Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Bentley Eight For Sale

Yesterday, I stopped by Specialty Sales Classic Cars in Benecia. I always see their classic American muscle cars on display outside when I drive northbound on 680. When I went in, I was surprised to find inter alia, an old Citroen, a first generation BMW M3, a few old Porsches, and this Bentley Eight.
Apparently, Specialty has branches in Pleasanton and the Peninsula, but the Benecia showroom is the largest. It is a consignment store that offers financing. Many of the cars end up being shipped out of state or out of the country. The salesman was very low pressure and quite frank. He admitted that the classic car market has changed but says there are enough high net worth car nuts out there to keep the business going.

I have not seen many Eights or Mulsannes in my life. Maybe it's because I only look for Turbo Rs on the road. Cosmetically, the one I saw in the show room looked nice. Before you get any smart ideas, you can't sit in the cars or even touch them unless you are very interested in actually buying one. The nearly $30,000 price tag seems a bit high for the 1987 model, even with the low mileage, and I'm quite sure it's negotiable. The Eight was known as the poor man's Bentley, what with cloth seats and steel wheels. Personally, if I had the money, I'd pay a little more for a Turbo R. But the Eight is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Here is a pretty thorough guide to buying an Eight.

CKY

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