Bentley S-series values: three generations priced the same, and a Continental worth ten of them
Three generations of Bentley saloon priced within £2,000 of each other, and a Continental worth ten of them. From 537 recorded auction sales, what an S1, S2 and S3 are worth, and why this page's yearly chart is close to meaningless.
Built 1955–1965
What the Bentley S-series sells for at auction
In 2025 the median Bentley S-series sold for £33,150 across 33 sales, 47% down on 2024. In real terms, typical Bentley S-series prices were down about 42% over the five years to 2025, once inflation is accounted for.
| Variant | Sold | Typical range | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| S1 | 109 | £14,344 - £33,220 | £20,328 |
| S3 | 95 | £15,715 - £27,000 | £21,366 |
| S2 | 77 | £14,000 - £24,750 | £19,550 |
| S1 Continental | 42 | £98,920 - £294,704 | £194,725 |
| S2 Continental | 36 | £72,650 - £180,175 | £113,938 |
| S3 Continental | 35 | £42,500 - £116,516 | £69,101 |
| S2 Continental Flying Spur | 33 | £67,613 - £127,276 | £94,300 |
| S2 Continental Park Ward | 15 | £62,140 - £158,327 | £119,100 |
| S3 Continental Flying Spur | 13 | £75,375 - £175,500 | £139,281 |
| S3 Continental Mulliner Park Ward | 13 | £57,500 - £153,887 | £126,500 |
| S1 Continental Park Ward | 12 | £423,904 - £1,077,791 | £737,496 |
| S2 Continental H.J. Mulliner | 10 | £85,680 - £178,880 | £126,150 |
Show the year-by-year mediansHide the year-by-year medians
| Year | Sold | Median | In 2025 money |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | 27 | £20,000 | |
| 2025 | 33 | £33,150 | £33,150 |
| 2024 | 39 | £63,000 | £65,418 |
| 2023 | 38 | £21,995 | £23,603 |
| 2022 | 37 | £43,876 | £50,248 |
| 2021 | 27 | £37,356 | £46,193 |
| 2020 | 21 | £44,967 | £56,983 |
| 2019 | 20 | £50,424 | £64,550 |
| 2018 | 27 | £109,125 | £142,068 |
| 2017 | 39 | £92,427 | £123,117 |
| 2016 | 33 | £46,500 | £63,535 |
| 2015 | 25 | £69,101 | £95,359 |
| 2014 | 25 | £37,125 | £51,438 |
| 2013 | 22 | £26,700 | £37,521 |
| 2012 | 14 | £32,522 | £46,750 |
| 2011 | 10 | £65,800 | £97,013 |
| 2010 | 19 | £34,500 | £52,841 |
| 2009 | 12 | £31,314 | £49,163 |
| 2008 | 15 | £21,275 | £34,060 |
| 2007 | 12 | £27,631 | £45,775 |
| 2006 | 6 | £14,997 | £25,425 |
| 2005 | 7 | £31,050 | £53,966 |
| 2004 | 10 | £19,994 | £35,466 |
| 2002 | 5 | £41,125 | £74,970 |
| 2001 | 6 | £68,650 | £126,993 |
| 1996 | 3 | £35,202 | £70,918 |
- £5,843S1
- £8,251S2
- £5,153S2
- £21,440S3
- £22,000S2
Strong evidence. 537 recorded sales and a dozen or more a year: the median and the range are well founded. Based on 537 sold results from public classic car auctions (1996 to 10 August 2026). Sold prices, not asking prices, and not a valuation: condition, history and specification vary from car to car. Inflation-adjusted figures use the ONS CPIH index, in 2025 money.
The S-series is two markets in one record, and the split is sharper here than almost anywhere. Bentley S-series values sit at a median of £37,835 across 537 recorded sales, with the middle half between £19,600 and £109,125. Behind that, the standard saloons all sit near £20,000 and the Continentals run from £69,101 to £194,725. Roughly two in three cars offered find a buyer, and the record runs from £1,750 to £1,533,641.
The Bentley S-series guide covers the S1, S2 and S3, the Continentals and what to check. This page is about the money.
Three generations, one price
This is the finding worth carrying away. The S1 sits at £20,328 across 109 recorded sales, the S2 at £19,550 across 77 and the S3 at £21,366 across 95. Under £2,000 separates three generations built across nine years, and that span includes the change from the straight six to the 6.2-litre V8, which on most cars would move a price on its own.
It does not here. The market has decided that an S-series saloon is one thing, and that which series it is barely matters. That is unusual: the Silver Cloud pays £11,600 for a Cloud III over a Cloud I on effectively the same chassis, the GT6 pays for the early cars, the Mk X pays for the first one. Here nobody pays for anything.
The practical consequence is liberating. Buy on condition, history and colour, choose the series you actually prefer to drive, and pay no attention whatever to the badge. It is the only page in this batch where that advice holds.
The Continental is a different car in every sense
Above the saloons, the coachbuilt cars behave completely differently and reward the earliest rather than the latest. The S1 Continental sits at £194,725 across 42 recorded sales, the S2 Continental at £113,938 across 36, and the S3 Continental at £69,101 across 35. The S2 Continental Flying Spur is £94,300 across 33 and a Park Ward-bodied S2 Continental £119,100.
So the Continental loses value with each generation while the saloon holds level with each generation. An S1 Continental is close to ten times an S1 saloon, and forty-seven of the 537 sales sit outside the listed rows entirely in the tail of individual commissions. The record for the model, £1,533,641, is a Park Ward-bodied S1 Continental.
A chart that is mostly noise
The yearly medians read £44,967 in 2020, £37,356 in 2021, £43,876 in 2022, £21,995 in 2023, £63,000 in 2024, £33,150 in 2025 and about £20,000 so far in 2026.
Do not read that as a market. No real market triples in a year and then falls by two thirds in two. What is happening is arithmetic: with only about 35 recorded sales a year, and Continentals worth ten times a saloon sitting in the same pool, two or three coachbuilt cars arriving in one year lift the median enormously and their absence the next year drops it again. The 2024 figure of £63,000 and the 2026 figure of £20,000 describe consignment patterns, not values.
The badge rows are the honest numbers on this page. The recent sales tell the same story from the other end: an S1 at £5,843, an S2 at £5,153, another S2 at £8,251 and an S3 at £21,440, all well below the headline median, because no Continental happened to sell in those weeks.
Where S-series Bentleys change hands
The saloons move through British sale rooms and the online platforms, and at the bottom of the range they move cheaply: the recent record has three of them under £9,000. The Continentals and Flying Spurs appear a few times a year at the international catalogued sales. Two in three offered cars sell, which is on the low side and reflects how many tired saloons reach the market relative to buyers willing to take on the restoration. Whether a recorded price includes the buyer’s premium varies by sale, which is one more reason to read the usual range rather than any single result.
Insuring, restoring, selling
Insure a saloon around £20,000 to £25,000 depending on condition, and a Continental individually with the coachbuilder and chassis records attached. On restoration the saloons are the familiar trap: a car costing £6,000 needs the same £60,000 of work as one costing £25,000, and only one of those sums makes sense. If you are selling a saloon, the series is worth nothing and the history file is worth everything; if you are selling a Continental, the chassis records are the transaction.
Related
The S-series is the Bentley version of the Silver Cloud, which sells for rather more in saloon form, and the successor to the Mk VI and R Type, whose Continental follows the same pattern. It was replaced by the T-series. For the period, see British classic cars of the 1950s and 1960s. For how all the figures on this site are compiled, see what classic cars sell for.
