Rolls Royce Gains an Explosive Reputation

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Guardian

What you are not entitled to expect, even now that the quintessence of the British car is in the hands of VW, is that your Roller should explode when you fill her up with petrol.

But that is what happened when a Massey technician pulled away from the pump in a £220,000 Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible that had just been delivered from the British assembly plant.

He touched the switch to roll up the windows, which were blown out by an explosion that also damaged the interior and the soft top. The technician and a bystander suffered minor injuries.

The vehicle was sent back to Crewe, where it was found that the electric current powering the window mechanism had ignited vapours that had entered the Corniche. Now five models - 2000 and 2001 examples of the Corniche and Bentley Azure and Continental T, R and SC - have been recalled. Only 539 have been sold, 408 of them in the US.

The Detroit blast was a one-off, according to Rolls-Royce. "Because we identified a risk we made the decision to recall all the two-door cars worldwide, said spokeswoman Janette Green. "Customer safety is our prime concern. We take any safety incident very seriously."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), May 11, 2001


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