“You gon' cry in that Toyota or this Bentley*?”
Bentley Arnage
I’ve always thought these were good looking sedans. I randomly decided to dig in and learn a bit more about them, and I’m honestly pretty taken aback by what I found
Price New: Over $200k in 2000.
Price now: ~ $30k.
You read that right.
You can get a Bentley Arnage ALL DAY for $30k.
Quick specs of an example that is for sale as I write this:
2001 Bentley Arnage Turbo:
34k miles
6.8L Turbocharged V-8
400hp
619lb/ft <- You see this?
Price: $30,694
This is sounding good right? Almost too good… RIGHT?
Well let’s read some owner reviews:
“I quit keeping track in 1989 but, at that point I had owned over 160 cars. Nothing even comes close in quality, curb appeal, performance, unabashed good looks, handling, design, ride quality, even the smell of this car”
“The car is a living room with jet engine.”
Now for the part where I ruin this dream → You are still maintaining a $200K car.
And it’d be such a shame to see these go the same route that you see pretty much every 10+ year old 7-series BMW on the road - bought for a song and then disregarded due to the maintenance costs. (minus the E38; people still tend to care for those babes)
Apparently, these are known for some head gasket issues, and they can go early (I’m reading an account of an owner whose went at 34k miles - his total bill for his shop visit was $16k.
So in short - just have a dedicated maintenance fund of basically a new Toyota Camry when you buy it, and you’ll own a car that sold for what is now the equivalent of over $360k today. Not bad.
You Know What Time It Is
I was on IG recently and saw Jeff Hilliard of Hodinkee rocking a Unimatic U4. I’ve been following that cat since Tumblr days when he was at The Armoury. He’s one to keep an eye on - Great taste.
Mind you, I’m not in need of a new watch. I’m pretty set with my trifecta:
Rolex Explorer ← the do-it-all (Here’s my video on it)
G-Shock GW5000U ← most worn (Here’s my video on it)
Garmin Instinct ← my run watch
BUT
The Unimatic U4 really is a handsome watch. It’s givin’ me the feels.
Look at it.
With the lack of a notated and turning bezel, it fits somewhere between a diver and a field watch. It’s chunky but minimalistic.
They look great on a nato, but I’m really feeling them on rubber straps.
Nice work, Unimatic. Real babe here.
IG Account I’m Following
Good audio gear, good furniture, good lighting.
Quote I’m Pondering
“Overthinking invents more problems than it solves.” - Gurwinder Bhogal
Song I’m Listening To
p.s. Are you subscribed to my YouTube Channel where I go in depth on all of this kind of stuff??? You should be.
p.p.s. Some of these links toss me a commission without costing you any extra. This goes to buying more things so I can talk about them.
Cheers!
Dominic
If you're into that era Bentley, have a look at the VW Phaeton, aka Piech's Folly. It was much better than the contemporary W220 S Class. I was one of the 3k people in North America who had one, most luxury buyers were put off by the huge pie pan VW logo on the front grille, but it had beautiful minimalist modern design, very effective AWD and bizarrely high gas mileage for a two ton V8 (Audi engine, of course). It was built on the same platform as the Bentley Continental GT which was big for a few years. I remember taking my scoffing Bentley owning buddy for a ride, and told him to look at the dashboard and see if it looked familiar. He shut up and looked sad, but not as sad as when I told him he paid $185k for his "look at me" car and I was leasing mine for under $600 a month. Best car I've ever had, I drove it way over the 36k mileage allowance right up to the 50k warranty limit - paying the overage was the happiest check I've ever written.
I love that you own three watches. I’m quite envious. I think you should go for the Unimatic. I wouldn’t categorize a Garmin as part of my watch collection so you could pull of the trifecta.