When it comes to playing dangerous games in the world of car collecting, picking up a dirt-cheap luxury model is perhaps one the riskiest gambles you can take. These are the cars that were previously the top dogs of the high-end automobile food chain that are rendered to the bottom of the pile after just a few years and one or two mechanical failures. That’s certainly the issue with a car like this, a non-running 1989 Bentley Turbo R listed here on Facebook Marketplace for just $9,850. The Turbo R was both a luxury liner and a decent performance sedan, but it can be a nightmare to care for a neglected one.
Now, I should clarify the non-running condition: if I’m reading the ad correctly, it does run but doesn’t stay running. Most drivers I know would qualify a running car as one that can be turned on and left idling, so I’ll clarify this by saying the engine will fire up but the car will not stay running. That sounds like a fuel delivery issue, so perhaps after years of barn storage, the fuel pump gave out. I doubt this Bentley was actually in a barn, but I could see it being parked if it was in the hands of an older owner who stopped driving right about the time the mechanical faults started piling up.
The other detail about cars like Bentleys and Rolls-Royces is that it’s not just about the mechanical upkeep; everything else, from the seats to the carpeting, was on another level compared to other makes and models. So when you buy a project-grade example, you have to weigh whether all of the high-end materials inside the car can be cleaned up and restored, or if you’ll have to replace those components as well. At the very least, if you’re going to buy a beater Bentley, find one with an interior in good order. This one isn’t bad, but it isn’t great, as the driver’s seat exhibits plenty of wear and tear.
Now, despite the concerns over buying a high-end used car, this Bentley Turbo R at least has low-ish miles, certainly low for the year. And the genuine wood trim looks to be in excellent condition, a tell-tale sign of sorts that a previous owner loved this car, at least up until it was parked with no clear plans to revive it. The Bentley Turbo R is a collectible model, certainly from an era known for powerful four-door luxury sedans. When factoring in for maintenance, does it make sense to try and bring this turbocharged flagship back to life?
Buy it for 10K and spend 30K or more to rebuild the hydraulics and fuel injection. Might as well pull the engine or a complete reseal with new head gaskets while you’re at it. And then you will have a beautiful driving car which will continue to hemorrhage as your bank account depletes. Any takers?
Alphasud,
As the former owner of a Silver Spur [and about 30 other Rolls-Royce & Bentleys from the 1930s to 1970s], and having operated an independent Rolls-Royce & Bentley service & restoration shop, I can affirm what you are saying!
Now if I still had my shop in operation, I might make the owner an offer for the car, but not being able to drive it makes this a risky purchase, especially for someone who can’t do the work themselves or have the special tools.
Cost / benefit ratio makes no sense. No wonder it’s abandoned.
There was a similar model on Hoovies garage. Even the Wizard could not keep it running.
Better off with the CX from the other day. Comfier and doesn’t have the ego-trip implications.
If Boris had a car…
If one were skilled, one could replace the engine and brakes with GM parts for, say, a last-gen Buick Roadmaster and put in an aftermarket airbag suspension system for little enough that it would be worth doing.
I’m not skilled, though, so it’s a no from me.
No you can’t unless you want more problems than the original. The brakes are like NOTHING else in the world and you cannot do a swap over.
Chawlers,
I ran an independent Rolls-Royce & Bentley repair & restoration shop until I retired.
While I will not say it’s impossible to change out the original engine to a GM version, by the time you have accomplished it [sort of], you will have spent damn near as much as if you fixed the original problems.
Until you have been to the factory Rolls-Royce schools and have the repair manuals [the stack of manuals to maintain & repair these cars is measured in feet, not inches!], you will likely make even more costly mistakes in self-learning how to do the repairs correctly.
MKG, You are correct.
For the Barn Finds public, here is an example of the difference between the Rolls-Royce/Bentley engine, and all the rest.
