I’ve come across something we’ll likely never encounter again: a wrecked 2005 Bentley Continental GT that has been driven more than 500,000 miles.
This shocking find came to me by way of X user @CrazyWeeMonkey. The haggard Conti is listed on the auction site Copart, and at first glance, it looks like a fairly standard 20-year-old Bentley from Florida: blacked-out rims and tail lights, super dark tinted windows and tail lights. There’s nothing terribly impressive about it until you get into the details.
You see, Copart says this Continental GT has 514,636 miles on it. Before you go and think that that number is bullshit, images taken of the Conti’s dash show that it really does have that many miles on it. That number is impressive. It’s gotta be the highest-mileage Bentley I’ve ever seen. I mean, that’s over half a million miles on a 6.0-liter W12. Can you imagine the kind of upkeep needed to keep this thing running for that many miles? Not only is this a first-generation Continental GT, but this is a 2005, just two years into the model’s life.
Online research tells us that these early cars had weird, expensive problems; some owners say that 2012+ is the way to go if you’re going to get a used Continental GT. One Bentley dealership employee online said that common problems like vacuum lines, O2 sensors, exhaust temp sensors and leaking oil pans can cost upwards of $40,000 to fix. Who knows what went into keeping this car on the road for 20 years?
If none of this is enough to scare you off, you can head to Copart and bid on the Continental. Even with the miles on it, Copart is estimating its retail value at $32,840 though they’re taking minimum bids of $1,000. Or if you’re brave enough, you can just buy the thing outright for $6,500. If I had deeper pockets, I’d buy it, fix it and keep driving it to see if I could reach a million miles, but I’m neither brave nor rich enough to do something like that. If any of you are, there are currently two days left in the auction as of this posting.
