Bentley certified pre-owned warranty

Bentley’s certified pre-owned program explained

CPO essentially gives you a third purchase option between “New” and “Used.” In order to qualify as CPO, a used vehicle must first be below a certain age and mileage (usually around five years/60,000 miles). Next, it must pass a rigorous dealership inspection, during which a certified tech passes through the vehicle with a fine-tooth comb looking for issues.

Bentley doesn’t publish its exact CPO checklist, but here’s an example of a completed CPO checklist from a Mercedes dealership.

Lastly, most CPO vehicles come with an extended warranty that usually adds around one year/12,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper protection to whatever factory warranty remains.

Now that you understand how most CPO programs work, the next thing you should know is that niche and exotic carmakers (e.g., Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Ferrari) all tend to do things a little differently.

Here’s Bentley’s approach.

For starters, in order to qualify as CPO, a pre-owned Bentley must be under 10 years old, but there’s no actual limit to the miles it can have. If that sounds a little concerning, know that your average Bentley dealer probably won’t try certifying a high-mileage vehicle in the first place because it’s unlikely to pass the second requirement: the inspection.

“CPO Bentleys must be in like-new condition,” the sales manager at a Bentley dealership told us. “That means all of the services must be up to date, and if we find something that doesn’t meet Bentley standards, we repair or replace it with original parts.”

As a result, the process of certifying a Bentley is far more thorough and expensive than the process of certifying a mass-market luxury vehicle from Audi or Lexus.

“On average, we spend about $15,000 certifying the vehicle plus another $5,000 purchasing the warranty from Bentley. So when our CPO Bentley is priced $20,000 higher than a mystery Bentley from Fred’s Auto Lot, that’s why.”

However, like most mass-market vehicles, CPO Bentleys come with a warranty plus benefits. You’ll get a one-year/unlimited-mile extension to your factory bumper-to-bumper warranty, another year of 24/7 roadside assistance, trip interruption insurance and more (that we’ll cover in detail below).

The last main benefit of buying a CPO Bentley is that it unlocks the option to purchase additional, extended warranty protection. “You can actually purchase one- or two-year Bentley extended warranties until your vehicle is 10 years old,” the sales manager told us, “but only if your vehicle is still under warranty.

“If you bring us a Bentley that isn’t currently under the factory or CPO warranty,” he continued, “we’ll have to certify it before we can warranty it. As you recall, that process can involve $15,000 worth of refurbishing — and this time, the bill would be on the customer, not us.”

So that’s the long and short of Bentley’s CPO program. You’ll get a vehicle that:

• Is under 10 years old
• Has passed a rigorous inspection
• Has had all of the necessary servicing done and parts refurbished to the tune of $15,000 per vehicle, on average
• Includes a one-year/unlimited-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty, starting from the date of purchase or the date your factory Bentley warranty expires
• Also includes benefits like 24/7 roadside assistance and trip expense reimbursement
• Qualifies for Bentley extended warranty protection at an additional cost

Let’s break it all down a bit further, starting with the warranty.

» LEARN: What does a car warranty cover?

How good is Bentley’s CPO warranty?

For context, all new Bentley models come with the following factory warranty:

• Three years/unlimited miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage.

As you may recall, bumper-to-bumper coverage is the most robust you can get, but it still doesn’t cover things like routine maintenance (e.g., oil changes, wiper blades), wear-and-tear items (e.g., brake rotors, spark plugs) and damage.

When you purchase a CPO Bentley, you get one extra year of bumper-to-bumper coverage added to your remaining factory warranty coverage. If your Bentley has none of its factory warranty left, your one-year/unlimited-mile CPO warranty starts on the date you purchase the car.

A one-year/unlimited-mile warranty is above average for a CPO warranty. Across the entire market, the standard is around one year/12,000 miles. You probably won’t be putting serious miles on your CPO $200,000 Bentayga, but still, having unlimited miles is a nice touch.

How does Bentley’s CPO warranty compare?

Compared with other ultra-luxury and exotic car brands, Bentley’s CPO warranty is still about average. Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin offer an identical CPO warranty, and in an interesting twist, Audi and Mercedes’ CPO warranties are not bumper-to-bumper.

Keep that in mind if you were considering an Audi R8 or a Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG instead of a Continental GT. Despite those vehicles being supported by mass-market brands, their CPO protection is actually far inferior.

