Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s Bentley sold for £125k after just one day on sale

A Bentley believed to have belonged to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has sold for just under £125,000 after it went on sale at a Doncaster dealership.

The Bentley Flying Spur, sprayed Barnato racing green with a linen and Cumbrian green diamond quilted leather interior, sold the day after it went on sale at Portland of Bawtry Ltd in South Yorkshire, The Independent has learned.

An advert for the vehicle went live on the Portland Autos website earlier this month as an “Ex Royal Family Car” for £124,975, which had only clocked 7,000 miles. The advert now marks the car as reserved.

The vehicle’s lucky owner will enjoy massage front and rear seats and a Naim sound system as they drive the Bentley with its six-litre engine, 22” Polished Alloy wheels and four-wheel drive.

The dealership told The Independent it sold the vehicle for its asking price to the first person who enquired after it. One day after it sold, they received six more enquiries about the royal vehicle. The firm would not say who had bought the car.

This isn’t the first former royal vehicle the Doncaster dealership has sold, but the unusual history was helpful in attracting interest, Portland Autos’ owner Clive Watson told The Times.

“We didn’t buy the car from the royal household directly, it came through a third party, but the fact that it was owned by a royal is likely to help sell it as it is both something of interest about the car and it means it will have been incredibly well cared for,” he said.

“We found it had a very strange service history so made some inquiries and realised it was a royal household car, and eventually we put two and two together and worked it all out.”

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor previously drove a Bentley Flying Spur with a personalised Duke of York number plate to his father’s funeral in 2021 and to his granddaughter’s christening the year after.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on his 66th birthday on suspicion of misconduct in public office following allegations he shared sensitive information with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during his time as the UK’s trade envoy. He has always denied any wrongdoing.

It was reported last October the former Duke of York had dropped his personalised “A03 DOY” number plate, around the same time the King announced the process to strip him of his titles had started. It is no longer listed on the DVLA website.

The former Duke of York was recently compensated £302,000 after the lease on his former Royal Lodge home in Windsor was officially surrendered, the Crown Estate said.

The former Duke of York left the Royal Lodge and moved onto the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk in February this year. He received compensation because, as per the terms of his lease, he surrendered it within the first 25 years.

Mr Mountbatten-Windsor had to pay £1.8 million for dilapidations as he handed back the keys, the sum of which was informed and reviewed by independent advisers.

This dilapidations payment clause was included in the lease to reflect the significant £7.5m refurbishments made by the tenant at the start of the lease.

The Crown Estate received a net amount of £1.5 million from the exchange.