With 500 horsepower on tap from its twin-turbo 6.75-liter V8, today’s Nice Price or No Dice Bentley should be a force to be reckoned with. Let’s see if its price tag forces us to reckon with it being a decent deal.
In ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,’ Mark Twain’s 1876 account of a young boy’s hijinks in the American Midwest, the author introduces us to the titular Tom’s best friend, Huckleberry Finn, who, we are told, chooses to walk around carrying a dead cat. Huck intends to hurl the flat-lined feline at a devil who is in the process of stealing away a wicked person’s corpse at the cemetery in the superstitious belief that the tabby toss will cure his warts. You probably wouldn’t want to invite Huck Finn to your next fancy cocktail party, but were he to show up, he probably would be the life of the shindig.
The 2006 Jaguar X-Type Estate that was our last candidate appeared to have plenty of life left and, based on the pictures, didn’t suffer any warts or other significant issues. As one of just two production station wagon models in all of Jaguar’s history, our X-Type also offered some bragging rights. Unfortunately for its seller, many of you felt its $9,000 asking price was nothing to write home about. The result was a narrow 54% “No Dice” loss.
Virage d’Arnage
As “reasonably rare and unflappably British” seems to resonate (despite the price tag letdown), let’s stick with what’s working and look at another Brit, albeit one named after a French racetrack corner. Like many of Bentley’s models, this 2008 Arnage T Mulliner celebrates W.O. Bentley’s successes racing Le Mans Grand Prix d’Endurance in the 1920s, which culminated in a 1-2-3-4 showing in the 1929 race. Arnage, of course, is the tight right-hander feeding out of the Virage d’Indianapolis, which together break up the middle of the Mulsanne Straight.
The Bentley Arnage is an odd duck of a car: it was initially developed around a pair of BMW engines, but was later adapted to use the older Rolls 6.75-liter V8 when Volkswagen’s ownership of the marque made using the Bavarian mills an embarrassment. The Arnage, along with the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph, is also notable as being just the third new platform to emerge from Crewe at the time, and the last shared by the two marques, as they split ownership soon after.
Exclusive exclusivity
Records indicate this is one of only 277 Arnage saloons built in 2008. If that’s not exclusive enough for you, this car is also denoted as a Mulliner, which means it includes several personalizations (color combination, upholstery pattern, etc.) made during its initial build. That could effectively make it a one-of-one car.
Overall, this 49,000-mile, clean-title super sedan appears to be in excellent condition. The white paint is a bit of a letdown, as a car of this stature deserves to be dressed in something a bit less ‘major appliance’ in hue. That’s made up for, however, by the Palomino interior. Awash in leather, burlwood, and Wilton Wool, it’s a thing of beauty to behold. The leather appears to have been well cared for, with only minor wear in the more heavily used areas, but overall, it is in excellent condition. The car is nearly 20 years old, so the tech is a bit crude, with the only screen on the dash a small pop-up that seems glaringly out of place in the otherwise old-school opulence. The fully carpeted boot offers copious space along with a CD changer and not one but two Bentley-branded umbrellas.
Six and three-quarters
Under the bonnet sits Bentley’s big V8. Clocking in at a very traditional 6.75 liters in displacement, the pushrod engine is fed by twin turbos and makes a hefty 500 horsepower and earth-slowing 738 pound-feet of torque. That’s good enough to move the 5,600-pound car to sixty from a standstill in under six seconds. It also means 10 mpg around town, so get friendly with the gas pump. Bentley contracted Cosworth to build the motors, so there’s that connection to boast about as well. Behind the big mill is a ZF six-speed automatic, which inexplicably offers a manual mode for the nouveau-riche who don’t know proper etiquette.
According to the ad, the car “runs and drives great,” and comes, as one would naturally hope, with a library full of maintenance records. These engines tend to send their head gaskets to the cornfield with regularity. That means proper maintenance is a must to ensure they don’t do so prematurely, as that’s an ungodly expensive repair bill. Fortunately, the engine bay looks as clean as the rest of the car, with the space dominated by the twin charge coolers for the intake stream.
A worthy deal?
One might expect something as exclusive and fancy-pants as this Arnage to be priced out of reach for the common car buyer, but at $38,500, this one is around the same cost as a well-equipped Camry. That’s less than ten grand below the average of what people are spending on new cars, and as we all know, the only benefit of buying new is getting a warranty for when something goes wrong. This Bentley eschews that for old-school class, and a bit of a roll of the dice on the expectation that no major maintenance or repairs are looming in the near future.
What’s your take on that chance at this car’s $38,500 asking? Does that feel like a fair risk to take for so much luxury piled into one single car? Or is that just the tip of the financial iceberg any new owner will face?
You decide!
Nice Price or No Dice:
Washington, DC, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Whatsupdohc for the hookup!
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