Bright Future For Rolls-Royce

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32381, 21 August 1970, Page 18

Bright Future For Rolls-Royce

(By

JOHN LANGLEY

in the

"Daily Telegraph." Reprinted bp arrangement.

For most of us it is a purely academic question, but I felt that I had to ask it “Tell me,” 1 said to the managing director of Rolls-Royce, “are your cars really worth £10,000?” Mr Geoffrey Fawn smiled politely. "It’s not a question of whether I think the car is worth it though I think it probably is. The customers never think it is worth it but they keep on buying it!”

The company is not known for announcing price “adjustments” to the general public. But a couple of weeks ago it did admit that it had put an extra £6OO on the list price of the standard Silver Shadow saloon, making the total £9271 (the long-wheelbase model with division went up by £744

to £11,347). The new prices represented a modest 7 per cent increase; it is just that, when you start talking percentages in Rolls-Royce terms, the results in £s tend to look pretty startling to the ordinary citizen. Like

other manufacturers, the company has been considerably affected by higher labour costs and Ute 10-week-long job of building a Rolls-Royce involves a considerably higher labour content than most other cars. Even so, with long wait-

ing lists in most parts of the world for what has become its most successful model ever, it is good to know that the future looks bright for this famous British company. It is building about 1800 to 2000 RollsRoyce and Bentley cars a year at present and hopes to expand this to around 2500 in the next few years.

“Our market is expanding inasmuch as there are more people wanting luxury than ever before,” said Mr Fawn. “There are more rich people and they want better things—this is true all around the world.

“Let’s be quite clear, we have got to sell more cars. These days, you cannot sell just a few cars throughout the world and still be able to maintain a good aftersales service.” Mr Fawn defines his task as executive head of the car division as “producing a car of the

correct quality—if that slips, we have had it—and then to provide after-sales service."

Although the cars are still largely hand-built, productivity has risen impressively; before 19X4, 300 to 400 workers were producing a total of about 150 cars a year. Now, about 3600 workers are turning out almost 2000 cars annually. Reliability is as good as it ever has been, Mr Fawn considers.

“Our aim is to produce a quality car which is distinctive and has refinement—and all the controls must feel nice.”

Contrary to popular belief, Rolls-Royce does not incorporate improvements regardless of cost, but if it decides after painstaking appraisal that the improvement is worth while it will fit it and ask the customers to pay. “Rolls-Royce does not innovate. But we evaluate everything that other people do, and if possible we try to do it a little better. Our air conditioning is a good example—the Americans say it 'is far more effective in our cars than in theirs.”

During my visit to the works at Crewe, I discovered that, as part of this policy of continuous evaluation, the engineering department has been looking at the pros and cons of four-wheel drive and anti-lock braking systems. * In the case of four-wheel drive, the objections involve cost and complication, and noise a most important consideration at Crewe.

Cars for the United States market are now being fitted with a centralised locking system under which operation of the driver’s door lock automatically secures all the other locks. This is not only an insurance against forgetfulness when parking the car but can also be used to keep out unwelcome intruders while the car is waiting at traffic lights a particular hazard these days in the United States, it seems Although one year’s RollsRoyce may not look much different from another, there is a continuing process of development and refinement beneath that gleaming exterior. Modifications made last year, for example, involved 1200 part number changes and another 1000 have already been made on this year’s models, many of them due. to the requirements of the United States safety and exhaust emission requirements.

It is impossible not to be impressed by the detailed craftsmanship that still goes into these fine cars. I was interested to find that Rolls-Royce uses galvanised steel for the whole of the engine compartment, the main box members of the underbody, the wheel arches and sills. In addition glass fibre shields are fitted inside the front wheel arches. It is all part of the objective, defined for me by one of the engineers as “designing and building a car that gives real satisfaction to the owner, In the very best way that we know how.”