mikeyb
08-15-2005, 11:37 PM
GOODWOOD, England — BMW's development chief Burkhard Goeschel has confirmed a smaller Rolls-Royce sedan is under development to compete with rival Volkswagen's Bentley subsidiary.
The car would be pitched well below the Phantom and would sell for around $300,000, Goeschel said in an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper. But the project is still at an early stage and would not be ready until around 2010, he added.
Rolls-Royce needs the car sooner than that, as the Phantom, launched in 2003, is not living up to expectations in terms of sales. Just 285 were sold in the first six months of 2005, putting the car way behind its target of 1,000 sales for the whole of 2005.
The "hot spot" in the luxury sector is for less expensive cars than the $328,000 Phantom, and Rolls-Royce's former sister company Bentley — with cars priced between $150,000 and $250,00 — has made significant gains.
source:http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=106862
The car would be pitched well below the Phantom and would sell for around $300,000, Goeschel said in an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper. But the project is still at an early stage and would not be ready until around 2010, he added.
Rolls-Royce needs the car sooner than that, as the Phantom, launched in 2003, is not living up to expectations in terms of sales. Just 285 were sold in the first six months of 2005, putting the car way behind its target of 1,000 sales for the whole of 2005.
The "hot spot" in the luxury sector is for less expensive cars than the $328,000 Phantom, and Rolls-Royce's former sister company Bentley — with cars priced between $150,000 and $250,00 — has made significant gains.
source:http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=106862