Bentley boy 2
I was recounting the above tale in a bar to sometime CM contributor Andrew Elphick, who responded by telling me his uncle’s Bentley woes.
Apparently, these modern Bentleys are notorious for draining their batteries flat. However, in this instance, his uncle hadn’t specified the neat external charge point. Cue the inevitable. His uncle used the blipper to open the car and… nothing. It was as dead as a doornail. So he called Bentley Assist (that’s the RAC to us mere mortals). The patrol man arrived and diagnosed the problem in no time, earning himself a fixed-at-the-roadside bonus. The issue wasn’t the battery, nor was it the key. It was just that he was trying to use the wrong key.
You see, when Uncle E retired, he’d bought a brand-new Bentley for his home in Scotland and another for his south coast home. Coming back from holiday, he’d got them mixed up. An easy mistake to make and one of which I’m sure we’d all make given the extenuating circumstances.
The moral of this story is one we should apply to all breakdowns: don’t assume the worst and always check the basics.
Once again, I ask: does any other column offer more real-world motoring advice than this one?