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Douglas Robert Shute
Frequent User
Username: douglasr
Post Number: 15
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, 05 February, 2004 - 23:49: |    |
You ought to know...
...Cadillac announced February 1 that they would challenge RR & B directly: "going head to head" in a speech by Robert Lutz, GM of GM. Cadillac will develop 12 and 16 Cylinder motorcars to compete against Phantom and Arnage Gt-Continental. Cadillac built 3961 V16 automobiles of two types between 1929-1940. The first being a 452 CID 65 Dg V engine of 175Bhp, and the second being a 431 CID 135 Dg V engine of 185 Bhp. It is part of a $5 Billion investement by GM in Cadillac by 2010.
Toyota, as part of their "Global 15" strategy to capture 15% of the world market has been secretly developing a new ultra-Lexus car. Rumored to be a V12, and recalling the Princess Name. The new Lexus-Princess, derived from the Princess Motor Company that Toyota absorbed 35 years ago, slated to be introduced by 2006 when Cadillac will introduce their Sixteen and Twelve.
VW is set to counter-attack with a W16 varient of the W12, and already has a W18 engine on test, though whether it will see a Bentley installation in BY611, the four-door, is speculative. Mercedes has also announced that they seek to regain their "crown" as a leading marque after being surpassed by Lexus. Maybach is slated for upgrades in time for this new "Battle of the Cylinders"
Rolls-Royce and Bentley should respond. They have the resources on the shelf to do so. And can change the headlite arangements on the cars to denote the different engines. The new V16 Rolls should be called: Silver Rogue! Even Hives thought enough of the Cadillac challenge in the 1930's to respond: building the P-III! Certainly they should upgrade the V12.
DouglasR |
David Gore
Moderator
Username: david_gore
Post Number: 192
Registered: 4-2003
| | Posted on Friday, 06 February, 2004 - 02:44: | |
We live in interesting times - this interest in the "top-end" of the market by new competitors will have some interesting implications for the R-R and B individual Companies. Bentley is better placed than R-R given the greater financial resources of the VW group however R-R could struggle under the BMW constraints as BMW will find it hard to match its competitors given the small number of cars R-R makes and the need to support their "bread & butter" BMW range.
Perhaps this new competition could be the catalyst for the reunification of R-R and Bentley either under VW or [most likely in my humble opinion] under Ford ownership alongside Jaguar. |
William H. Trovinger II
Prolific User
Username: bill_trovinger
Post Number: 73
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, 06 February, 2004 - 06:25: | |
David;
Nice thought about Ford. Nevertheless, I doubt they are in a position to do that. I am wondering why neither they nor GM thought about bringing back the Dusenburg name yet. After all that was the only one that was really in the same class as RR.
More possible is this mass rush to Ultra-Luxury cars will kill most of the brands as no one company will be able to sell enough to keep the brand afloat. If that does turn out to be, the case BMW might be in the best position by keep capacity down.
Regards,
Bill
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John Dare
Unregistered guest
Posted From: 144.138.194.126
| | Posted on Friday, 06 February, 2004 - 16:08: | |
Interesting to see that "Toyota" intend to capture 15% of the global luxury market with a "Lexus" style car apparently derived from the Princess Motor Co., the acronym of which is now(seriously) prohibited on this forum. This could cause some confusion to buyers/owners, as I have this day secured from our State registration authority, a personal alpha regis. number plate which will display that very A.A (Awful Acronym) and it will, upon receipt, be gleefully affixed to SRH 8058. Front and rear display of course!. |
Douglas Robert Shute
Frequent User
Username: douglasr
Post Number: 16
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, 08 February, 2004 - 00:59: | |
This just in...
...The Wall Street Journal reports along with the Financial Times that GM is spending $25 Billion to revitalise its top car brands, between Buick and Cadillac. As Cadillac goes up-market, Buick will take up the slack. GM C.J. Frelaigh was quoted in the FT "We expect to see double digit increases" in marketshare. With Lutz the driving force behind Cadillac, much like Nicholas Dreystadt in the 1930's (with the engineering of Maurice Olley behind him!), GM and Cadillac could put serious pressure on both Bentley and Rolls-Royce.
