A Rolls for proles?
Newswheel staff :: 09 May 2005 :: Filed under Saloon, SUV, Rolls Royce, Rolls Royce Phantom, Europe & UK, US,
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$150,000 is quite cheap enough, thank you
Poor product (think chintzy, cheesy and not a patch on the German competition) nearly did for Rolls Royce in the 80s and 90s. Arguably the brand still hasn’t recovered its former glory despite the launch of the stunning BMW-engineered Phantom in early 2003. But it seems Rolls' management reckons the answer could be a move downmarket.
Don’t panic – there are no plans to kill off the Phantom. To the contrary, along with the recent long wheel-base Phantom, a drop-top two door version based on the 100EX concept (as pictured above) has also been given the green light. However, the harsh truth is that the Phantom is probably too expensive to ever sell in the numbers needed to ensure Rolls Royce remains a going concern. The market for cars in the $200,000-plus sector in which the Phantom operates is less than 3,000 cars per annum worldwide. By contrast, volume in the $90,000 - $150,000 segment is a staggering 100,000 cars.
Ironically, it’s Rolls' former stable-mate, Bentley, that’s showing the way ahead. With the launch of the Continental GT it virtually created a new $150,000 - $200,000 sector, tripling sales in that price band to 9,000 units globally. And it’s that space – below the Phantom but above usual German luxury barge suspects – Rolls is currently eyeing up. Ian Robertson, the company’s chairman and chief executive, told the FT newspaper that a decision had not been made over the form the new model would take and, furthermore, that nothing had been ruled out. A $150,000 Rolls Royce SUV? Slightly more accessible, perhaps. But reassuringly well beyond the means of the lumpen proletariat.
Posted 12 May 2005, by Baniamon
Aspirs to it I does - aspires to it