Phantom Ownership One Month On

[dazzalse]

Its been little over a month since we took delivery of our Phantom Series 2, and we've already added 1500 miles to the clock, and generally the improvements over the previous car are welcome, I'm still a little unsure on the new 8 speed box, although the changes are pretty much executed un noticed, I can tell that there are more changes taking place then the previous gearbox in our last car, and instead of relying on the torque of the engine as in the previous car, the new gearbox seems to be pretty busy, changing up at every opportunity.
The most welcome change has been the new Satellite Navigation/Ipod integration, the iPhone works better, the screen is bigger and the sat nav actually works! In making the screen bigger they have made the chrome air vent smaller, i'm not sure if this is a good thing but as we head further south and the temperature rises I'll let you know. But i seem to have spent a lot of time fiddling with the temperature control trying to get comfortable. The new LED headlamps are superb at night.
We've covered about 700 miles over the last few days after leaving home on Tuesday and taking the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander (Brittany ferries were superb moving us to one side and then loading us on our own right down the front which was a relief) and then heading south down to Estoril in Portugal.
We had some drama 10 minutes after leaving home as the check control showed a puncture, but it doesn't tell you which tyre, having had many problems with this system in the previous car i'd invested in a pressure gauge, so in the torrential rain i checked all four tyres and all appeared ok, a quick call to Rolls Royce confirmed that they'd had problems with the system being very sensitive and told me over the phone how to reset.
I had brimmed the car in Taunton with fuel and managed to get to the portuguese border on one tank (450 miles) before adding another 95 litres, it was a fast run down through Spain cruising at about 85 mph, the car was fully loaded as we are away for 5 weeks and 3 of us on board, so she averaged about 22mpg a small improvement on the previous car.
The children were content in the back and my 9 year old has mastered the complicated rear entertainment system, a £15,000 option that doesn't include headphones!
We had used a different dealer this time as frankly the last dealer was useless, although I will reserve judgement on the current dealer until we are further into ownership, but in terms of the experience in buying the car, after sales, delivery and keeping in touch Bentley have well ad truly got RR beaten in overall experience and it really is something that they need to look at going forward.
The car itself is heavily optioned to the tune of 150k making the list price close to 450k, some of the options I considered essential others more because the wife liked them, some of that money was taken up in bespoke options, the colour and interior are bespoke, the starlight headlining at £8k was more of a novelty for the children but overall she is a stunning car.
Our intention is to try and use the car more then the last one and if there is interest i will post a report every so often on the overall experience of ownership and reliability.

[Mastiff]

dazzalse said:

The children were content in the back and my 9 year old has mastered the complicated rear entertainment system, a £15,000 option that doesn't include headphones!

dazzalse said:

The car itself is heavily optioned to the tune of 150k making the list price close to 450k.

dazzalse said:

the starlight headlining at £8k was more of a novelty for the children.

I definately turned the wrong way when I walked out of the school gates.

In all seriousness, I would like to continue to hear about your experiences with this car, particularly with the dealer as a role within this type of product could be on the horizon for me in the future, so I am interested in the level of service offered and how these compare whith your expectations.

A beautiful vehicle.

[stain]

My Dealer is pretty good though I did have issues with bodywork repairs under warranty. They sub it out to a regular bodyshop and the quality was very poor. Agree about the 8 speed box. I don't like it and I find it gives engine braking, unlike the S1 which is much easier to 'waft'

Can you list the options you have?

I was told it was 100k for personalised seatbelts.

[Tim Farquhar]

Makes one wonder, if Rolls Royce can add "starlighted" headlining, why can't they install a tyre pressure monitoring system, that will highlight the tyre with the loss of pressure? Rolls Royce do seem to lift the leg of their cutomers' when it comes to option prices. You can have a three bedroomed house, rewired, and fitted with new light fittings, including LED bathroom, and kitchen downlighters for around three grand, and yet,Royce charge 8K for a car roof.Similarly the cost of the rear entertainment system seems ridiculously steep,at £15K, or the price of a complete Mitsubishi ASX. I know Rolls Royce have always been about extravagance, but I think they think just because you have a bob or two, you don't watch the pennies. I'm speaking as a Bentley Continental owner here, and have only been able to buy one, by being otherwise sensible with money...or tight.