DG's suggestion that Bentley and Rolls-Royce might be amalgamated again at some point might not be too far off the mark. Considering that VW and Ferrari-Maserati just signed a deal to supply the Maserati platform for upscale VW cars. So VW will capture the market beneath Bentley with no fanfare or problem. So that leaves Bentley to go after the $125K (US) market. The Cap-Gemini report says that 40,000 people per year have the income to buy in this market segment, and the projection is upward. By 2006-7 the market targets for all the makes add to 10,000 cars from $150K (US)range. Crewe is building at 20 cars a day, and Goodwood 5. Pitchetsreider always wanted RR...and he received his VW job on the strength of that deal. (Outfoxing Peich!) So now he is after Maserati and Ferrari!! If Phantom revises its styling more in keeping with RR tradtion, I suspect, BMW will win its bet. They do have a V16 on the shelf ready to go.
Just as Hives developed the Phantom III to compete against Cadillac and Packard, and Duesenberg, so too should RRM use all within its grasp to maintain the standard of the name. (It is the name, the quality and engineering levels that are paramount issues with respect to Rolls-Royce) Otherwise I fear it will have GM's footprints all over it. RRM can remain profitable at 750-825 cars per year, but not at 500.
The Packard name is still available, the Duesenberg name I believe owned by the ACD Group that runs the Museum in Auburn Indiana. It would be great to see a revival. But it makes no business sense for either Ford or GM to do so, and DCX has Maybach. Ford has not the nerve or resources to develop such a car...at the present time under the current leadership (given their statements in the press) GM, under Wagoner and Lutz do. And Cadillac is the beneficiary. Mr. Shou at Toyota is not far behind.
DouglasR. |
Douglas Robert Shute
Frequent User
Username: douglasr
Post Number: 17
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, 10 February, 2004 - 10:54: | |
Have you heard...
...Maybach in the US is not classified as a "gas guzzler" because it weighs more than 6,000 pounds and the tax is not applicable to cars above that weight (it is the only one, other than livery service vehicles!) So US owner save about $5400 on their purchase!!. That will pay for part of their trip to Germany to buy the car, travel about, and return. Rolls-Royce on the other hand now has an "Air-Freight" policy of delivery cars. That way they do not get damaged in shipment aboard a boat. 'Phantom-Airways' or 'Aero-Rolls' is alive and well between the seas. What Maybach owners don't pay in guzzler tax, Rolls owners receive with the frieght on their cars. I suggested elsewhere that RRM open a ultra-deluxe compartment on the same 747 for customers wishing to accompany their cars back to the US!
Lexus-Princess project is moving ahead, as Toyota has reshuffled their styling studios to accomodate. BMW has done the same thing, appointing Ian Cameron (not related to the famous artist Ian Cameron Smith) as head of the Rolls-Royce styling studio. No doubt Ian will be busy with the remake of the Phantom headlites. Hopefully they will dispense with the "Green Hornet" look in the front end (so-called for the bad American TV show from the '60's using a modified Chrysler Imperial!) However, Cameron, (53, and a graduate of the Royal College of Art) is well versed in Rolls-Royce history and lore...so the future should be bright under his guidance.
In the upcoming "battle of the cylinders" Aston-Martin, BMW, VW, Cadillac, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, Chrysler, Toyota-Lexus will all offer V12, and 16 cylinder varients to challenge Bentley and Rolls-Royce. By 2006-08 the battle will be heated and tight. All the manufacturers are planning for a 10,000 units market at that end. In addition,, Ferrari will be offering its Scaglietti 612, and other varients to challenge as well. So Rolls-Royce and Bentley had better be prepared. Not since Hives, has RRM and B had so much pressure applied against their traditional market. In a report by Cap-Gemini, forty thousand people per year hold the economic factors and where-with-all to purchase in that segment. The US makers are counting on it, as is Moroshoshi at Toyota.
Design wise, the battle will be between Moroshoshi at Toyota, Welburn at GM (with Lutz), J Mays and Jerry McGovern, and Peter Horbury at Ford-Lincoln, Ian Cameron at Rolls-Royce with Tony Gott, Pichetsreider at Bentley/VW, Sergio PininFarina and Sergio Scaglietti at Ferrari with Luca Di Montezelemolo, and another dozen designers and managers scattered about the marketplace and the companies. Roughly 50 people will determine the fates of the marque we love so much.
DouglasR.
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