My current vehicle of interest is a W220 S600L Bi-Turbo.
However, yesterday I found out that the maintenance costs of a W220 S600L Bi-Turbo are virtually the same as a Bentley Continental GT. In fact, the Bentley warranty is cheaper than the Mercedes-Benz warranty for the S600! Bentley do not currently offer warranties for cars that aren't official Bentley pre-owned, but I've been told that is changing in the new year, so exact details are yet to come but I based my pricing on the cost of extending a warranty on an official Bentley pre-owned.
The W220 would probably lose about £6-7k over 3-4 years, so it's just figuring outmuch a £35k Bentley would lose. I've been looking at the current crop of cars - the GT 2011 new gen, 2012 GTC new gen and 2013 GT V8 - and to the majority they look the same as the original Continental GT. This makes me think that residuals are going to hold up quite well if economically things are better in 3/4/5 years time, and as the fundamental design will probably still be 'current'.
The only issue is the quantity of GTs on the roads and what that will do to residuals. Nice 15 year old Turbo Rs are still worth £15-20k but there aren't anyway near as many of them as GTs.
So, yeah, sensible option is the S600L, slightly out there but interesting TCO option is the Conti GT and a big finance package. I will do the numbers as best I can - maybe see if anyone at work has any predictions for the Conti GT in 3/4 years. If I can have a GT for £2k pa more TCO than an S600 I think I'd have to go for it!
However, yesterday I found out that the maintenance costs of a W220 S600L Bi-Turbo are virtually the same as a Bentley Continental GT. In fact, the Bentley warranty is cheaper than the Mercedes-Benz warranty for the S600! Bentley do not currently offer warranties for cars that aren't official Bentley pre-owned, but I've been told that is changing in the new year, so exact details are yet to come but I based my pricing on the cost of extending a warranty on an official Bentley pre-owned.
The W220 would probably lose about £6-7k over 3-4 years, so it's just figuring outmuch a £35k Bentley would lose. I've been looking at the current crop of cars - the GT 2011 new gen, 2012 GTC new gen and 2013 GT V8 - and to the majority they look the same as the original Continental GT. This makes me think that residuals are going to hold up quite well if economically things are better in 3/4/5 years time, and as the fundamental design will probably still be 'current'.
The only issue is the quantity of GTs on the roads and what that will do to residuals. Nice 15 year old Turbo Rs are still worth £15-20k but there aren't anyway near as many of them as GTs.
So, yeah, sensible option is the S600L, slightly out there but interesting TCO option is the Conti GT and a big finance package. I will do the numbers as best I can - maybe see if anyone at work has any predictions for the Conti GT in 3/4 years. If I can have a GT for £2k pa more TCO than an S600 I think I'd have to go for it!
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