RE: Rolls-Royce Phantom: PH Used Buying Guide
Discussion
Sandpit Steve said:
Didn’t Chris Harris buy one of these last year - then quickly get rid after he realised what a massive money pit it was?
oh Chris! and there was I crediting you with a reasonable degree of intelligence before discovering you had to buy one of these before realising it would be expensive to run? please return to throwing money at an e28 m5, a worthwhile cash burner if ever there was one. " you can pick one up from £75,000. That will be for a high mileage example "
70-80k miles was the most I could see. For a properly built and maintained car that is not high mileage, and defo should not be for a gently used big NA lump which I assume is the treatment most of these get.
With that and the BMW background, the list of common engine related problems is just shocking and underscores my perception that all exotic cars are brutally underengineered and unreliable on a per mile basis.
I remember couple of years back there was a similar buying guide for the Veyron. It said they are 'very robust' and then two sentences down it turns out the highest mileage car in existence has something like 30-40k miles on the clock. In my book that means in reality nobody knows whether they are robust.
70-80k miles was the most I could see. For a properly built and maintained car that is not high mileage, and defo should not be for a gently used big NA lump which I assume is the treatment most of these get.
With that and the BMW background, the list of common engine related problems is just shocking and underscores my perception that all exotic cars are brutally underengineered and unreliable on a per mile basis.
I remember couple of years back there was a similar buying guide for the Veyron. It said they are 'very robust' and then two sentences down it turns out the highest mileage car in existence has something like 30-40k miles on the clock. In my book that means in reality nobody knows whether they are robust.
Having owned 2 of these I can say, they are fantastic cars! I have driven down through the UK and across the continent & they are just as happy to sit in traffic as they are to sit at 120MPH.
What I would say is the Series II cars are a BIG step forward, it was not simply a new front bumper & sat nav screen! If I were recommending a Phantom I would say a very late series I (2009>) or series II. The earlier £75k cars are what they are. We all know there is no such thing as a cheap Rolls Royce. A new front grill is about £10k from memory as is the chrome trim pieces, which have been known to corrode on earlier cars. Make sure they have the leather bound service book/owner’s manual. A new one is about £700 from memory.
A series II drophead or coupe is fairly sought after. The coupe, in particular, being a fairly rare beast!
What I would say is the Series II cars are a BIG step forward, it was not simply a new front bumper & sat nav screen! If I were recommending a Phantom I would say a very late series I (2009>) or series II. The earlier £75k cars are what they are. We all know there is no such thing as a cheap Rolls Royce. A new front grill is about £10k from memory as is the chrome trim pieces, which have been known to corrode on earlier cars. Make sure they have the leather bound service book/owner’s manual. A new one is about £700 from memory.
A series II drophead or coupe is fairly sought after. The coupe, in particular, being a fairly rare beast!
Amanitin said:
Krikkit said:
Because it runs through the V of the engine in the oil way and needs a huge amount of dismantling to get to.
good lord. In a huge car like the phantom there was no room for a less delicate design?
ColonelKurtz said:
It might just be me but I found the article to be lacking in detail.
Definitely. The old guides had far more detail in them. I am sure that the research to produce a more comprehensive guide is disproportionate to the amount of additional content, but these do seem superficial.Krikkit said:
waynecyclist said:
£9000 for a water pipe, why is it so expensive
Because it runs through the V of the engine in the oil way and needs a huge amount of dismantling to get to.
Edited by Krikkit on Friday 23 March 07:39
IanCress said:
dgmx5 said:
It has been said before, but these new style guides are little more than click-bait.
I disagree, I actually find it quite interesting reading about something different. A buyers guide on a Ford Fiesta would be incredibly dull to anyone other than someone in the market for one. A buyers guide on a Rolls or a Ferrari is quite interesting, if only to find out how wallet emptyingly expensive it would be to run one.By these new guides are click bait, I meant that the guides are so devoid of content to be of no real use or really satisfying a PHer's interest. Past buyers guides were well researched, if perhaps often ghost written by knowledgeable types who frequented a forum dedicated to that car or marque. If I was in the market for a Phantom, this would not point me very far.
TooMany2cvs said:
Amanitin said:
Krikkit said:
Because it runs through the V of the engine in the oil way and needs a huge amount of dismantling to get to.
good lord. In a huge car like the phantom there was no room for a less delicate design?
I’d love to have a drive of one (RR) though - there’s a significant amount of extra torque in the RR version, I suspect the engine behaves quite differently, and the ‘kick’ at 4k rpm when the 760 picks up & ‘flies’ is a great sound & feeling. I wonder therefore if that’s been engineered out in the RR version, so that it’s less ‘cammy’, so to speak?
Can’t find a chart for the RR, but here’s the 760 one to demonstrate the 4k kick. (
Or, more accurately as I didn’t check before posting.
Red = Torque
Blue = Power
solid = E65 engine (the RR is a variation on this)
dashed = E38 engine.
Edited by Prinny on Friday 23 March 16:35
J4CKO said:
Krikkit said:
waynecyclist said:
£9000 for a water pipe, why is it so expensive
Because it runs through the V of the engine in the oil way and needs a huge amount of dismantling to get to.Edited by Krikkit on Friday 23 March 07:39
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff