Bentley owner suffers two year ordeal with faulty Continental GTC

Brent Miller bought his dream car, a Bentley Continental GTC V8 S, from Tom Hartley in July 2015. He paid £135,000 for the six-month old car, which had only done 1100 miles.

His dream soon turned into a nightmare, however, when various electrical systems on the car started beeping and alarms started to go off.

“The problems were never-ending, I had two years of hell with the car,” says Mr Miller. “The roof came open on its own; the heater broke while I was driving in the rain and all the windows misted up so badly I had to pull over; the radio and sat-nav died and then turned back on on their own; and one time we set off for a holiday in the Lake District but had to abandon the trip halfway there because the car broke.”

He took the car to Bentley Manchester 14 times over the next 11 months to get it fixed under warranty. But when he picked it up for the 14th time and it suffered more electrical problems on the way home, he decided enough was enough and rejected the car, parking it up and driving a work van instead.

The car had been financed by Santander, so Mr Miller started legal proceedings with the bank. He settled out of court earlier this year.

Mr Miller hadn’t contacted Tom Hartley until June 2016 when he began the process of rejecting the car. At that time, Tom Hartley contacted Bentley Motors and Bentley Manchester about the car, and was told by them both that the car had been repaired, so thought the matter was resolved.

He didn’t hear from Mr Miller again until January 2017, when he and Mr Miller went to look at the car for the first time in nearly a year. They both had reports compiled on the car that confirmed it had a leak in the rear of the hood that was letting water run straight into the main electrical system.

Tom Hartley said: “What Mr Miller experienced with his Bentley is disgusting. Every car manufacturer has a duty to stand by their products, especially when they are under warranty. If an approved dealer cannot rectify a fault after a few visits, let alone 14, they should replace the car and be liable for any costs that have been caused to all parties.”

We asked Bentley about the case and received the following statement: “Bentley Motors prides itself on the highest standards of quality and service. The car in question was purchased outside of our official Pre-Owned used car programme, nevertheless we worked with Mr Miller in an attempt to resolve the concerns he raised under the terms of the vehicle warranty. This is an unfortunate one-off where the customer experience has not lived up to what we would typically expect of a Bentley.”

Mr Miller hasn’t been put off the brand; he has since purchased another Continental GTS.

Watch our video review of the Bentley Continental GT

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