Early last month I did a piece over at Transport Blog about the new Rolls Royce. This car, the “Phantom”, is interesting for several reasons.
First, it costs a lot, around £250,000. That’s a lot more than a Rolls Royce has ever cost before. Who will buy such a thing?
Second, will the fact that Rolls Royce is now German-owned affect sales in the USA? I don’t know, but maybe commenters from the USA can enlighten us. Presumably the German connection will ensure that the car has fewer bits falling off it than is the case with cars made by large but still British-owned car makers. But do Americans perceive the Rolls Royce now to be a German car? Or do they still view it as British, with Germans merely helping out with the running of what remains a Great British Institution? If Americans do think it’s now German, will that matter?
Third, it may work terribly well, but is the Phantom a nice enough design to be worth all that money? I have yet to see one of these beasts myself. When I did my Transport Blog piece, I was merely noting the new Roller’s existence, a transport event in itself. Since then, I have heard Jeremy Clarkson’s somewhat critical views about what the Phantom looks like, and what driving about in one might say about you, and I suspect Clarkson is right. What he said was that the thing is just not beautiful enough. In fact, he said, it’s rather ugly. If you drive about in one, you’ll come across as, not to put too fine a point on it, a bastard. I don’t recall Clarkson’s exact words, but that is the gist that I recall.
When it comes to car aesthetics, photographs are notoriously not sufficient to answer such worries.
Some photos make the Phantom look rather small, but this could just be because the wheels are so very big. And if the Rolls is actually very big, then it could turn out to be the front that will upset me. If you follow the Rolls Royce link above, and scroll down the one of a certain Tony Gott introducing the car, you’ll see what bothers me most about this car, which is the latest version of the radiator grill. What used to look stately and classical now looks like it may be aggressive and overbearing. Rollers used to mean noblesse oblige. Well, they did until the sixties, when pop stars and drug dealers started buying them. This latest one looks more like the kind of Germanic noblesse that doesn’t give a scheisse. On the other hand this may all be effect of the photograph exaggerating the size of the radiator, and actually the Phantom is very nice.
I’ve been walking about in London now for two months since this beast was launched and have yet to spot one. Could it be that it isn’t selling very well, and that others have similar reservations to mine?
Has anyone else laid eyes on it? If so, what did you think of it?
Here in the States, there are far too many rich fools driving around their Rolls. They simply don’t understand, “A gentleman drives a Bentley. A gentleman is driven in a Rolls Royce.”
Driving yourself in a Rolls Royce shows a complete lack of class.
I have to disagree with the statement, “Presumably the German connection will ensure that the car has fewer bits falling off it than is the case with cars made by large but still British-owned car makers.”
I myself have owned a Volkswagen product, and know many people in the same situation. I know that Volkswagen isn’t a ‘high-quality’ brand like Mercedes, but it touts itself to be above-average when it comes to mechanical engineering, and that influenced my decision to purchase a new one.
I had so many problems with that car. And I was the Fleet Director of a security comapny, so I know a bit about preventative maintenance. On the car, the problems included a faulty computer module(roughly $1300), a radiator hose that fell off, chronic alignment drift resulting in excess tire wear, a radio that would reset itself every so often due to faults in the ground terminal in a wiring harness connector, and excessive burning of oil (not losing oil, but carbonization). I was VERY disappointed with my purchase. All of these problems convieniently surfaced near the end of the warranty period (I purchased the optional 60k mile one). I was stuck with a chronically failing auto and was forced, for fiscal reasons, to retire the vehicle and purchase a new one. After running around in a company vehicle for a while, I decided on a 1999 Jeep Wrangler Sahara, and the only problem I’ve had with it so far was a wiring harness defect that was fixed free of charge at the dealer. It’s up to 72k miles, and I plan on keeping it for a while.
So if you ask me, ‘German Engineering’ isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be.
The nicest upscale car I’ve seen recently in person was a white 1984 Ferrari Testarossa, owned by one of our clients. It looked like quite a hoot to drive.
A rather paranoid Hungarian woman recently told me over a dinner she cooked that there was no question that Mercedes had bought or merged with Chrysler, for of course Chrysler [being of the all-powerful Great Satan] had bought Mercedes.
I bet most would-be boycotters are as confused about the national identity of most companies.
We expect so little from the Germans and the Russians that there isn’t the same level of disgust that’s felt for the French. Why we expect better of the French is a mystery, but we do.
That new Rolls is, without doubt, an ugly car. I’m no authority on the line, but I’ve seen much better looking examples. If the Germans had anything to do with the design, I’d say they put a little bit of Neuremberg in it.
Yesterday I was walking to lunch with a friend in Atlanta, GA., headed south towards the intersection of Virginia & Highlands streets (it’s full-blown spring in Atlanta, a beautiful time). Through the intersection, headed east to west, cruised a Rolls Royce, a vintage model sporting a fresh silver & black paint job. Gorgeous. Don’t know if it was Phantom, but it had the swooping front fenders of older times. That intersection has a bit of a bulge in it, but the car purred through at 25 or so mph: tires went up & down, the chassis remained remained absolutely parallell to the earth, not moving a bit. As I said, don’t know if it was a Phantom, but it passed through the intersection like a ghost.
“…large but still British-owned car makers.” Isn’t that an anachronism, Brian? 🙂
Bleah. Rolls Royce’s body designers need to watch Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to see what a real Rolls-Royce looks like.
Still you don’t see a great deal of Rolls Royces around in the states. My guess is that they don’t really appeal to rich baby boomers who grew up dreaming of muscle cars and sports cars. Rolls just seems like and older generation car. The boomers probably feel that they can get more car, loaded, for a lot less money, and anyway, who the hell would really know the difference here other than an autophile. No, the rich in the states now want top shelf Hummers.
Maybe it’s me, but the car actually LOOKS German now.
In line with Ford using Granada bits in Aston Martins, it wouldn’t surprise me if BMW 3 series parts (headlights?) aren’t used throughout.
No, we yanks are only anti-French at the moment, and maybe a little anti-Russian. Germany vetoed us, but they weren’t as strident about it as the French, and their president hasn’t led us on and then betrayed us like Putin has. At least, that’s the perception.
Perhaps it has something to do with the national character, but I can’t see many sales in the Unites States except as an odd collector item. Very few Americans, no matter what their station in life, ever dream of being driven around by someone else. Sometimes, out of neccesity, we can tolerate it, but for the most part we love being behind the wheel of a car. If we must have a driver we perfer a limo where at least we have the space needed to get some work done.
I think there is a cultural gap between our nations when it comes to cars. I remember a few months back the aprehension, fear and confusion of a visitor from London as I took her driving in my restored 72 Buick (a 450 engine and more horsepower than is actually needed by anyone). “I couldn’t imagine anyone driving this car in London” she exclaimed as we drove through the Colorado Rockies at an extremely high rate of speed. Americans love cars. We love driving them, working on them, and doing our own upkeep. The Rolls has no place in our pantheon of dream cars. For me it’s restored muscle cars. For others it’s high performance sports cars. Wanting a Rolls would be as bizzare as wanting a gold plated mini-van. Expensive and comfortable perhaps, but still something vaugely wrong about it.
That being said, we still percieve the car as being British no matter where the parts are made.
I think that G. Bob has a good point. In followup, the car is just so damned expensive that it’s unlikely to make a dent in the US; in terms of creature comforts, an S600 Mercedes is not likely to be a full order of magnitude behind, and you can get three of them for the price of a Phantom.
Of course, it’s RR’s market niche, and they probably couldn’t care less what the rest of us think.
Yes, the grille is big and ugly and the car looks German.
I understand it is, in fact, very big indeed. It is just the effect of the grille and wheels that makes it look small.
On looks I would have to say I tend to agree with you. The last great Rolls was the Silver Cloud, though the Silver Spirit wasn’t bad. This one looks awfully like it was designed by a committee.
Actually, most luxury cars these days look like that – especially Jags. Of course, it has never much mattered what Mercs or BMWs have looked like because they have always been ugly.
Yep, the new Jaguars suffer from unfortunately blunt uglification, as well.
G.Bob — would that have been a ’72 Buick Riviera? Those are really swell cars. I’ve got a friend who’s got one with a 450 — at the time I think it was the most powerful standard engine you could get in an American car.
I’ve never seen a Phantom myself, but I can’t help but be interested after reading quotes like this:
The Phantom is the first Rolls-Royce designed entirely under the new stewardship of parent company BMW. Much care was taken by the new owners to maintain the British marque’s traditional styling and imposing road presence and the result looks to have hit its mark. The Phantom stretches over 19 feet long and weighs in at a hefty 5,577 pounds. The bolt upright grille tosses aside the economy of aerodynamics in favor of a fascia that screams, “Get out of my way, you worthless peasants!”
*grin*
As if the soaking-rich needed MORE bad karma.
I´ve always had a soft spot for british luxury cars, which have traditional oozed a class and elegance the Mercs and bimmers completely lack. But sadly I must reckon it´s today a extinct species… the small and mid range Jaguars are little more than slightly modified Fords and I´m really depressed after seeing the new Rolls…the americans and the germans have been incapable of understanding waht britsh luxury cars are about. But I guess it could have not been otherwise…this is just another manifestation of the effects of global capitalism…small car companies can´t survive on their own anymore, they lack the financial resources to keep its technology up to date so they end up being bought by the big companies and its products become standardised and homogenised…even so some quirky british car companies have managed to survive, like Lotus, Caterham or…Bristol! Long live to them!
I’m surprised at the number of Americans who don’t know their own country very well. Something like 85-90% of RR sales have traditionally been in the good old USA. Of course RR has fallen on hard times worldwide recently, but in SoCal and NYC a Rolls used to be THE car of the super rich. And, in Beverly Hills and Manhattan you saw them frequently.
Whaq GM made a 455SD from the early 60’s until ’73 and put into the Stage 1 Buick and the Pontiac Trans Am. Chevelles and Corvettes came with what was called the L7 with the same horsepower. But I believe at the time Dodge had a 460 police interceptor that they offered as an option. And don’t get me started on the AC Cobra.
Paul Hollywood and Manhattan are barely in the U.S. I just wish Duisenberg still made cars. Now that was a great American car; along with Stutz of course.
What an ugly car. Too bad.
Here in Silicon Valley, I never see RRs. Countless MBs, BMWs, Jags, Porches, Italian sportsters and other $$$$ rides, but I can’t recall ever seeing a RR.
Re Jags, I don’t understand their latest direction either, although I do know that my silver XK8 = sex on wheels.