» MORE: Best CPO warranties

CPO Bentley benefits

When you purchase a CPO Bentley, you’ll also get the following benefits that last for the duration of your warranty:

• 24/7 roadside assistance to assist with accidents, flat tires or blowouts, dead batteries, empty gas tanks, locked doors, general breakdowns and more
• Towing on a custom Bentley transport vehicle to the nearest dealership
• Trip expense reimbursement to help cover the cost of meals, lodging and alternative transportation (up to a reasonable limit) following a warranty-covered breakdown

Overall, these are above-average benefits for a CPO program. Mercedes offers similar benefits but doesn’t guarantee flatbed towing. Rolls-Royce will help you make alternative travel arrangements if you break down far from home, but it won’t help cover the costs.

Is a CPO Bentley worth it?

In a general sense, it’s more likely to be worth paying extra for CPO if:

• The vehicle you’re considering has a high cost of ownership outside of warranty.
• The difference in cost between CPO and pre-owned isn’t exorbitant (i.e., not far off from the 6% industry average).
• The CPO warranty and benefits help to justify the added cost.

We’ve already established that Bentley is pretty generous with CPO warranty protection and benefits. But how reliable are Bentleys? How much are dealers charging extra for CPO versus pre-owned, and given all we’ve learned, is it worth paying the extra cost?

How reliable are Bentleys?

Since Bentley is such a niche brand — having sold just 13,560 cars in 2023 compared with Mercedes' 2.5 million — you won’t see it in big-brand reliability rankings from J.D. Power or Consumer Reports.

That said, we were able to find a few scattered reports from reliable sources. The Car Expert, for example, gave the current generation Continental GT (2018+) a reliability rating of 23%, or “E.” Another UK-based magazine called Auto Express gave the Bentayga a much more optimistic reliability and safety rating of 4.2 out of 5, claiming that “VW Group technology should help with the Bentayga's reliability.”

Either way, it’s safe to say that Bentley’s long-standing reputation for mixed reliability hasn’t changed much. That reality would further underscore the value of having as much extended warranty protection as possible.

How much does a certified pre-owned Bentley cost?

To find out, ConsumerAffairs went to Edmunds.com to compare the average cost of a CPO Bentley nationwide to its direct, pre-owned equivalent with similar age and miles.

To make the closest comparison possible, we only looked at vehicles that were from 2018 or newer (since the oldest CPO Bentley for sale is a 2018 Continental GT) and excluded any vehicles with major accidents or issues reported.

With these filters in place, we found 335 pre-owned Bentleys nationwide with an average asking price of $176,376 and 28 CPO Bentleys with an average price of $191,218. That’s an average difference of $14,842, or 8.4% over the regular pre-owned asking price.

Based purely on what you’re getting with CPO, we think that’s absolutely worth it. We had multiple dealers tell us that they spend around $15,000 refurbishing each CPO Bentley, so you’re not only getting peace of mind with a CPO Bentley; you’re getting good value from new(er) tires, brakes, fluid levels and more.

The alternative is to purchase a pre-owned Bentley that hasn’t been certified, but you could be taking an enormous risk.

“I have clients ask me, ‘Why should I buy a certified Bentley from you for $220,000 when there’s a used one down the street at Fred’s Auto Lot for $200,000?’ Then, like clockwork, those clients come back in three months desperate to trade their used one for a CPO one,” the sales manager said.

In short, a CPO Bentley may cost you $15,000 or even $20,000 more than a used one, but it comes with $15,000 worth of fresh parts, a longer warranty and better peace of mind.

Plus, keep in mind that only CPO Bentleys come with the option to purchase additional warranty coverage. Should you?

Do you need an extended warranty for your Bentley?

If you purchase a Bentley that’s still under warranty (factory or CPO), you’ll have the option to purchase a one- or two-year Bentley Extended Warranty. “Then, when that coverage is about to expire, you can keep purchasing one- or two-year plans until your Bentley turns 10 years old,” the sales manager said.

Although one year of protection can be pricey (we were quoted $5,500 on a Continental GT), it might be a good option to provide peace of mind and insurance against pricey Bentley repairs. Plus, your options outside of Bentley may be extremely limited. Neither olive nor Endurance were able to provide coverage for a 2023 Bentley model.

The last hidden benefit of purchasing a Bentley extended warranty is that it may support the resale value of your car. “Once a Bentley falls out of warranty,” the sales manager explained, “the cost to recertify it can be enormous — if it’s even possible.”

» FIND WARRANTY COMPANIES: Best Extended Car Warranty Companies