[dazzalse]

stain said:

My Dealer is pretty good though I did have issues with bodywork repairs under warranty. They sub it out to a regular bodyshop and the quality was very poor. Agree about the 8 speed box. I don't like it and I find it gives engine braking, unlike the S1 which is much easier to 'waft'

Can you list the options you have?

I was told it was 100k for personalised seatbelts.

Yes I completely agree that you seem to get engine braking with this box and the S1 felt more relaxed to drive on long distances, I also expected slightly better economy with the new box, but seem to recall getting similar mpg out of the S1 last year.
Options off the top of my head,

Bespoke exterior colour
Bespoke interior leather
Starlight headlining with bespoke coloured headlining
White instruments
Silver clock
Sunroof
Rear Entertainment
Individual rear seat with occasional seat
Black Piping
Piano wood
RR emblems in headrests
Polished 21"wheels
Bespoke coach line colour
Mother of pearl inlays
lambswool rugs
Veneered picnic tables for theatre
Visible tailpipes
Sun protection glass rear

Having spent a month with the car there are a few things that they need to addressed for the next model year, firstly the Hi-Fi, 10 years ago it was astonishing, there is now better, it used to be branded Lexicon but no longer is, but they really need to improve this as its no where near class leading anymore. Keyless entry and engine start would be good, and although they have upgraded the sat nav it is still not the latest generation thats in the wife X5. The TPS system is a joke and really needs to be addressed I seem to recall in our BMW back in 2001 it told you which tyre was flat so this generic tyre failure system is not good enough. There is very little feel in the steering wheel (doesn't bother me as I have other things for that) but the active steering fitted to some BMW would make things a lot easier at low speed

[stain]

Interesting comments regarding the stereo. Do you think they have changed the spec and dropped Lexicon? I think the S1 still sounds amazing as do any passengers in the car. I also keep a tyre pressure gauge in the boot after suffering 2 punctures and not knowing on which wheel. Tyre repaired both times though. There are foibles it seems but I still think the S3 is going to have to be mighty to beat what has gone before. My S1 has only got 40k on the clock and is running perfectly but if a nicely specced S2 popped up I might be tempted.

[xto]

Hi dazzalse,

Nice write up.

You are right at this price level you expect that everything is top em dame working without issue. The phantom has been out for a good few years so such issues like not knowing which type might have a puncture is silly.

Can we see the car, loved to see some pictures?

My question is about ownership, normally are you driven around or you bought the car for you to drive it?

Always felt the phantom was to be driven in not driven by the actual owner(?)

[stain]

I drive mine.

[POORCARDEALER]

Starlight headlining is the thing that passengers talk about most...They are a stunning car, the detractors normally havnt travelled in one.

[Tim Farquhar]

POORCARDEALER said:

Starlight headlining is the thing that passengers talk about most...They are a stunning car, the detractors normally havnt travelled in one.

I'm sure they're lovely. Just not worth £8000. The only Phantom I've had the pleasure of being driven in was a drophead, with wooden decking, similar to a yacht, and real stars.

[dazzalse]

xto said:

Hi dazzalse,

Nice write up.

You are right at this price level you expect that everything is top em dame working without issue. The phantom has been out for a good few years so such issues like not knowing which type might have a puncture is silly.

Can we see the car, loved to see some pictures?

My question is about ownership, normally are you driven around or you bought the car for you to drive it?

Always felt the phantom was to be driven in not driven by the actual owner(?)

No I drive myself the majority of the time, this car has replaced our previous car which was a drop head, its slightly longer then the Drophead but I was offered good money for it as there seems to be a shortage of 2011 Dropheads. The 4 door suit our needs slightly better. I do have a driver who works for me but only adhoc if we are going to a function or airport etc.. It is not used all the time but used everyday over the summer when we are down in Portugal as its the car we take down, Ive got a G wagon and X5 for everyday, will post some pictures when I get a chance

[cptsideways]

I like that comment about real stars in the drophead roof Might have to borrow that one

[POORCARDEALER]

Tim Farquhar said:

POORCARDEALER said:

Starlight headlining is the thing that passengers talk about most...They are a stunning car, the detractors normally havnt travelled in one.

