Phantom Ownership One Month On
Discussion
Petrus1983 said:
It's threads like this which allows me to still love PH!
And to top it off, as if any evidence was ever needed to show you can have an seriously amazing car without any respect of grammar (I doubt there's many people in the Grammar Police forum driving around in a Phantom!)...
You took the words out of my mouth! dazzalse said:
we had a evening at Highgrove for dinner....
And to prove (if any is needed) that Dazzalse is a true petrolhead...dazzalse said:
I then went up on the train to collect it
Seriously, at this money if it wasn't a) Hand delivered, b) a car coming to pick me up, c) helicopter landing in my back garden I'd be wondering what the f*** I'd just spent the money on.And to top it off, as if any evidence was ever needed to show you can have an seriously amazing car without any respect of grammar (I doubt there's many people in the Grammar Police forum driving around in a Phantom!)...
dazzalse said:
dont want to go out of there way to help
You're my new PH hero - enjoy the car and hopefully keep us posted 
rog007 said:
Seriously, at this money if it wasn't a) Hand delivered, b) a car coming to pick me up, c) helicopter landing in my back garden I'd be wondering what the f*** I'd just spent the money on.
Things have changed over the years. 20 years ago, I borrowed a Spur from RR for a weekend. It was delivered by a factory driver from Crewe to my home in Wiltshire on Friday afternoon, with a second car in attendance to take the driver back. The process was then completed in reverse the following Monday. And I wasn't even buying, just writing an article about it in a fairly limited circulation magazine (Wiltshire Life).
Thought I should update this thread, the dealer had the car about 8 weeks ago for a few niggles and a service, although they ended up keeping it for nearly 3 weeks as they had to replace the ignition module where the key sits, this for the last few months had been rattling causing much annoyance, they also replaced both of the rear vanity mirrors which had delaminated and because they are bound in leather had been on special order from the factory for the best part of 4 months! The timescales I am told was because the leather colour on this car was a bespoke option.
I've not covered that many miles in the last few months but annoyingly the computer says another service so its being collected next week, where they also need to attend to the auto boot which has become very slow, a blown bulb in the instrument cluster, and corroded wheel centre caps, although they assure me its only going to be away a few days.... We are taking the car off to Portugal soon for the summer so it needs to be perfect as we will be covering a good few thousand miles.
As a side line the Mini cooper S i bought of my wife has been faultless since collection last November!
I've not covered that many miles in the last few months but annoyingly the computer says another service so its being collected next week, where they also need to attend to the auto boot which has become very slow, a blown bulb in the instrument cluster, and corroded wheel centre caps, although they assure me its only going to be away a few days.... We are taking the car off to Portugal soon for the summer so it needs to be perfect as we will be covering a good few thousand miles.
As a side line the Mini cooper S i bought of my wife has been faultless since collection last November!
What great posts-thanks indeed.
Don't worry about the grammar, Darren- you've obviously been able to get your message through over the years.
Just got back from Nashville staying in a mid-priced Hampton hotel in the suburbs- 2 new Phantoms and a convertible in the mall car-park next door. Must be all the country singers.
Thanks again Darren.
Don't worry about the grammar, Darren- you've obviously been able to get your message through over the years.
Just got back from Nashville staying in a mid-priced Hampton hotel in the suburbs- 2 new Phantoms and a convertible in the mall car-park next door. Must be all the country singers.
Thanks again Darren.
Well its been a year since I started this thread, and we have covered a little over 6,000 miles in the car, most recently 800 miles down to Portugal this week, 600 of those miles in a day. It still amazes me how this car eats the miles so easily. I brimmed the tank in Taunton before we left and after taking the ferry to Santander got all the way to the spanish border on one tank, a little over 23mpg and 500 miles , thats fully loaded with 4 people and a boot full of luggage, although mostly motorway we were not hanging around. The expensive rear entertainment has kept the kids occupied for the whole journey! Most of the initial niggles have been ironed out and I have a few things on the list that will need attending on my return in September, although minor the auto boot has become quite slow and the inlaid black on the RR badge on the grill has started to peel off ( the same as the back one on the boot lid did early on in ownership. Despite the niggles the car still has a great feel good factor, Myself and Mrs Dazzalse have both decided that we will probably keep this car longterm and will add the new RR Dawn to our fleet next year to run alongside it.
Great thread and thanks as am waiting on the Wraith convertible to become available as am thinking of trading the GTC. Am apprehensive to keep the demon I know (GTC) as it is curious all the niggles and things so early in life with the RR. Am beginning to wonder what happened to build quality/checks and parts quality control within both these marques.
As weird as this will sound, with apologies and yes being on the other side of the pond, the Ford 250 Superduty truck hauled the track car within enclosed trailer to many events, was fun off-roading, etc and it was flawless. My friends (multiple) Lotus cars have been excellent as well. Same goes for Tesla vehicles, and the D is exceptional in performance, yet limited in their ability for true grand touring. This is why I'm on the second B (was GT, now GTC).