If you have to remove the intake manifold, when replacing it, there is no gasket. Instead it requires a special SILK [yes, real silk] thread of a specific diameter. This thread must be carefully laid on the block as shown in the manual diagram, overlapping the ends in an “X” at a specific point. Then the clean manifold can be carefully set in place. This isn’t just about being neat & tidy, the mating surfaces are designed to accept the silk thread, laid down in a specific manner.
My dealership Tenry Auto Toys LLC can maintain and repair the brakes and/or fuel system from years of experience but just know certain parts have become expensive regardless how much we help someone in dire need. I was privileged enough to become friends with the Albers brothers( Albers Rolls Royce and Bentley in the 1990’s and learned first hand from them the ends and outs of these cars. I personaly own a Turbo R . If you need us we’re in Adamsville Tennessee.
This car has LS swap written all over it!
I was thinking the body would look good on a 4×4 frame.
There is nothing more expensive than a cheap Bentley
Except maybe a cheap Ferarri?
A problem on steroids
As modern Bentleys go, this is the best looking I’d ever seen. I find it way more attractive than today’s Bentleys.
Cost- benefit? PHHHHT! for under ten grand, add another 10 grand or so for repairs and maintenance catch-up, then, drive it into the ground! I’d be touring in style for life!
Interesting that the engine redlines at 4500. Wonder what other ancient tech went into these things? And of course the mileage is low – they didn’t last long enough to rack up any substantial travel.
JP,
Ok, I’ll bite . . . It’s a luxury car with a VERY powerful engine that doesn’t need to achieve a high rev line, because the power curve is so broad. That’s superior engineering & design.
Now about all the other, ahem, uncouth comments;
As for high mileage, I’ve seen MANY Rolls-Royce & Bentley cars with 500,000 miles and still going strong, WITHOUT MAJOR OVERHAULS. The most common drivetrain overhaul on these cars is the automatic transmission, a unit designed & built by GM.
I bought a 1985 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur that had been under 10 feet of Potomac River water as a result of a flood in 1995. I took the entire car apart and carefully rebuilt it all. Of special note was the interior of the engine. While the entire car was underwater for more than 2 days, not a drop of water was found inside the engine. Not in the crankcase, not in the cylinders. No water in the rear axle or the fuel tank as well. All were equipped with one-way valves for atmospheric venting, and they worked, even at a submerged depth of 10 feet. Of all of the hardware pieces, having been made of stainless steel, none had corroded. The only sealed units that had water inside were the electronic computer modules, made in America and Germany.
I’ve never heard of any off-road vehicles of ANY MAKE that can make those claims!
I have a close friend with a Rolls-Royce twin-turbo Flying Spur with over 250,000 miles, with no major overhauls. He often takes the car to shows and the public cannot believe that his 99% original car doesn’t have more than 40,000 miles.
For example, his car does not have any chrome plated trim or pot metal moldings. All the exterior brightwork on a Rolls-Royce or Bentley is solid stainless steel, polished to a mirror finish. It never peels, rusts, or pits. It looks the same as it did on day 1.
I always suggest that before attempting to denigrate another person’s automobile or truck, the person making the comments should educate themselves about what they choose to comment about.
All those poor Yugo owners out there must be feeling pretty low considering the level of denigration that’s been directed at them lo these many years.. So unfair to the ones with over 250k miles (must be one or two). That said, if these cars are so bullet-proof, why is the consensus, both here and pretty much everywhere, that they’re finicky, exorbitantly expensive to repair, and generally unreliable? What happened to this one? Was it submerged at a depth greater than 10 feet? Did the stainless trim fail catastrophically? Inquiring minds, etc.
JP,
When products are designed to be as perfect and reliable as possible, in order for them to operate correctly for multiple decades and millions of miles, they will usually require a higher degree of maintenance.
Plus, think about the scale of building cars that only the top 1% can purchase new. That’s not enough cars in an area, even in places like New York, for the service department to stay open and employ mechanics, parts people, service attendants, and other dealer employees.
Now consider that the people who are buying these VERY expensive cars are not that concerned about the cost of repairs. If they were, they wouldn’t be buying such a car.
