Bentley Azure (2006)

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the second-generation Bentley Azure, the four-seat Arnage-based convertible with the 6.75 litre twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine and 450 bhp, sold from 2006 and in the standard tune until about 2009. It is not a guide to the first-generation Azure built from 1995 to 2003, which had a different body and about 390 PS. It is also not a guide to the Continental GTC, which is a different car on a different platform, and it is not a guide to the Azure T, the 500 hp version made in small numbers in 2009 and 2010. Where the T differs we say so, because most of the detailed buying advice we could find was written about it.

We have not driven this model for this article. Everything here comes from three cited sources: a Bentley press release reprinted by The Auto Channel for the 2006 New York show, PistonHeads' used buying guide to the Azure T, and the government vehicle recall checker. We also read a PistonHeads classified listing for a 2006 car, Wikipedia's Azure article and several data sites, and we say below where they disagree. Treat every figure as a claim to be checked against the car you are looking at.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 6.75 litre twin-turbocharged V8 petrol, a 450 bhp version of the Arnage engine, with intercooling.
• Power: 450 bhp. Bentley also quotes about 336 kW, and Wikipedia gives 456 PS. Those are the same output in different units, since 450 bhp is roughly 456 PS.
• Torque: 875 Nm, which is 645 lb ft.
• Gearbox and drive: six-speed ZF automatic sending power to the rear wheels, so it is rear-wheel drive.
• Acceleration: Bentley is reported as claiming 0 to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds. That is a 0 to 60 mph time, not a 0 to 100 km/h time, and a true 0 to 100 km/h run would be slightly longer. We use 5.6 seconds as the nearest available claim.
• Top speed: 270 km/h, which is 168 mph.
• Seating and body: four seats, two doors, fabric roof.
• Years: revealed at Frankfurt in September 2005, on sale from spring 2006, standard 450 bhp car to about 2009.

Where the sources disagree

The Azure is a car on which the published numbers do not agree, and it is worth knowing which ones to distrust. The catalogue figure we replaced for acceleration, 5.5 seconds, appears on at least one data site, but PistonHeads gives 5.5 seconds as the 0 to 62 mph time of the more powerful Azure T and describes that as 0.4 seconds quicker than the standard car, which would put the standard car near 5.9 seconds. A German data site gives 6 seconds to 100 km/h. Bentley's own claim as repeated in a classified listing and on Wikipedia is 5.6 seconds to 60 mph. A range of 5.5 to 6.3 seconds across the sources is realistic, and some of the spread comes from 0 to 60 mph and 0 to 100 km/h being different measurements.

The top speed has the same problem. Bentley's claim as repeated by Wikipedia and a PistonHeads listing is 168 mph, or 270 km/h. PistonHeads' guide to the T puts the standard car at 171 mph. A 274 km/h figure, which is about 170 mph, appeared in a German-language source. We use 270 km/h because it is the figure attributed to Bentley.

The engine size is also written three ways. Bentley's V8 is a 6.75 litre engine, which most sources give as 6,750 cc. PistonHeads writes 6,761 cc in its Azure T guide, and some listings round it to 6.8 litres. We use 6.75 litre and 6,750 cc.

What the car is

The second-generation Azure was revealed as a production car at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2005, following a show car at Los Angeles earlier that year. Bentley's New York show release describes a four-seat drophead with an Arnage face, a new cabin and rear section, a bespoke interior, double-wishbone suspension and an extremely rigid structure shared with the Arnage. The three-layer fabric roof is hydraulic and stows beneath the hide-trimmed tonneau in under 30 seconds. The engine is the Arnage's 6.75 litre twin-turbo V8 in a 450 bhp tune, producing 875 Nm.

PistonHeads says the 2006 car cost 225,000 pounds new, and that the Azure T was launched at 245,000 pounds. Wikipedia tabulates production from Volkswagen annual reports as 177 cars in 2006, 350 in 2007, 165 in 2008, 93 in 2009 and 2 in 2010, but that is a secondary summary that includes the T, we did not open the reports, and we have therefore not put a single production total into the catalogue. The Azure had no direct successor until the Mulsanne-based Grand Convertible, according to Wikipedia.

