BMW and Rolls Royce

By: Jason Petrina



BMW is the new owner of Rolls Royce Motor Cars, a company that was previously one of its main competitors. This merging of the two great names in autos should be productive if problems in sales can be worked out to the satisfaction of the company.

The BMW and Rolls Royce partnership dates back to early 1990s; at which time BMW and Rolls Royce partnered together to produce the Rolls Royce Silver Seraph and Bentley Arnage with BMW engines. Several years later, Rolls Royce was on the aution block and both Volkswagen and BMW engaged in a bidding war for the company. Volkswagen eventually went on to outbid BMW for the rights to the “Spirit of Ecstasy” mascot. BMW; however, licensed the name and the famous Rolls Royce logo in 2003.

Rolls Royce was started as an electrical and mechanical business in 1884 by Frederick Henry Royce who made his first car, a Royce in his Manchester factory in 1904, the year he met Charles Rolls. The two agreed to work together, with Royce making the cars and Rolls selling them, calling the car a Rolls Royce. Their Silver host model, made from 1906 to 1925 was so popular they opened a factory in Springfield, Massachusetts to service the US market. This factory operated for ten years building almost 2,000 cars. The chassis of this car was used as the basis for British Army armored cars during both world wars.

In 1931 the company acquired the Bentley Company, a rival car maker. From then until 2002 Rolls Royce and Bentley were often identical. While the company got into aircraft engine manufacture with great success, the Rolls Royce auto division continued to be seen as possibly the best passenger car in the world. While in America people will generically say something is the “Cadillac” of its class meaning that it is the best, in England they have often said something was the “Rolls Royce” of its class. Interestingly enough, in the 1980’s it became popular to sometimes refer to a product as the “BMW” of its class. Compac computers for instance, used being “the BMW of computers” in their marketing efforts to great success. In 1980 the car division was sold to Vickers, which in 1998 sold it to Volkswagen. However, only the Bentley name was sold to VW, and BMW by dealing with the aircraft division was able to buy the rights to the name for automobiles. BMW recently announced low sales for the year, and many people have speculated that they may try to sell the company if they cannot turn it around. In the British press the loss of the national symbol of excellence the Rolls Royce to German industry was lamented.

In the 1980’s American young urban professionals, often called yuppies, discovered the performance and luxury combination of the BMW and made it their own. Older wealthy Americans seemed to prefer the Rolls Royce, and the two groups didn’t know that the two companies would have such a fateful meeting a few years later. Both vehicles are kings in their class, and the two companies being one seem to many people to be quite appropriate. Still, while Rolls Royce still wants to attract customers who want the status and quality of a Rolls Royce, BMW has hired advertising specialists in the last few years with the goal of changing the BMW image and making the car seem more likeable and less arrogant, and reports are that that campaign has been successful, with BMW’s perhaps more popular now than they have every been.



Jason Petrina is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com