So companies like Rolls-Royce build a very intense service regimen into the upkeep expectations, and as long as these cars are serviced to these high standards, they literally won’t break down, even after a quarter of a million miles. But to ensure these cars don’t break down the owners MUST do the services required.
Until recently there was a wealthy member of the Rolls-Royce club who bought a new R-R car in the mid 1920s. He never sold it, and always made sure the car was regularly serviced. He was still driving it as he approached 100 years of age, and it was very reliable.
Where the system fails is when the car is sold to a private 2nd owner, often someone who WANTS to own such a car, but in reality cannot afford to own one. This results in the 2nd or subsequent owners neglecting the all-important service requirements.
What we here at Barn Finds typically read about, are high-end luxury cars that have been parked or hidden away unused, sometimes for decades. Then the owners [or often the heirs] discover that reality has set in; For every Dollar NOT spent over the years of neglect, it now cost $5 to $10 to fix the problems now.
We don’t usually read about the Rolls-Royces that have been driven and serviced regularly, as they usually don’t hit Feebay motors, Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace. There are very few Rolls-Royce & Bentley cars being advertised for sale in the RROC [Rolls-Royce Owner’s Club] publications, that have not been maintained in excellent condition. Those cars, even ones that are 100 years of age, have proven they are reliable when maintained.
There is another economic sidebar to explore: Dealer and service facilities. If, for example, in a city like Washington, DC, there are about 1,500 Rolls-Royce & Bentley cars in the region, if the cars didn’t require a higher level of maintenance, there would be no economic reason to have even one dealership. So to protect the dealer network the cars are designed to be serviced on a higher level. It’s always about the money trail!
I hope this helps explain why these cars are sometimes left to rot. I come from a family that didn’t buy a new car until 1967. And it was a Plymouth wagon. When I began working on old cars, I never dreamed I would even SIT in a Rolls-Royce, let alone end up owning almost 3 dozen of them [not all at the same time].
But I slowly began servicing them, and reading up on their service requirements. I was lucky to have had a boss when I was in high school, who later became head of the service department for the Washington DC Rolls-Royce dealership. He understood that a certain number of these cars would not set foot in their service facility at some point, and it was in his best interests to have someone like myself who car owners could turn to for repairs.
Every one of my Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars was bought cheaply by me, when the owner couldn’t afford to have the repairs done. I often did the repairs myself, or later had my guys do some of the work, and it turned into a very decent financial stream.
Now let’s take this whole thing about “perfection in design and build”, to the next level. NASA just landed a little vehicle on Mars, about 125 MILLION miles away. Not crash landed, it’s now driving around, looking for interesting stuff to examine, and it even has a helicopter on board!
Think about how reliable this little vehicle has to be, because we don’t have a dealership on Mars to repair it. So it has to be designed so well, it will not have any problems during it’s expected lifetime. But of course, like a Rolls-Royce, it’s a limited production vehicle.[ A VERY limited production vehicle.] But if you were to figure out the design and build costs for all the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and Spur cars, along with the matching Bentley cars, and compare the total costs for today’s Mars rover, I suspect the “cost per vehicle” comparison wouldn’t be too far off financially!
I realized early on, I needed to change my thinking process if I was going to work on these cars. Once I understood how things worked, along with the supply & demand, I made a decent living off high-end luxury cars.
Before dogging the drivetrain, you may want to spend a little time enlightening yourself about what this actually is and what it’s capable of.
It’s a non-running POS destined for the scrap yard. I did the research.
djjerme,
Thank you. Well put!
Sorry but its only a $2500 parts car, maybe a little more, but not by much.
They are so beautiful to look at, inside and out.
Just park it in the driveway, keep the exterior looking pristine, and spend some quality time inside listening to some tunes and daydreaming .
Better yet, drain all the fluids and build a drive in theater in your basement with Broken Bentley cars.
Interesting that the ad says 71,502 miles but the picture of the speedometer clearly show 78,318. Very odd.
