Bargain 2004 Bentley Continental GT – but only for the brave

Another super performer in the doldrums is the Bentley Continental GT. Prices have been edging down over the last year, but Morris Leslie’s 2004 sold at its May auction for just £10,191 is a record low. Finished in Moonbeam Silver with mushroom hide, 86,000 miles and an 11-stamp service history, this wasn’t the usual scruffy worn-smooth Conti but a pretty, unmolested and inviting thing.

These first-gen Continentals are still wonderful machines with genuine 190mph performance from the 6.0 W12, sumptuous interiors and fine chassis balance. I have owned a convertible GTC and a coupé and remember them both very fondly. Drive carefully and you’ll get 19mpg, routine servicing with a good non-main-dealer specialist is around £600 a time, but if something big goes wrong you could be faced with some alarming bills. There are now lots of very knowledgeable Conti specialists (Starman’s in Nottingham is one) and you’d be surprised how many used parts are available on the web comparatively cheaply, but this is not a DIY motor. Early ones are now a comparatively rare sight on the roads and are starting to radiate an elegant neo-classicism.

Find a sub-60,000 mileage example with a continuous history – oil services every 10k miles – that’s had most of the glitches peculiar to the pre-2007 cars fixed, and you’ll have one of the most amazing super performance coupés of the 2000s. I enjoyed mine so much that I wouldn’t be averse to owning another. But don’t buy anything that hasn’t had unstinting maintenance throughout its life – you’ll just be buying a big lump of beautiful hand-built trouble.

• VALUE 2020£18.5k
• VALUE NOW 2023 £17k