Flying Spur refused to go into gear outside Sahara Centre and I had to get it towed
I never thought I'd be the guy waiting for a flatbed truck in a Sharjah parking lot with a Bentley on the back looking like I'd just been evicted from the millionaires' club but here we are, my 2016 Flying Spur V8 decided yesterday afternoon that it simply wasn't going to engage reverse or drive no matter how many times I cycled the ignition or gently pleaded with it in three different languages while a family of four watched me from their Sunny and probably thought I'd stolen the thing. The car had been a bit lazy shifting out of park for a couple of weeks but I'd been ignoring it because you know how it is you just hope these things fix themselves and now I'm staring at a repair situation that the main dealer in Dubai has already quoted me an eye watering number for over the phone without even seeing the car. I was scrolling through a few luxury car owner groups on Facebook while waiting for the recovery truck and someone mentioned there are actual Bentley Transmission Specialists Sharjah who work on these ZF units without the premium badge tax that comes with the dealership's marble floors and complimentary cappuccinos, and I've booked it in with a workshop over in Industrial Area 6 that apparently knows the exact solenoids and mechatronic seals that fail on these eight speed boxes after years of heat cycling in our lovely climate. I'm honestly just crossing my fingers that it's something like a worn valve body rather than a full rebuild because I really don't want to be the guy who turns a perfectly good Flying Spur into a very luxurious garden ornament just because the transmission decided to throw a tantrum outside a shopping mall.