Bentley

[aandy]

I've been looking at a couple of Bentleys, both on the Renault Traffic, and am impressed by the quality of the conversion. I have wondered about the wisdom of buying a van when the manufacturer is no longer in existence, but as most of the habitation components were made by third parties I can't really see any likely problems. Or am I missing something?

 

Andy

[Rayjsj]

I agree, i always thought that Autocruise CH (prior to swift) and then Bentley Motohomes were very well put together and innovative, shame they didnt know how to run a business !! But their vans were excellent.

Problem could be sourcing body panels after an RTA, which might not even be your fault, insurance company might write it off, for even a small bump, IF you manage to get it insured OK. As you say, a lot of the internals are common to a lot of motorhomes, but bodywork and certain internal furnishings are not.

Get it at a sensible price, and take your chance ?

[dolken]

We sold our Bentley Indigo last Nov after nearly 4 years, having had it since new. Happy to report in that time, and plenty of use, including winter trips to Spain, nothing went wrong. As you say, many of the parts are made by third party companies, and the owners club have details of the company that made the body panels. I understand they still have the mouldings should they be needeD.

 

The best recommendation I can give you is that if Bentley made new vans today I'd have bought another. Of the several vans we've owned it's the only one that nothing went wrong with. The Renault is nice to drive too, more car like than Ducato/Boxer etc.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide.

[bobalobs]

A friend who has had more vans than hot dinners had one of the first Bentleys on the Traffic. He was happy with the build quality but sold it as he said it was underpowered and not happy with the rear suspension as it was some form of air suspension of German origin which could be difficult and/or expensive to repair. I think later vans had more conventional suspension. I think he sold it after the collapse of Bentley as he was worried about resale values. The dealer had it on his fore court in Somerset for more than six months so certainly then they were a slow mover so you might be in a strong bargaining position if you decide to go ahead.

[Brock]

You are going to have some problems sourcing some parts but the majority were bought in. There may be some market resistance when you come to sell the van.

 

When Bentley went under in 2012 with the loss of 26 jobs, the Insolvency Practitioner appointed said, "It is particularly disappointing to be called into such a well run company and one that has an excellent reputation for the quality of its products.The market in which the company trades is extremely competitive and the recent poor weather has done little for sales." Ask yourself why enough Bentleys were not sold when other manufacturers survived the competitive market and poor weather. If you do a web search, you will find numerous comments about the firm's demise. For example

 

http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Bentley-Motorhomes-enters-liquidation/28548/

 

Two things put us off buying a new Bentley when they were still being built. One was the short armed wing mirrors that restricted rear view. Make sure the longer arm mirrors are fitted and you have good rear visibility. The second one was that the Trafic was a lightweight van operating nearer its limits than say the heavier duty the Renault Master or Fiat Ducato - Bentley payloads were poor. The rumour at the time was that they could not source another base vehicle.

 

Only you can decide whether the extra hassle, which will be minimal with luck, is worth it and whether the van suits. If it suits, if the price is right, and you feel lucky, I'd say go for it.

 

[dolken]

We didn't experience any market resistance when we part/exchanged our Bentley managing to achieve the value we had hoped for. In the past with other manufacturers this certainly hasn't always been the case. The dealer sold our Bentley with a reasonable mark up, and similar to others on the market at that time, which was last November. It was sold approximately two months later having not been reduced on the website. The problems we envisaged with part/ex when Bentley went bankrupt didn't materialise.

 

The payload was just over 400kg, the van having been SVTeched by Bentley prior to delivery. I understand this was done by Bentley for all the Indigos, although I don't know about other models. We took the van to a weigh bridge fully loaded for a 2 week trip and we had over 150kg spare. We all pack differently of course, but this I believe suggests the weight quoted by the manufacturer was accurate.

 

From what I know, there seems little doubt the product was good, but business practices were not. Others above have expressed what I believe may be valid reservations about sourcing parts, and whilst I understand these are currently available there is obviously no guarantee they will be in future.

 

Good luck. We've followed Bentleys on the market over the past year when we were considering changing our van and I know some of the ones currently available have been a while on the market and there may be a good deal to be had.

[tonyg3nwl]

If I remember rightly, Bentley was the successor to Autocruise, and almost identical except for the base vehicle. We have one of the last Autocruises, a Stargazer, which apparently was one of those built from the Autocruise leftovers by Swift. ?

Styling, the Bentley, and Autocruise were almost twins, and although it might be difficult to get replacent

ment body panels in the event of major calamity, they are very comfortable.

The main difficulty you might have, would be getting a reasonnable insurance offer in the event of total write off. I wonder if insurers will agree a "agreed value " insurance, rather than Market value

 

tonyg3nwl

 

 

[aandy]

Thanks for your thoughts. I have to say I hadn't considered the possibility of needing body panels, and was thinking only of the habitation fittings. I was a bit concerned that the base vehicle might not be quite up to it (though opinion on that seems to be divided), and if they were on a Ducato/Boxer or Master I would probably have bough one by now.

 

I shall have to give it further thought (though not much or that's another summer gone).

[aandncaravan]

We worked on our first Bentley Donnington today, and we were impressed by the quality of the build.

 

Had to run a new cable across the van under the chassis and up through the floor. The Bentley cable runs were all neat and tidy and well executed, unlike some

Pleasantly surprised that the floor was so thick I had to use a longer than usual Drill bit.

 

Everything looked very well made and certainly seemed to live up to the name.

 

Also impressed with the quality of the Renault chassis, no sign of rusting any where I would normally have expected to see it.

 

On some Motorhomes, the quality is so poor you find yourself looking for excuses not to work on another.

Not so with this, it was a nice vehicle.

 

I would not only take on other Bentley work, but actually suggest these might be a very good buy?

 

 

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