I have had 3 Rolls-Royces, including one in this body style. All 3 had needs when I bought them. Two had been parked for years (one in a country barn). While these cars can be Very expensive to restore to new condition, there are a number of specialist auto-wreckers that sell used parts at somewhat reasonable prices. Rolls/Bentley often sourced components such as fuel injection, transmission, HVAC etc from other manufacturers.
For example, when I bought my Silver Spur, it would barely start, and not stay running. I found out that it had Bosch fuel injection. It took some research, but I soon found new replacement parts for a fraction of what the dealer wanted. Exactly the same parts, only they arrived a yellow Bosch box, instead of a dark blue Rolls/Bentley box. I spent about $1,500 to get it running/driving well. It was an enjoyable car. I kept it 6 years, and probably spent another $1,500 in parts and maintenance. I eventually traded it in and almost broke even. The guy that bought it from the dealer uses it as a limo, and it now has 300,000++ miles. He says it still runs great, and has not had any major problems.
As an old car guy I am allergic to British and Italian high end sedans. There seems to be some sort of disease running amok with any of them. One must be passionately in love with any of them to tolerate the constant problems owners seem to be having with them.
Worthless. You need to literally give it away so the potential new owner can better spend $20-$30k of their life savings to keep it roadworthy for the next few years.
Where the heck ARE these barns?
‘1989 Bentley tubro r. dont run siting 6years’
Hope his Bentley works better than his spellcheck!
According to what Bill has revealed, the designers of these cars are truly insane in their arrogance. It reminds me on my Maserati 3500GT which used a waterhose between the radiator and the engine of different sizes! I think Lancia too suffered from this idiocy. People who deliberately design impossibilities are creators of problems which they foist upon the unsuspecting public. What is wrong with such types and which idiotic company approves of such designs? SILK in the design of an engine – SILK, MANY feet of instruction manuals? Where is the rubber room?
Rubber room? Over the years many people, realizing I was not a typical car mechanic, and owned hundreds of cars, asked me if I was suffering from insanity. I always said no, I was enjoying it immensely!
I learned a very valuable lesson early in life: how to understand and anticipate the needs of the very wealthy [the 1 percent]. Once I understood their wants and needs were just like mine, except financially magnified greatly, I began to cater to them [along with their money]. As long as they were getting a good deal, they were happy to spend money. And I was happy to help them lighten their wallets.
Plus I got to know some of my customers as friends. A few of them even invited me to places like a $10 million estate in Barbados, multiple times! Before the age of the internet, I catered to multiple royal families in the middle east, individuals who had car collections measured not by the dozens of cars, but the hundreds of cars. Years ago I had a customer who blessed me with a watch, worth more than I made last year! He used to call me in the middle of the night [my time] from half way around the world, just to talk “old cars”.
Last night I watched a Youtube video on a Beverly Hills mansion now up for sale, made up of 4 different mansions & lots, put together as one. The price is a staggering $195 MILLION. It employs over 60 people full time, yet only one very wealthy man lives there!
Do we think for a minute this man is worried about spending $500,000 for his Rolls-Royce Phantom, and spending $30,000 a year maintaining it? Of course not. When comparing it to his house, it’s like one of us with a nice suburban house buying a used VW bug, with our pocket change.
There is still enough life remaining in this 32 year old to make it a reliable driver, but the entry cost can only be at salvage value. The second you touch the car and begin working on it or having work done, you have to expect being in deep financial waters. There are a couple thing going for you: good club support and knowledgeable people. Additionally, it is made of very high grade materials and if not rusted or badly corroded, can be brought back. How far back is the issue. Show car or reliable, safe driver? Regular use or just a hobby car. I like the car and my comparison is the cost of a well maintained one from an enthusiastic owner to this at salvage value plus repair costs. Not cheap either way. Bill McCoskey’s analysis of top end luxury car ownership is literally right on the money. Thanks Bill.
If this Bentley was a merely a bare shell, I could see it receiving a custom interior similar to the stock interior, an Art Morrison chassis with Corvette C6 front suspension and Multi-Link IRS, an Arrington Performance 426 3G Hemi engine, Michelin performance tires, custom wheels, and a Painless Performance wiring harness.