When it comes to high-mileage cars, there are a few names that always seem to crop up. For instance, Volvo cars are renowned for their impressive durability and ability to rack up the miles, and so are many pickup trucks, too. Cummins even has their own million-mile club, which celebrates owners who have been able to achieve seven-figure odometer readings.
However, one brand that probably doesn't come to mind is Bentley. Instead, this automaker is usually associated with luxurious sedans, coupes,
and convertibles, which only ever pop out of their heated garages for special occasions, or for commuting through busy city centers with high-flying CEOs at the helm. As it happens, though, one Bentley owner was keen to actually get as much use as possible out of their Continental GT, and racked up over 514,000 miles in it, before it appeared in a rather sorry state at a Copart auction. We can't say for certain whether this is the highest mileage ever recorded on a Bentley, but with over half-a-million on the clock, it certainly stands a pretty good chance.
The ride height is alarmingly low, the front bumper is damaged, and no service history details were uploaded to the auction site. However, Copart did upload an image of the odometer, which read 514,636 miles at the time of listing. It's clear someone took care of it, as cracking half-a-million miles in any car would require a consistent and fairly comprehensive maintenance regime, but for one reason or another, the car has clearly fallen into a sorry condition.
Read more: 10 Luxury Cars That Are Cheap To Maintain
Is A 514,000-Mile Bentley Actually All That Surprising?
Sure, there is some shock factor to a beat-up Bentley rocking moon-and-back mileage, but when we think about it, this feat probably isn't all that surprising. The W12 motor, which powers these luxury coupes, is quite a reliable unit, having been used in the Audi A8 also. Examples of these have been known to routinely rack up over 100,000 miles without stress, so it's not as if the Bentley's engine is allergic to covering big miles -- it's just unusual owner behaviour.
Furthermore, luxury cars like the Bentley in question are often popular choices for chauffeur services. Essentially, these are just posh taxi services, and so it's not unusual for cars in their ownership to really pile the miles on. If this particular Continental GT has been transporting wealthy business types to and from airports for years, or perhaps from city to city, then it's not unreasonable to assume it's been putting 50,000 miles or more on each year. We don't have the exact model year, but it's from the earliest generation of Continental GT, which dates back to 2003. That's only an average of 23,360 miles per year -- not ridiculous, is it?
Having driven and reviewed a Continental GT ourselves, we can fully understand the appeal of spending so much time at the wheel of one. So, for whatever purpose the previous owner had for doing so, we applaud them -- hopefully whoever won this auction back at the start of the year is a deep-pocketed enthusiast and takes mercy on this mighty GT. The fitting end-goal would be not only to repair it, but to also continue munching up some serious miles in it.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.
