- Rolls-Royce’s customer base has undergone a dramatic generational shift.
- Sales trends reveal a surprising regional shift for this storied luxury carmaker.
- Some of its most exclusive creations now command truly staggering price tags.
Luxury cars often carry a certain stereotype about who drives them, yet the reality can be surprising. Given how incredibly expensive a new Rolls-Royce is, you’d expect the average owner of one of the brand’s models to be quite old. However, that’s not the case.
The average Rolls-Royce buyer is actually younger than the average BMW and Mini buyer. Evidently, younger generations can appreciate the finer things in life.
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BMW is marking its 50th anniversary in North America with a year-long storytelling series, sharing one tale for each year. A recent story turns the spotlight on Rolls-Royce, revealing a few lesser-known details. Among them is the fact that in the early 1990s, BMW attempted to purchase a 20 percent stake in both Rolls-Royce and Bentley but was turned down.
In 1998, Volkswagen bought both Rolls-Royce and Bentley, but failed to realize that the Rolls-Royce name and the ‘RR’ logo belonged to Rolls-Royce PLC, the airplane engine manufacturer. BMW quickly acquired those rights for £40 million (around $54 million), and for several years, VW and BMW had to work together until the start of 2003, when BMW became the exclusive manufacturer of Rolls-Royce cars.
A younger clientele
According to the head of communications for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Americas, Gerry Spahn, the average age of a Rolls-Royce customer 15 years ago was roughly 60. Now, “Rolls-Royce is the youngest brand in the BMW Group, with an average customer age of 43,” Spahn revealed.
Not only are Rolls-Royce shoppers younger than those picking up the keys to new BMW or Mini models, but a growing proportion of them are from North America. Last year, roughly half of all Rolls-Royce sales were made in North America.
New Rolls-Royce models are also “more personalized than ever,” Spahn added, noting that “some are even coachbuilt,” contributing to an average sales price of a new Rolls-Royce from less than $300,000 to more than $500,000 over the past decade.
