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| An old-fashioned Rolls Royce I once guided in |
Some years ago Rolls Royce and Bentley were effectively the same cmpany. All cars came in both marques – Rolls Royce for those who wanted to show that they had arrived, Bentley for those who wanted to show that they were a bit different. They might also have arrived but they did not want to do so in such an obvious way. A Rolls Royce screamed wealth at everybody. A Bentley was a little cooler somehow and more restrained than the famous Roller.
Ironically Charles Rolls, who was an aviator, never saw a Rolls Royce car. He and his partner Edward Royce first built aeroplane engines and then switched to cars, by which time Rolls had died in a plane crash. His statue stands in his home town of Monmouth and his name is attached to that of the famous car simply because Royce felt that the two RR name had a certain ring to it, He (Royce) was the engineer who really made the Rolls Royce name big in cars and planes.
Then the Germans arrived. They are good at making reliable luxurious cars, which keep on going long after other cars have given up the ghost. Taxi drivers like the German Mercedes because, although they are expensive, they are also reliable – an important factor for those who drive a lot of miles. In 1998 Bentley were bought by Volkswagen and Rolls Royce by BMW – but not before it had been owned by Volkswagen who sold it to Vickers and then on to BMW.
In the rather complicated negotiations that were involved in the sale of the Rolls Royce marque to BMW, it appeared that Volkswagen wanted the Bentley name because its cars outsold RR by two to one. They were always interested in volume rather than cachet. Both car companies were careful to preserve the distinctly British character of the cars they had acquired – although their engines were to be designed and made by German engineers.
Ask anyone in the street and they would probably say that Rolls Royce and Bentley were two luxury cars that were made in Britain. True, but they were both owned and controlled by German companies who made a significant proportion of their profits through them – to the benefit of German rather than British shareholders. BMW had done a similar thing with Austin-Rover, buying up the company but soon abandoning most of its cars except the Mini.
The Mini has changed and is now bigger than it was in the days of films like The Italian Job when three patriotically cars painted red, white and blue literally ran rings around the Italian police in Milan. It is still made in Oxford but is now bigger and safer than it was when it first appeared and had anachronistic features like a petrol cap which stuck dangerously out from the body and could be a death trap in an accident by pouring out petrol.
Books could – and probably have – been written about British cars leading the world in design but not in manufacture, where bad labour relations and outmoded construction techniques led to poorly made marques that were later sold abroad to more ruthless and efficient companies – German ones or, in the case of Jaguar-Land Rover, first to Ford then to the Indian company Tata. They may still be made in Britain but the profits go overseas.
Only Aston Martin is both producing cars in Britain and is British owned, although it has survived several bankruptcies and relies on appealing to its well-heeled clientele with a series of luxury products that can use the Aston Martin name and logo but have little to do with the sports cars made famous by James Bond. These include a bicycle, watches and even a vertical take-off plane. They have also produced a Lego version of the Bond car.
In short, we seem to be very good at producing car marques but not at making cars themselves, which are often produced with more efficiency, better safety and more reliability in other countries. I do not believe, in fact, that there is anything particularly shameful about this. We are good at names in Britain but not so good at producing cars that start every day and run around the clock a few times. So be it.
The great argument in favour of free trade is that people can concentrate on what they are good at and leave behind what they do not do so well. The British may have invented great motoring names and designed the original cars that used them but we are not very good at rolling them off the production line cheaply and effectively in the way other nations – especially the Germans are able to do. In an era of world-wide trade that is no bad thing.
The only reference to the Beatles in a James Bond film (at least that I remember) involved Connery portraying Bond and being sarcastic and rude about them. However, they both provided considerable exports for Britain’s film and music businesses in the sixties and since so they have a certain amount in common. Add Harry Potter, J R R Tolkien’s books and those of C S Lewis’s Narnia stories (surely due a film version soon) and you have successful names.
Who needs efficient factories when you have best-selling franchises? That seems to be the lesson (or take-away in modern parlance) from these examples. A British company may not make Rolls Royce anymore but their names live on – second only to Coca Cola in name recognition according to one survey. It would be nice to actually own a company that could produce the cars, however. But you cannot have everything, I suppose.
My other blog comes out on Mondays and is called diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com
Edwin Lerner
