest – but he’s smitten with this one.

The online MOT history shows nothing of concern whatsoever. Indeed, it hasn’t drawn a single advisory point since 2007, which is proof positive that it has led something of a pampered life.

It also confirms the car’s mileage, which is ridiculously low for a car of this pedigree. Barely run-in, the Continental comes with a number of expired MOT certificates plus a sheaf of invoices and bills from folk like Flying Spares and R.R. & B. Services to confirm the recent work that has been done to it. This work includes more than a thousand pound’s-worth of brake and suspension work in April 2016, £550-worth of brake work in 2018, and a new battery in 2015.

The car’s last owner, who was, you will remember, a professional automotive engineer, has detailed the work he carried out on the Bentley in the decade he owned it; please see the back of the car’s service handbook for details.

Prior to the previous owner’s care, you’ll find a string of main dealer stamps to confirm that the Bentley has been serviced exactly as you, and the factory, would have liked.

This Bentley also comes with two sets of keys and its original handbook. 

Please visit the documents section of the gallery of this listing where you will find photos of this and other paperwork to support our claim that this car has been maintained in recent years to the very highest standard.

With a guide price of £31,000 to £40,000 this isn’t the cheapest route into classic motoring – but it might just be the pinnacle, and viewed in that light it is something of a bargain, especially when you see what others are asking for vastly inferior examples. Quick research show that there are many examples with 100,000miles currently available at this price level - which would you choose?

The Continental’s huge depreciation over the years might have stung its former keepers but that just makes the deal all the sweeter for the next one; the price of these can’t stay at these levels forever and you’ll be ruing the day you missed cars this in a decade.

And if you’re buying with an eye to the future then you really do need to buy the very best you can afford; project cars inevitably end up costing multiples of what you estimate and the market never values them as highly as, pampered, low-owner cars such as this one.

Viewing is always encouraged, and this car can be seen here at The Market HQ in Abingdon; to arrange an appointment please use the ‘Contact Seller’ button at the top of the listing. Feel free to ask any questions or make observations in the comments section below, or try our ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.

If needed, please remember we have a network of trusted suppliers we work with regularly and can recommend: Classic & Sportscar Finance for purchase-financing, Footman James for classic car insurance Thames Valley Car Storage for storing your car and AnyVan for transporting it.

BORING, but IMPORTANT: Please note that whilst we at The Market always aim to offer the most descriptive and transparent auction listings available, we cannot claim they are perfect analyses of any of the vehicles for sale. We offer far greater opportunity for bidders to view, or arrange inspections for each vehicle thoroughly prior to bidding than traditional auctions, and we never stop encouraging bidders to take advantage of this. We do take a good look at the vehicles delivered to our premises for sale, but this only results in our unbiased personal observations, not those of a qualified inspector or other professional, or the result of a long test drive.

Additionally, please note that most of the videos on our site have been recorded using simple cameras which often result in 'average' sound quality; in particular, engines and exhausts notes can sound a little different to how they are in reality.

Please note that this is sold as seen and that, as is normal for used goods bought at auction, the Sale of Goods Act 1979 does not apply.