Photo: Matti Blume / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). A Bentley Mulsanne, shown for illustration; not the Queen’s car.
Lot 121 at Broad Arrow’s Global Icons: Zoute Online sale was a 2016 Bentley Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase built for Queen Elizabeth II, estimated at €400,000 to €450,000 and available to view at Bicester Heritage in England. Its lot page now reads “Reserve not met” and records no sale. Bidding on the sale’s lots began closing October 14.
The listing is open about what this particular Queen’s car no longer has. According to the lot description, the Royal Coat of Arms inlaid in the Burr Walnut waistrails and the custom tray that replaced the front center armrest, sized for the Queen’s Launer London handbag, were both removed at the request of the Royal Mews when the car was decommissioned from royal service. The Royal Collection Trust says the Royal Mews looks after the state carriages, coaches and cars used on state occasions.
The Handbag Tray Stayed With the Car Bentley Kept
The features that made this lot a headline are still on its sister car. In a November 23, 2023 release, Bentley described the final Mulsanne, a 2020 Extended Wheelbase, as commissioned by, and built for, the Queen. Bentley listed a Royal coat of arms inlaid in the door waistrails, a custom-sized tray for her handbag, and concealed blue lights, a siren and a bullhorn run from a switch panel hidden behind the gear lever. That car stays at Crewe as the third and last Mulsanne in a Heritage Collection of 45 cars.
The lot description says Bentley chose to keep the newer car, which leaves the 2016 car as the only Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase used by the Queen to reach a private collection. A private collector bought it in March 2024 as a “Certified Pre-Owned Bentley,” and the description puts it at about 6,000 miles when cataloged.
A Reserve Capped at the Low Estimate
Broad Arrow does not publish a lot’s reserve, but its conditions of sale limit it: the reserve is always lower than or equal to any published low estimate. For Lot 121 that means the consignor’s minimum was no higher than €400,000, and the bidding did not reach it. The lot page does not show the final bid.
The same conditions let a consignor lower a reserve at any time and let Broad Arrow sell a lot below its reserve at its sole discretion, so an “ended” lot is not always a closed file. The lot page shows no relisting or private sale as of October 19.
A winning bidder would also have owed a buyer’s premium. At Global Icons sales it is 10 percent of the hammer price for a motor car, plus VAT on the premium. On Backfire News’s math, that is €40,000 at a €400,000 hammer price and €45,000 at €450,000, before the VAT on that premium.
What the Listing Uses to Prove the Royal Link
The description says the car was first registered to Bentley Motors Ltd. at Crewe on October 4, 2016, and it sells with a UK V5C. It ties the car to the Queen with photographs from her engagements, including British Champions Day, the centenary of GCHQ and the funeral of Countess Mountbatten of Burma, and to the day it was reported that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex had given birth to Prince Archie. After active service ended, it says, the car went back to Bentley’s Crewe headquarters and remained in Bentley’s custody until the Queen died in 2022.
The description does not say who the registered keeper was during royal service, and a V5C would not settle the question anyway. The DVLA said in a 2014 news release that the V5C is not proof of ownership and advised buyers to ask for other proof, such as a bill of sale. For a car sold on the Queen’s name, the keeper history that matters is the one the description leaves out. What it offers instead is photographs, Bentley’s custody and a Royal Mews request to strip the fittings.
Backfire News has priced royal links before: a 2007 Range Rover tied to Queen Elizabeth II was expected to fetch up to £60,000 at auction last year, and on October 17 we read the listing for an ex-royal Bentley Flying Spur W12.
Featured image: Matti Blume / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Illustrative photo of a Bentley Mulsanne, not the Queen’s car.
Would you pay a €400,000 estimate for a Mulsanne that carried the Queen but left the Royal Mews without its coat of arms and handbag tray, or does a royal car need its royal fittings to be worth that money?
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