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Buyers flipping a Rolls-Royce Spectre won't be tolerated, company says

The act of flipping cars — that is, buying a limited or highly desirable model and then reselling it for big profit — wonÂ’t go unnoticed, or be tolerated, by Rolls-Royce. Specifically referring to the new Rolls Spectre — the first electric car from the brand — Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos told Car Dealer that any customer who sells or try to sell one will be blacklisted for life if he attempts to buy another from a dealer. Speaking at the launch of the new car in California, he said: ‘I can tell you we are really sanitizing the need to prove who you are, what you want to do with the car – you need to qualify for a car and then you might get a slot for an order.” But those who violate the policy and resell the vehicle at a higher price are “going immediately on a blacklist and this is it – you will never ever have the chance to acquire again.Â’ The super-luxe Spectre is to open its order books soon with deliveries to start in the autumn. Base price in the UK is about $425,000. The response from some dealers in Britain, who say the inflated price resales are legal, was resentment at Rolls. London dealer Tom Hartle, known for selling secondhand Rolls-Royce models, said that he has already agreed to collect GBP50,000 ($65,000) premiums for two Spectres. He said he will have a Spectre for sale at his used-car dealership "within two weeks of it being launched.” ”I do not think it is fair for carmakers to tell customers who have spent close to half a million pounds on a car what they can do with it,” he told Car Dealer. Last year, General Motors said it would ban flippers "from placing future sold orders or reservations if the vehicle is resold within the first 12 months of ownership." Those high-demand products were the Corvette Z06, the Cadillac Escalade-V, and the GMC Hummer EV. And years ago, Ford famously sued wrestler and actor John Cena, who flipped a Ford GT in violation of his purchase contract. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. At Rolls, the company maintains that it has paid close attention to SpectreÂ’s specifics while in development. "To do this, “ Muller-Otvos said, “we have conceived the most demanding testing program in Rolls-RoyceÂ’s history. We will cover 2.5 million kilometers – a simulation of more than 400 years of use for a Rolls-Royce, on average – and we will travel to all four corners of the world to push this new motor car to the limit,"

The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.

Rolls-Royce Phantom Oribe has a pottery theme and high-fashion interior

Rolls-Royce has developed quite a busy business with its Bespoke division. It creates specially customized one-off models for particularly wealthy clients. The latest is the Rolls-Royce Phantom Oribe, and it's one of the prettier and more interesting ones. The car was commissioned by a Japanese entrepreneur who collects old pottery from Japan called Oribe. That pottery often features green and white glazing, which provided the inspiration for the name and the color scheme of the Phantom. This particular Phantom was also a collaboration between Rolls-Royce and the French designer fashion brand Hermes, which provided all of the interior leather and canvas. That interior is really the highlight of the car. Most surfaces feature green and white leather to match the exterior. But the headliner and rear armrests receive a canvas fabric Hermes uses on some of its handbags. Walnut wood veneers decorate the doors, rear seat tables and dashboard. A unique touch is the lack of metal speaker grates. Instead, Rolls-Royce drilled out holes in the wood trim over the speakers. Additionally, the dashboard features an equine themed pattern that was hand painted. It was inspired by a particular style of scarves offered by Hermes. Both the car and fashion companies' logos appear on the glovebox door. This car is of course a one-off, so you won't see any more of them. Of course if you have the undoubtedly massive amounts of money to commission a Bespoke Rolls-Royce, you could probably request certain aspects of it on your own special car. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.