Thanks again for posting here as it is a great thread! It gives some pause about price versus perceived quality. At this level of (hopeful) high refined grand touring, perhaps my expectations or quality and reliability are too stringent.
As weird as this will sound, with apologies and yes being on the other side of the pond, the Ford 250 Superduty truck hauled the track car within enclosed trailer to many events, was fun off-roading, etc and it was flawless. My friends (multiple) Lotus cars have been excellent as well. Same goes for Tesla vehicles, and the D is exceptional in performance, yet limited in their ability for true grand touring. This is why I'm on the second B (was GT, now GTC).
Thanks again for posting here as it is a great thread! It gives some pause about price versus perceived quality. At this level of (hopeful) high refined grand touring, perhaps my expectations or quality and reliability are too stringent.
Its interesting as I never liked the Wraith but after a track day it is a superb drivers car, I have done a few track days over the last year and as most of the test drivers are self employed you meet the same guys on different events, I knew I had to drive the Wraith when on a ferrari day a driver that I know well said it was one of the best cars he had ever driven, and after seeing the Dawn at the factory earlier on in the year I knew I had to have one, I think people might be surprised when they see the car in the flesh as from the front it is different from the wraith, but I think most people will be shocked at the engine choice for the new car, for me a outstanding choice, that will deliver power and comfort, the lines remind me of the old azure it really was a beautiful car and much effort has been put into the styling and drive train, its an astonishing car intact. It will be very interesting where they place the price of the new car as there are good discounts to be had on the Phantom DHC, so there could end up being very little between the too cars.
I've owned a lot of luxury/exotic cars over the years and I think people are shocked when you mention that you have niggles and quality control issues, the reason being of course is rather being put together by a machine most of these ares are hand built so no car will ever be the same in terms of build quality and the way they drive.
We were recently lent a Mercedes G63 (a car that I have owned previously and I was so astonished at how well it drove compared to others that I have driven, even the driver that delivered it said "this car drives amazingly well" It was the same with the Arnage, we have had six of these over the last 15 years and they all drove different, some a lot better then others, Our current phantom is now a really sorted car as I have made a lot of effort over the last year sorting everything so its now perfect, and I would really say that if you are considering one of these consider a car that has been used and had everything sorted, as with all of these cars it is critical that in the first year of ownership the owner takes the time and effort to sort everything, seems crazy on a car costing so much, however I have long since concluded that the more you spend makes no difference to overall build quality and customer service, as a side note the Mini Cooper S that I bought for my wife last year has continued to be faultless and has not been back for one single issue!
I've owned a lot of luxury/exotic cars over the years and I think people are shocked when you mention that you have niggles and quality control issues, the reason being of course is rather being put together by a machine most of these ares are hand built so no car will ever be the same in terms of build quality and the way they drive.
We were recently lent a Mercedes G63 (a car that I have owned previously and I was so astonished at how well it drove compared to others that I have driven, even the driver that delivered it said "this car drives amazingly well" It was the same with the Arnage, we have had six of these over the last 15 years and they all drove different, some a lot better then others, Our current phantom is now a really sorted car as I have made a lot of effort over the last year sorting everything so its now perfect, and I would really say that if you are considering one of these consider a car that has been used and had everything sorted, as with all of these cars it is critical that in the first year of ownership the owner takes the time and effort to sort everything, seems crazy on a car costing so much, however I have long since concluded that the more you spend makes no difference to overall build quality and customer service, as a side note the Mini Cooper S that I bought for my wife last year has continued to be faultless and has not been back for one single issue!
I am lucky enough to have a Phantom Drophead in my collection which I have owned since 2009 and 700 miles. I have been very well looked after by our dealer and also by the factory. She is an early low mileage car - 2007 - and is used only occasionally for longer trips. I had a prolonged issue with the Sat Nav losing its signal. Last year the dealer spent 40 hours on the problem with factory assistance leading finally to the changing of the rear wiring harness under warranty. This did not cure the problem. This year the dealer had the car for almost two month and help was sent from Goodwood and specialist diagnostic equipment was sent from Germany. It transpires the problem was an issue with a suppressor somewhere that was interfering with the Sat Nav signal. I was told that only one other car (located in the US) had ever had that problem. When the car had been cleaned and was ready to be returned to me the check engine light came on as a result of a faulty ECU which was also changed under warranty. I do accept as a fact of life that a limited production car will necessarily have more niggles than a main stream vehicle but the upside with the Rolls is continued dealer/factory support. I am not sure that many manufacturers would be sympathetic to warranty claims on an 8 year old car or send factory help. That said, the Sat Nav, the ECU, the odd false warning from the tyre monitor and a door closing monitor are the only problems I have had in six years so I am pretty happy. Then again, my beautiful Bentley T2 which I ran for 11 years until I sold it last year (which, of course I now regret) never required anything other than routine servicing but then again it did not have Sat Nav, ECUs, tyre monitors or electronic door monitors . Incidentally, that never seemed to manage more than 10 mpg whereas the Phantom averages about 18 mpg with over twice the horsepower.
