News: Bentley recall 1500 cars!

From Classic Car Life

The distinctive "Flying B" that we are used to seeing on the bonnets of top class Bentley cars is the reason why 1,500 top of the range vehicles have been recalled by the company amid fears it could impale pedestrians during an collision.

Due to recent legislation regarding all protruding badges, including that of other marques like Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce, the metal motif is designed to retract in the event of an accident but in some models a malfunction has been located that can cause the mechanism to fail. The fault has prompted the company to recall 1,426 cars across the world including 298 in Britain.

Models including the Arnage, Azure and Brooklands, costing between £183k and £250k are included in the recall, which includes many millionaire owners such as Manchester United & England defender Rio Ferdinand have been instructed that the repair will take one hour, and they should bring their cars in as soon as possible.

The badge at the centre of the recall was designed back in the late 1920s. It was withdrawn in the 1970s over safety reasons but reappeared on Bentley cars in 2006 after the retractable mechanism had been designed. It is this very mechanism which is malfunctioning on the recalled cars. Water seeps into the system causing rust and corrosion

"In a small number of cases, it means that springs and levers will not retract it as quickly as we would like," said a Bentley spokesman.

This could see pedestrians suffering awful injuries and even being impaled on the badge in the event of an accident. Bentley have said that there have been no reports of any accidents or injuries, but were recalling the cars as a precaution.

A US spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said there was a "potential" for the retracting mechanism to become corroded.

Bentley have had to recall cars before, despite being a well respected and high quality luxury brand of vehicle manufacturer. In June 2008, the company recalled nearly 33,000 Continental GT, GT Speed, Flying Spur and GTC which were manufactured between December 2003 and March 2008 due to problems with filters.

The Arnage and Azure have previously been recalled in 2007 because of problems with bolts which could have led to a wheel falling off.