Bentley Flying Spur Buyer's Guide
The Flying Spur is the four-door Continental: Volkswagen-era Bentley's volume saloon, W12-powered from launch and capable of 200mph with five aboard. Depreciation has done its work thoroughly; both of our sold results are 2006 Continental Flying Spurs, at £11,718 and £15,400, and a 2007 car in the active listings showed bidding at £7,150.
Know your generations
The first generation (2005–2013) is the Continental Flying Spur: the 552bhp 6.0-litre twin-turbo W12, all-wheel drive, and the Speed version from 2008 with 600bhp (a 2011 Speed is currently listed with an estimate of £30,000 to £50,000). The second generation (2013–2019) dropped "Continental" from the name, sharpened the styling and added a 4.0-litre V8 option, the version many specialists quietly prefer for running costs; a 2013 car is listed at an estimate of £24,000 to £28,000. The third generation (2019-on) is a substantially new car with W12, V8 and Hybrid variants, and remains modern-used rather than auction stock.
What to pay
Two hammer prices, both first-generation: £11,718 (March 2026) and £15,400 (April 2026). That is the established clearing level for early W12 Spurs with real mileage, and the £7,150 bidding on a 2007 car in our listings shows the bottom of the market probing lower still. Above that, our data holds only estimates: £24,000 to £28,000 for a 2013 second-generation car and £30,000 to £50,000 for a 2011 Speed. The tiering is honest: early standard cars in the low-to-mid teens, later and faster cars in the twenties and thirties by estimate.
What goes wrong
The W12 is durable at its core but surrounded by expensive consumables: twelve coil packs and plugs (a large labour bill given the engine bay's density), turbochargers buried against the bulkhead, and a thirst for coolant hoses and seals as cars pass fifteen years. Air suspension is the headline item: compressors, valve blocks and struts fail with age, and a Spur sitting low on one corner overnight is telling you the price. The ZF automatic wants fluid changes it rarely received. Brakes are enormous and priced like it; parking-brake modules and electronic handbrake faults are common. Interior electronics (the infotainment is period Volkswagen) date badly but fail benignly. Above all, history is binary on these cars: a Spur with specialist stamps every year is a different species from the same car without, whatever the cosmetics say.
Our view
At £11,718 to £15,400 the first-generation Flying Spur is one of the most car-per-pound propositions in our records, and one of the least forgiving. The purchase price is roughly two consecutive big services, and a suspension-and-turbo year can exceed the value of the car; that is precisely why they are this cheap, and it will keep a floor under only the best-kept examples. As a future classic the Speed and well-specified late W12s have the strongest case. Buy the history file, insist on air suspension evidence, and enjoy the most absurd luxury-per-pound ratio Crewe has ever accidentally offered.
