Bentley blushing: Recalls 520 Arnage models for wheel problems
Speaking of recalls... It's one thing for a full-line automaker like General Motors or Ford to announce a recall, as those companies produce thousands of vehicles a day. It's quite another for a manufacturer like Bentley, which still primarily builds its entire lineup by hand, to announce a recall. The company from Crewe is reportedly recalling 520 examples of its ultra expensive Arnage that were built over the last 18 months due to incorrect bolts being used to attach the wheels, which could come loose as a result.Bentley has reportedly already contacted owners of the affected vehicles, who no doubt include a number of wealthy and famous people who were bothered to discover their $221,000 sedan has issues. One of the reasons for paying that much for a car is so you don't have to deal with recalls like the rest of us schlubs. But we'll give Bentley a break, as anyone can have a bad day... for 18 months.
[Source: Scotsman.com via KickingTires]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Don 8:21PM (8/13/2007)
I can imagine I'd have a problem with the wheels flying off my $221,000 Bentley.
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R.Autry 10:22PM (8/13/2007)
HA! I'm sure that many of the Bentleys have had their lugs tightened with the local pneumatic lug nut tightener with which we are all familiar. The wheels could never come loose. Or do all the lads use the hand torque tightener to exactly affix the correct pounds to each lug applying pressure in a cross pattern so as not to warp the wheel. I'm sure they have the time. What is the book rate for that? A three hour job?
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joe 9:05PM (8/13/2007)
From the NHTSA database:
"Summary:
ON CERTAIN VEHICLES, THE ROAD WHEEL FIXING BOLTS MAY BE DIMENSIONALLY INCORRECT. THE POTENTIAL EXISTS FOR THESE BOLTS TO LOOSEN.
Consequence:
THIS COULD LEAD TO THE ROAD WHEEL BECOMING DETACHED FROM THE HUB INCREASING THE RISK OF A CRASH."
The actual wheel, on which the tire resides, is not affected. It's saying that the bolts attaching the hub cap to the wheel (yes, that is a hub cap, aka "road wheel") is not proper size (too big, too small).
It doesn't matter if you hand-torque each nut (which they probably do) because if they're a bit too big, they will be loose and if they are a bit too small, the extra force will lead to premature wear/crack.
paul34 9:36PM (8/13/2007)
With a car like this, I'd expect them to use a $10,000 torque wrench coated with magic fairy dust and then clean all the lugnuts with some type of tunneling microscope to make sure it is "clean."
Can't have the filthy fingerprints of those "humans" on my wheels, son!
Moltenauto 10:04PM (8/13/2007)
joe, 'road wheel' in nhtsa speak IS the wheel, NOT the hubcap. Don't know where you got that idea? They ARE saying that the wheels could potentially fall off.
I can only guess that the bolts are slightly too short to be completely safe as nothing else makes sense. If they were too big or too small they just wouldn't work.
Autoblog; a little research next time. The NHTSA website shows a number of Bentley recalls each year going back as far as you would care to look, so this is hardly news.
R.Autry 8:35PM (8/13/2007)
REALLY!
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G 10:31PM (8/13/2007)
Amazing quality on these British cars, almost as good as Land Rover (which finished at the absolute bottom in terms of quality at JD Powers and Consumer Reports).
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Little Lord Poopy-Pants 9:53PM (8/13/2007)
I recall a marketing report pointing out the truism that a prime - and often the only - reason for an extravagant purchase was to flaunt one's ability to pay for it.
The report concluded that for really expensive cars, it was not only OK with most owners that the car was a "garage queen", it was actually a bragging point that the cars needed so much maintenance and repair. That way owners could communicate - directly or by inference -that they were soooooo rich they could not only afford to buy one, they could actually afford to drive it!
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will z 10:00PM (8/13/2007)
The irony here is that before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, Michael Irvin said changing the gold jacket the members wear would be like spoiling a Bentley by putting rims on it.
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Richard Warren 4:12PM (8/14/2007)
They recall aircraft also, actually nearly everyting manufactured has been recalled. Money has nothing to do with it. Shit happens.
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Nick 11:27PM (8/13/2007)
Well, they are VWs after all... Better look our for the ignition coils too!!! LOLOLOLOL.
Putting a British and German manufacturer together is second in reliability hell, right next to what would happen if Citroen merged with Fiat. European manufacturers have a long way to go.
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MikeUK 12:56PM (8/15/2007)
Makes you wonder why we don't all go out and buy american cars. Oh yeah, Now I remember, because they're horrible, wallowing gas guzzlers which feel like they are made of vending machine cups. How may european cars in the USA? plenty. American cars in Europe... I must have seen, maybe 5. I heard a rumour some still have leaf spring suspension and live axles. How quaint!
Nick 3:07PM (8/15/2007)
Right. Because Ford, Vauxhall and Opel sell no cars in Europe. How's that ol' British car industry doing? At least our cars run!
rbw 8:21AM (11/21/2008)
Excuse me? "at least our cars run" you say? Yeah - only in a straight line! Any British built car can take a bend a heck of a lot better than a US car. Not to mention the fact that the interior of a US car is a lot like the interior of a plastic black cup from a cheap coffee machine!
Plus there is some video evidence that needs to examined...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie_4QZd_upA
That said, this debate will never end. Bottom line is all of us are patriotic about cars.
Nick 4:42PM (8/16/2007)
You guys haven't figured out that being assemblers for another country's cars doesn't count as having your own car industry? Hondas built in Ohio are not American cars, and Minis aren't British anymore. Being cheap labor doesn't count as having a car industry; when the chips are down those foreign companies will be getting the hell out of Dodge.
Christopher H. Kim 12:12AM (8/14/2007)
No one is perfect
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dionysus 12:28AM (8/14/2007)
lol, lame machine and never will be perfect.
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Ken 12:24AM (8/14/2007)
Eh, no big deal. I would expect limited-run cars to have more recalls and issues because of limited R&D and less than precise manufacturing.
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adrian 12:03PM (8/14/2007)
@ G & Nick
It's all very well putting down British and other European car makers when they make a mistake, but when a new car is launched in europe, the americans are always asking when is it going to be imported into there country so we can't be that bad.
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adrian 7:18PM (8/15/2007)
@Nick
Most of the cars sold by Ford, Vauxhall/Opel in europe are designed in europe, by the way hasn't Ford mortgaged itself in the US? as for the other two there struggling.
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