Edited by OLDBENZ on Friday 28th August 00:08
Well I knew it could not last, we covered 3,000 miles in July/August down to Portugal and back without problem. Had the car valeted on my return and put her back in the garage, but decided to use her to get down to the Goodwood Revival as my back had been playing up and I thought the comfort would be good.
On the Friday afternoon I left here to head up to my brothers in Oxford so we could motor down together, just off the M5 in Gloucester and as i adjusted the seat slightly the thing went crazy and fully reclined the seat and jammed and that way is how it stayed completely jammed. Rolls Royce assistance had someone with me in less then 15 minutes and also sent a low loader in addition, incase they couldn't fix it. The engineer stripped the seat down at the side of the road, he then stripped the wires back to the motor and powered each motor up individually with a 12v battery to get me going and the seat adjusted.
RR recovered the car first thing Monday and had it for for a week diagnosing a faulty seat ECU, they also replaced both LED headlamps as the fault warning on the dash had returned saying headlamp failure.
The car is now safely back in the garage, on a different note the faultless Mini Cooper S belonging to my wife has suffered it first fault and its a major one it is in the currently in the garage having a new engine under warranty after only 10,000 miles......
On the Friday afternoon I left here to head up to my brothers in Oxford so we could motor down together, just off the M5 in Gloucester and as i adjusted the seat slightly the thing went crazy and fully reclined the seat and jammed and that way is how it stayed completely jammed. Rolls Royce assistance had someone with me in less then 15 minutes and also sent a low loader in addition, incase they couldn't fix it. The engineer stripped the seat down at the side of the road, he then stripped the wires back to the motor and powered each motor up individually with a 12v battery to get me going and the seat adjusted.
RR recovered the car first thing Monday and had it for for a week diagnosing a faulty seat ECU, they also replaced both LED headlamps as the fault warning on the dash had returned saying headlamp failure.
The car is now safely back in the garage, on a different note the faultless Mini Cooper S belonging to my wife has suffered it first fault and its a major one it is in the currently in the garage having a new engine under warranty after only 10,000 miles......
Stumbled across this thread and what a good stumble and read.
For someone kind enough to share the experience of running such an off limits to most car is very rare and has been a very enjoyable read.
Thank you OP for sharing.
Edited
Sorry to hear about the little guy.... 10k
For someone kind enough to share the experience of running such an off limits to most car is very rare and has been a very enjoyable read.
Thank you OP for sharing.
Edited
Sorry to hear about the little guy.... 10k
Edited by TVRJAS on Thursday 8th October 23:27
After the last run of problems, and having been away I decided to use the Phantom to collect my daughter from the airport. Now it had not been used in 3 weeks and and had been in the garage since being delivered back last time, I'd only just pulled onto the motorway to be greeted by a warning light saying LH dipped beam failure, however both lights were working so i made a mental note to add it not a list for the next time it goes in. (this follow on from them replacing both lights last time for the same problem. When we arrived back i left it on the drive only to be woken at 1am by my wife who had just got in to say there was a motor of some sort running on the phantom in the engine, when I went out the following morning said motor was still running somewhere deep in the engine. The Rolls royce assistance tech who I am now on first name basis with said there were pages of faults on the computer and it would have to be recovered, that was 3 weeks ago and its still not back.
The Tech didn't know what was running and when I spoke with the dealer yesterday they too seem at a loss to work out what it was!
The delay in getting the car back is resolving the headlamp issue, Goodwood have bene in talks with the dealer helping to try and solve the problem.
Rolls Royce Goodwill have been good in lending me a DHC and there is talk that mine might be back next week, but too be honest I am becoming slightly annoyed as its starting to be that every time we use the car there is some problem or another, I have put this to RR and await there response.
On a separate note the Mini is now back on the road, however after a lengthy discussion they are replacing the car with a brand new Mini at the end of the month, excellent customer service !
I have too report that the recovery service for the RR was not great, he didn't want to drive it not the transporter, asked if I would do it, and it come to light that the towing eye which had never been used does not fit at all, so he decided to strap a rope around the front axle, complaint lodged!
The Tech didn't know what was running and when I spoke with the dealer yesterday they too seem at a loss to work out what it was!
The delay in getting the car back is resolving the headlamp issue, Goodwood have bene in talks with the dealer helping to try and solve the problem.
Rolls Royce Goodwill have been good in lending me a DHC and there is talk that mine might be back next week, but too be honest I am becoming slightly annoyed as its starting to be that every time we use the car there is some problem or another, I have put this to RR and await there response.
On a separate note the Mini is now back on the road, however after a lengthy discussion they are replacing the car with a brand new Mini at the end of the month, excellent customer service !
I have too report that the recovery service for the RR was not great, he didn't want to drive it not the transporter, asked if I would do it, and it come to light that the towing eye which had never been used does not fit at all, so he decided to strap a rope around the front axle, complaint lodged!
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