As a local boy to Crewe, UK, who was fortunate enough to be on the last
public Rolls Royce factory visit last December, I can confirm what other
members have said. The former RR factory at Crewe is now the Bentley
factory and is owned by VW (lots of VWs and Audis in the staff car park,
supplied at generous lease rates to employees). BMW own RR by virtue of
them buying the “marque” from Rolls Royce aeroengines, who owned the name.
VW brilliantly pipped BMW to the post by buying the factory, and with it the
workforce and tradition of RR-Bentley. BMW now have to build a new
“traditionally British” factory somewhere else in the UK, and Goodwood was
the place I last heard it would be. These will have BMW engines in them.
Talking to some of the workforce at Bentley (as it now is) they thoroughly
approve of the VW buyout, and interestingly it parallels many of the
comments voiced about the Ford/Jaguar buyout. Apparently Vickers, the UK
tankbuilders who owned RR-Bentley until recently, could not afford to invest
significant amounts of cash to maintain the standard of the marque (sound
familiar?). VW can and will. A great example is the museum/showroom in the
front of the factory containing marvellous examples of old RRs and Bentleys,
all of which are run and driven weekly by, we were told, a different
apprentice or factory worker each time. A sort of incentive or treat for
the craftsmen on the shop floor. It is good to see such old, but
beautifully maintained cars sitting there with drip trays underneath to
catch the odd oil drip from their last run around. VW put in the money to
buy old historic museum pieces such as these as and when they come on the
market, sometimes at up to 1 million a piece. Vickers simply couldn’t do
that. So full marks to VW for appreciating the tradition and history of the
marque.
VW are also investing a load of money into the production line to increase
production of newer, smaller models to about 2,000 per year. (The current
production line moves at about 1 mile per hour and a car takes roughly 2
weeks to get from one end to the other). This is how they intend the marque
to survive and, hopefully, flourish whilst maintaining its traditions. An
interesting aside to all of this is that VW have decided to stop making BMW
engined RRs (they were allowed to do so until the new BMW-RR factory was
built). This means the only car of this type available for a few years will
be a Bentley, and their hope is to further trash RR’s market share (80% of
cars built in Crewe recently were under the Bentley marque anyway). VW have
insisted Bentleys will contain a “British” engine and are investing in
developing one suitable for the car. (My neighbour, who is a craftsman at
RR, I mean Bentley, anecdotally tells me the BMW 6 litre lacks the necessary
oomph, but of course satisfies the emission laws which sounded the death
knell of the traditional, British RR-Bentley engine. He says they had to do
a lot of trimming and weight saving of the interiors to keep the power to
weight ratio satisfactory).
Finally, if you are a leather and walnut man, or woman, as most of us Jag
owners are, the woodwork section of the factory was just mouth watering, and
the sight of the ladies with their work tables and sewing machines sitting
next to the area of the production line where to the cars had these bits
added was quite something to be seen (but strictly not photographed!).
Doc
89 Sov UK