Peter James: Novelist and Film Producer: Bentley Flambé

Peter's blog

Friday, July 04, 2008
Bentley Flambé

Just when I was thinking all the teething troubles I had with my Bentley had been sorted out, it went and caught fire!

The saga began on a Sunday, three weeks ago, when driving along on a dry, sunny day, the windscreen washers suddenly came on and would not stop, even with the engine off and the key removed. After phone calls back and forward to Bentley Rescue, their best advice was for me to remove the relevant fuse. I did so, whereupon the Bentley's computer, being super-intelligent (but not that smart...) switched to another circuit and the pump started again. Finally the good old RAC turned up and managed to isolate and disconnect the offending washer pump.

However, next day, driving to a charity event at Glyndebourne Opera House, Helen and I dressed up in our finery, the car's alarm system suddenly went bonkers. Every warning flashed up in front of me, from NO SEAT BELT, to LOW TIRE PRESSURE, to CHECK OIL NOW! These were accompanied by a cacophony of loud gongs, then the car filled with smoke. The villagers of Glynde were entertained to the sight of the two of us leaping out, while the car fizzed and crackled and belched smoke from everywhere but the exhaust.....

The car was recovered and sent to Jack Barclay, in London, the Bentley dealers from whom I had brought the car. I was less than impressed to be told a couple of days later that the fault lay in leaves that had blocked a drain gulley, causing a build up of water, which had in turn caused corrosion, through which water had leaked into the car's on-board computer and wiring system. I then had a total sense of humour failure when I was told that because the car was out of warranty by a few months, I was looking at an £8,500 bill. You can read what happened next in this Daily Mail gossip column article!

posted by Peter James at 11:54 AM 11 comments

Comments:

Great photo, glad the car repairs are sorted. You would think that they would want to keep good customers! And the fault was hardly yours.

Linda

By Anonymous, at 10:12 AM

Thanks Linda - I had been thinking of all the things I could cook on it!!!!

By Peter James, at 11:14 AM

Glad things turned out okay in the end Peter - it's a lovely car - must have been yet another example of the 'wrong type of leaves' - was the mechanic ex-British Rail?
Keith

By Anonymous, at 10:21 AM

Love that picture Peter!
As of Bentley, the Punch & Judy
expression springs to mind..
THATS THE TO DO IT!!

Robert P Splaine

By Anonymous, at 12:49 PM

Damn..
What l meant was

THATS THE WAY TO DO IT!!

RP

By Anonymous, at 12:50 PM

Thank you!!!!!! When you have a complaint, always go straight to the top, is my policy. I mean, my fans do it, they write and gripe to me if they find a printing error, not to the typesetter!!!! And I make sure it gets corrected....

All best

Peter

By Peter James, at 1:46 PM

In which case, how's this for a frustrating printing error. Am half way through 'Dead Man's Footsteps' (truly excellent, as expected!) - I get to page 152, only to find the next pages are repeats of pages 121-152, before going on to 185! A mystery indeed...

Hilary

By Hilary, at 7:05 PM

Hi Hilary

I'm so sorry to hear about this printing error. If you can email me your email address and postal address I will ask my publishers to contact you and I'm sure they will send you a new copy immediately.

Best regards

Peter

By Peter James, at 4:11 PM

Hi Hilary

Sorry, I meant to say for you to send it to me confidentially to my email address: scary@pavilion.co.uk

Peter

By Peter James, at 4:12 PM

re the footballer car.

I think you should have not been such a cheap skate and bought the warranty , its an 04 plate , 5 years old and and you have to go running to crappy middle class newspapers like the daily mail when there are far greater issues in the world like the middle east , global warming,child poverty ... sorry , your just a typical moaning limelight hungry loser who can't afford a new one.

what a messer.

By Anonymous, at 8:07 PM

Thank you, Anonymous, for your contribution to my blog debates.

Just to clarify, the Bentley was two years old when I bought it from Bentley concessionaire dealers Jack Barclay, with 5,000 miles on the clock and I bought the extended warranty.

At the time the car caught fire it was four years old with 21,000 miles on the clock. The car was regularly serviced by the dealer and had been maintained by them since new. The fault which had caused it to catch fire was a known one to Bentley and would have been prevented by more attentive servicing, or by Bentley issuing a warning letter to its customers, which it failed to do. I was further aggrieved as the year before I had vigorously defended Bentley, in particular, in a large article for the Sunday Times in which I pointed out that quality cars which were built to last for many decades were far better for the environment than cars with built-in obsolescence which had a life of a decade and often less before being recycled - and make a far bigger contribution to the nightmare of global warming. This article is accessible on my website.

By Peter James, at 8:40 AM