Ownership costs and known weak points

We found no published running-cost data for the standard 450 bhp car, so what follows is taken from PistonHeads' 2023 guide to the Azure T. It uses the same Arnage-derived platform and a related L-series V8, so it is a reasonable guide to what to ask about, but it is not a record of this specification.

• Engine: PistonHeads says earlier twin-turbo L-series engines suffered head gasket and camshaft or tappet wear problems, that Bentley fitted modified head studs, bolts and gaskets about two years before the T arrived, and that some oil seepage can persist. Ask whether the work was done on the car you are viewing.
• Roof: the hydraulic mechanism has failed on these cars, sometimes leaking fluid into the cabin. Solenoids can fail, and out-of-warranty repairs have reached five-figure bills. Tensioning cables can break but are cheap. A classified listing for a 2006 car also records hood repairs carried out in the United States, which is the sort of history to ask about.
• Brakes and tyres: brake servo pumps can leak and trigger warnings, and a tyre pressure monitoring failure can mean four new sensors and a module.
• Suspension: clonking bushes, rattling links and whining wheel bearings are listed. If the auxiliary battery goes flat the suspension can default to a hard setting that mimics a failed adaptive damper, and a new battery may cure it.
• Electrics and trim: electric window motors, climate control relays or circuit boards, front speaker amplifiers, seatbelt pretensioner and airbag warnings, and seat adjustment gearboxes all appear on the list.
• Servicing: PistonHeads quotes an interval of 10,000 miles or 12 months, alternating interim and major services. For cars over 48 months old it gave Bentley dealer prices of 799 pounds and 1,199 pounds, and independent specialists from 399 pounds. Those are 2023 figures for the T, so expect different quotes now.

What to check before buying

• Confirm the specification: a standard car should be 450 bhp, and anything marketed as 500 hp is an Azure T, built in 2009 with a few cars registered in 2010.
• Ask for the full service history, including any head gasket, head stud, camshaft or turbocharger work.
• Operate the roof several times, cold and hot, and look for wet carpets, fluid stains and slow or uneven folding.
• Check the suspension by driving over varied surfaces and look for warning lights on the dash.
• Have a Bentley specialist inspect it before purchase. A cheap Azure can be the most expensive one to own.
• Check the car's build date and any open recall using the method below.
• Ask whether the car has lived abroad, and what the registration and import history is.

Recalls and the government check

We did not run the government checker, because we are not looking at a specific car. The page says the checker shows serious safety recalls that have not been fixed, along with the MOT history if you enter a registration number, and that without one you need the manufacturer, model and year of manufacture. It says the online checker covers safety recalls only and that the manufacturer contacts you directly about recalls for other reasons. One third-party data site reported, in a search snippet that we could not confirm, a recall of some Azures built between February 2005 and August 2006 over a wheel bolt that could loosen. Please treat that as a prompt to check, not as a fact. Absence of a recall in our sources is not a clean bill of health, and a car brought in from abroad may not appear in the UK checker at all, so also ask a Bentley dealer to check the chassis number.

About the photograph

The picture at the top of this page shows a dark blue second-generation Azure with its roof up, photographed by Alexander Migl in Boeblingen, Germany, and published on Wikimedia Commons under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. We cropped it and resized it, and we blurred a dealer name plate on the front bumper. The description gives only the generation, so we use it to show the shape of the car, not as evidence of a particular specification.

Verdict

The second-generation Bentley Azure is a heavy, relaxed, four-seat open car with 450 bhp, 875 Nm, a claimed 5.6 seconds to 60 mph, a 270 km/h top speed claim and rear-wheel drive. It was built in the low hundreds each year, and its published figures disagree enough that you should not rely on any single number. Its weak points are the roof hydraulics, the engine's head and cam history and the many small electrical failures, and the cost of putting them right is high. If you want one, buy on history and specialist inspection rather than on price or headline numbers. We have not driven it, so use the sources, the checks above and a proper inspection to decide.