I'm sure they're lovely. Just not worth £8000. The only Phantom I've had the pleasure of being driven in was a drophead, with wooden decking, similar to a yacht, and real stars.

They are not a value for money buy, so the cost is irrelevant

[graemel]

I for one would like to read regular updates on what life is like living with a Phantom

[9six4]

+1

Would love to read regular updates and see some photos.

Thanks!

[stain]

Great fun although a bit roly-poly for track work...

[dazzalse]

Well we've been back from Portugal for about 8 weeks and the car has been up with the supplying dealer for the last 3 weeks having various niggles rectified, nothing major but minor things. I asked them to look at the gearbox as I didnt feel the new 8 speed box was as smooth as the series 1 car we had owned before especially in slow moving traffic where it seemed to hunt between gears and also changed down for no reason, we've had a very annoying rattle from the area around the sunroof area and the sunroof switch was also loose.
In the old car the A/C was forget and leave what ever the temperature was outside but this car above 30 degrees outside seemed to struggle to maintain a comfortable temperature, so that also had to be looked into, they've also replaced the LED headlamp on the n/s as it kept giving failure warnings up on the dash. They've also replaced both battery as we kept having low voltage warnings.
Overall over 3,000 miles we averaged 23.6mpg so pretty good.
On a different note I've just bought a new mini Cooper S for the wife and the sale and after sale service has been superb and I really think RR could learn a lot from the experience we had buying the Mini to the experience we had buying the Phantom, the service we received from Mini was in a different league and made me realise how shoddy and what hard work it had been buying the RR.
Coming back up from Portugal we covered the best part of 700 miles in a day and it really is one of the most relaxing places to be, and on the motorway is so refined (more so then the last car which was a drophead)
Overall its a better car then the series one Phantom, not leaps and bounds, its more evolved which is no bad thing, as I mentioned earlier the stereo could be improved (its great but could be brilliant) there are a couple of things that could be added which include adaptive cruise and a blind spot warning system to the standard spec
Here are some pics

[Andy M]

dazzalse said:

We had used a different dealer this time as frankly the last dealer was useless, although I will reserve judgement on the current dealer until we are further into ownership, but in terms of the experience in buying the car, after sales, delivery and keeping in touch Bentley have well ad truly got RR beaten in overall experience and it really is something that they need to look at going forward.
The car itself is heavily optioned to the tune of 150k making the list price close to 450k...

That's astonishing, especially given the price of the vehicle. In what areas did you feel they were lacking?

Beautiful car by the way. We often holiday down on Quinta do Lago but have never driven down.

[9six4]

Thanks for the update - car looks fantastic....

I personally prefer the Phantom, but did you consider a Mulsanne as an alternative, especially given the dealership experience seems to be better?

Andy

[dazzalse]

9six4 said:

Thanks for the update - car looks fantastic....

I personally prefer the Phantom, but did you consider a Mulsanne as an alternative, especially given the dealership experience seems to be better?

Andy

Yes we did, I had a Mulsanne on loan from the factory for over a week, and they tried really hard to sell us the car, we had a evening at Highgrove for dinner and the service was 2nd to none and we probably would have bought it but my wife swayed more to the Phantom, in all honesty its one thing Bentley Motors are very good at looking after there customers, not only at a dealer level but also from the factory. We are probably going to get a Bentley GTC for next summer.
In terms of service from RR, it is always you chasing them, they don't return calls, don't do as they say they are gonna do and really dont want to go out of there way to help, when we collected the car I had asked for it to be delivered but they couldnt agree with me a suitable time that was suitable for them, I then went up on the train to collect it but instead of meeting me at the station that was suitable for me, was asked to change at the main terminus and take a another train to arrive at a station closer to the dealership as it was out of the way for them, various little things that one should not expect.