Bentley defines luxury and performance. It can take its passengers over 150 MPH while they sip their expensive champagne. The Continental GT is a luxury Grand Tourer; it has a distinctive coupe body style and has a very powerful engine which, even after 15 years, can keep up with a lot of modern-day supercars and sports cars. The interior's quality is exceptional, and being a Bentley, it also offers tons of customization options for the buyers. Bentley as a brand has stood for its class, and as is said, "class is permanent." So is the feel and value of owning a 2-door Bentley.
The Bentley Continental GT is still in production to date and is one of the world's best luxury vehicles. A 2005 Bentley Continental GT is still fairly easily available on the used car market, and the cost of one is astounding. The value this vehicle holds to date is something one cannot guess, and regardless of its value, a 15-year-old Bentley is still a head-turner wherever it goes.
Overview of the 2005 Bentley Continental GT
The Bentley Continental GT came as an entry-level car in the Bentley global lineup, and 2005 was the year when it became popular among buyers. The cost of these cars can go low, considering the first continental GT ever would nearly be 18 years old, but that would also come with a fair share of reliability issues. The exterior and the interior of the cars are customizable in many ways to suit the taste of the buyers. These customizations can take the price very high on an already expensive vehicle. Even though it is an entry-level car in the Bentley lineup, there is nothing 'entry-level' to its price tag. In 2005, it cost a fortune, and the prices have taken a decline for this particular vehicle.
Talking about the engine, the Continental GT can still put a lot of modern-day luxury cars to shame with its gigantic 6.0-liter twin-turbocharged 12-cylinder engine that can produce over 550 HP and 479 lb-ft of torque. That is a lot in modern-day times, and colossal when considered that this vehicle is nearly two decades old. This engine makes the Bentley hit a top speed of 196.6 MPH. When talking about it as an entry-level point in the Bentley lineup, Bentley did not downsize from its big engines like the W12 or W16 engines offered in the more premium and expensive Bentleys. They wanted the driving feel of the Continental GT to be as good as any other Bentley they sold. The vehicle can make a 0-60 MPH sprint in under 4.7 seconds, which is fast for a luxury grand tourer. It charges towards the horizon relentlessly as it has a very responsive gearbox. The gearbox is a 6-speed automatic transmission, and it is very robust, and these gearboxes have good reliability. Power is sent to all four wheels by an AWD system, but the power delivery is generally RWD biased to make sure the car is fun to drive. These vehicles are not known for their gas mileage since the Continental GT returns 10 MPG in the city and 16 on the highway.
The design of the Continental GT is a work of art, but one design aspect of the vehicle has always been the fact that Bentley has managed to fit the vehicle with back seats, which they say are fairly usable, and the vehicle can seat up to 4 adults. This idea seems questionable as the vehicle only has two doors, making the ingress and egress very difficult for rear seat occupants. Also, the room at the back is relatively tight. The design is identical to the Bentley vehicles of modern-day times on the exterior front. LED lighting all around with clean swooping body lines. The signature Quad beam headlamps and the tail lamps, which look like the letter “B” for the branding of Bentley, are iconic even to date. The design at the back is very clean, and one needs to push the B in the Bentley logo to access the trunk of the vehicle and even open the bonnet.
There is leather all around on the inside, and it feels premium in every aspect. The vehicle is top-notch in terms of luxury, and even for a car from 2005, it is loaded with features. It offers features like navigation, multimedia playback, cruise control, and lots more. The screen is not a touchscreen but is decent and has a good resolution. The vehicle even came with four-zone climate control and keyless go, along with tons of other options. One could also specify their Continental GT to have a phone in the center console.
Value of a 2005 Bentley Continental GT Today
When new this vehicle cost approx. $150,000, and this was the base price. This vehicle came in with a ton of options like the custom paint job, heated and massaged seats, and loads of other interior customizations. All these add-ons could easily drive the price as high as $200,000, which is a lot of money for an automobile, even by today’s standards. What is surprising is that in today’s market, these vehicles are available at a price of around $50,000, which is very low as per industry standards. Cars.com have also listed one for sale under $40,000. The reason for this price drop is the questionable sales of the vehicle and the poor gas mileage. This vehicle is amazing as a stand-alone but compared to Bentley standards, it does fall short in a few areas, which is the reason behind its relatively low price in the used car market. Regardless of the price, the Continental GT is still a head-turner and provides incredible performance even after all these years.