Bentley Arnage - Matt Garrett

2001 Bentley Arnage Red Label Turbo. 26K miles. Loaded with all the good options available; Sunroof, Rear Tables, Wood Package, Red Piping and "B" inlayed seats, Chrome 18" wheels, Pop up Nav and everything. Perfect original example in as good of shape as new. NO REPAINT!! ANYWHERE! Bought new from Bentley Dealer in FL, came to Dallas with 2000 miles. Was sought out by a well known and respected Dallasite. It has been his car since after and paying 220,000.00 to purchase one like this. He wanted everything available on one of these, and in this color. This car is that example.

The Arnage is basically an extension of the previous Turbo R. The Arnage started in 99 and was kind of a rough start with the original green label. Do not get the two confused. The green label and the red label are not even one in the same. The green label uses a very small non turbo charged and under powered BMW V8. Learning the mistake the hard way, the Red Label was born out of rejection of the green label with the small and underpowered motor. The red label is one of the most substantial cars ever built with the famous Rolls Royce/Bentley Turbo Charged Intercooled 6.75 Liter like this example. The Red Label Arnage is also very powerful and well sorted automobile using all of the knowledge from the previous Turbo R and taking it a step beyond. Very much like the Turbo R, the Red Label Arnage's most impressive characteristics are its handling on top of its 650 Ft Lbs of Torque generated from the giant single turbo intercooled 6.75 liter. Being a large and heavy car, it does not act like it in any manner. If you have read all the articles on these cars, they all tell you the same thing. This car defies physics, and it really does. All bases are covered in this cars handling, stopping, acceleration, top speed and ride integrity. In the years such as this model, the Arnage has even larger brakes, 18" wheels, the good GM 4L80 4 speed transmission and more. The arsenal of heavy duty hardware put in these cars is probably not ever understood except by someone with lots of automotive background. The widespread use of high end GM hardware in the Arnage also takes the car up a level of serviceability and reliability. Probably the average Bentley buyer would not really appreciate this vs a total gear head, but once a gear head understands these cars, they will have a different opinion on what makes these cars tick. The average Bentley owner may even get offended when he is told that a vast majority of the components in the are GM, so they may keep that rather quiet. I can tell you this... Its better than being an Audi! This is a real Bentley.

Now the array of creature comforts, fine interior, etc can be boasted on all day too, but I am not one to really go into buttons, options, bells, whistles, etc. The list of that mess can take a whole book. Those aspects do not impress me in a car, only the cars driveline hardware or in other words, its "guts". If a high end car does not have guts, all the other little add on's are just gimmicks to impress the fickle 500 of the split second. And that was this cars primary audience. This car has guts covered to the full extent, guts that the owners would violate their positions in life if they actually tested. The combination of the guts backed up with the crowd pleasing gimmicks are really what gives the Red Label the Arnage the criteria being worthy of a truly impressive automobile. I guess when you pay 220K for one of these new, they actually had to give you something for your money. What the big disappointment on these cars was the resale if you were the first "owner". Fact that this car is perfect, its low mile, its everything as good as new within a fraction of a percent, but its value is essentially worthless compared to its original price. If you can afford an average late model SUV... You can afford this thing. Its about the most car for the least money in the history of cars. Its not because its unreliable. It's actually very reliable. Remember this engine is based on a 1959 Rolls engine and has that much time get get it right! Even Rolls/bentley can do that with 50 years trial and error! Its not because the warranty ran out... Who cares. If you can spend 220K, you can afford to fix the worst failure in one of these cars. Its because of the image....... The fleeting second image that the crowd seems they need to maintain. If you need to play that game... you lose hard, and this car is the top example of that... Even wall street typically did not lose the percentages of these cars. Even high rolling at a casino, chance are better than one of these. I cannot think of a bigger way to throw away money than on a car like this new.

Rolls/Bentley/Mercedes and many other high end luxury cars are very decent cars, way beyond what their resale values define. Problem is back to that crowd these cars attracted. Buying the car in the name of how it made them look vs the actual substance. Advertised in play bills, opera periodicals and various other "pretentious" type arenas made these cars a shooting star for about 1/2 the time a shooting star can be viewed. The fickle 500 rid themselves of them as soon as the next gimmick hit. Lots of them got rid of these cars for the Audi FWD based versions of the Bentley when those hit the play bills! I would normally hold my tongue... But I have to let it out........ Suckers! Those cars are not even the same thing people. With the flagship Arnage being produced to the tune of about or less than 500 examples per year made the car ultra low production, but when your audience was 500 really silly people, its a balancing act of keeping the crowd in their current "status". As of Jan 2010, time is ticking for the rest of the original Arnage owners, they should be abandoning ship real fast for the upcoming and even larger 300K+ Mulsanne, to repeat their 6 figure+ loss all over again in a matter of a few years. The good thing is 2009 was the final series of the Arnage. Never to be built again and really there is not a direct replacement as the Mulsanne will not be. The new Mulsanne may be actually an incredible vs the other mentioned Bentleys, but its not the same thing as the Arnage. This is the last of the Crewe type cars, aging as they say, as Buckingham Palace, but they will find their place in history, just as much of England has.

This is the sum of the Arnage for me; The hidden substance in these cars, the substance that most of the original buyers could not even comprehend was never really appreciated. Put this car in the hands of someone that knows cars and knows what makes them tick, throw out all the pretentions part, fine leather, bells, whistles, gimmicks, wise cracks and comments, this is a hell of a machine underneath and I think when these cars get pretty old, they are going to see a major resurgence to the collector world.