CAR WARS!
AS luxury car firms famous the world over – and the epitome of Britishness – you would expect a certain decorum from rolls-royce and Aston Martin.
But a rather unseemly row has broken out between the bosses at the brands whose customers include the super-rich, royalty and, of course, James Bond.
Aston Martin’s design chief Marek reichman said that rolls-royce was as modern as ‘Ancient Greece’ – dismissing his rivals’ flagship Phantom model as an out-of date ‘Buckingham Palace on wheels’.
He added: ‘The world has changed, and the royals have changed.’
But rolls-royce chief executive Torsten Muller- Otvos hit back, describing the comments as ‘highly unprofessional’ and accusing Aston Martin’s executives of ungentlemanly behaviour.
He said: ‘They don’t understand the luxury segment. Nor do they understand our customers. They are in a complete different league when it comes to pricing and they have zero clue about what’s going on in the upper, upper segment.’
The clash began after Aston Martin said its new £300,000 electric-powered lagonda prototype – launched at the Geneva Motor Show this week – would ‘disrupt’ the super-luxury market domi- nated by rolls-royce and Bentley by offering ‘guilt-free luxury’ to ultra-wealthy motorists.
Mr reichman went on to tell motoring magazine Autocar that rolls-royce was ‘an imperfect package for luxury’ and executives from Silicon Valley firms such as Apple and Google would be more likely to drive an Aston Martin.
He said: ‘rolls-royce and Bentley are Ancient Greece today. I worked on the original Phantom. The brief was Buckingham Palace on wheels. It was important to do that to establish it.
‘But the world has changed, and the royals have changed.
‘look at rolls-royce: It’s the most luxurious car in the world. Given its roots, its reason for being, it’s essentially still an internal combustion engine to replace a horse, a carriage and a trunk. It’s an imperfect package for luxury.’
referring to the new lagonda, which he designed, Mr reichman added: ‘you can’t see Apple or