Continental GT

// £19,000–£70,000 (2003–2011)

W12 thrust, everyday usability, it’s a Bentley Smell of overpriced cigars, complicated electrics

When it launched in 2003, the Continental GT didn’t have many rivals. Oh, there were saloon-based two-doors like the Merc CL600, and there were minority-interest 2+2 supercars from the likes of Ferrari and Aston. But as a fabulously swish-looking, opulent-feeling and seriously swift means to do the daily duties of an actual normal car, the Conti GT absolutely hit a sweet spot.

And the market responded. So don’t snap up the frst one you alight upon, because there’s plenty of choice out there.

The W12 thrusts like something on LHR Runway 2, but it’s all neatly contained by a robust six-speed auto ’box and four-wheel drive. The adaptive air suspension covers most daily-driving bases too. Soon a popular Mulliner spec came along with bigger wheels and racier cabin cosmetics. The GTC cabrio arrived in 2007.

For 2008, the chassis was lightened and sharpened, adding a small but useful dose of involvement. The GT Speed got more poke and a signifcant extra frming of the chassis. The same occurred to the GTC range in ’09. A more signifcant step came with the Supersports. Those changes and more were built into the secondgen models from 2011. The V8 engine choice came a year after. That was gorgeously woofy and signifcantly less dipso than the W12, yet almost as powerful. Its chassis felt better-balanced too. No wonder they’ve since been the majority of UK sales.

Two things are almost too obvious to say, but they should steer your decision-making. First, as it’s a VW Group machine, its engineering is all-but-overdone to be tough over big mileages if serviced diligently. But second, it has a vastly complex electronic nervous system, and in the early cars those wires and ECUs are now a decade-and-a-half old.

Specialist Simon Worthington of Phantom Motor Cars says it’s best to go for a post-07 car. With

50k miles it’ll be £30k, warranted. The bodies are durable, he says, though on older ones it’s worth getting them on a ramp and checking for rust in the main rear foor seam. Worse, if the drain holes ahead of the bulkhead block, water can eventually pool up and drown the main fusebox causing total electrical mayhem. Check for evidence.

The underbonnet is famously overcrowded, which means a front-endof powertrain-out job (using a special jacking platform) to replace the starter motor or turbo. Eek.

One we found... £30,000 for a 2004 W12 – yes, it has an old, boring black cabin, but also just 34,000 miles and is from a wellknown specialist.