2001 Rolls-Royce Corniche

In January of 2000, the fifth Rolls-Royce to bear the Corniche name made its debut. With a base price of $359,900, it was the most expensive vehicle offered by Rolls-Royce at the time. It was produced in limited numbers and for a short time, ending in 2001, when Bentley and Rolls-Royce became two separate companies again, with two different owners. Bentley became a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG and continued to be manufactured in the Crewe factory while Rolls-Royce was owned solely by BMW and produced in an entirely new factory built by BMW.

The Cornice was a hand-built vehicle and the only new Rolls-Royce developed under Volkswagen's ownership before the marque was passed to BMW in 2003. They had styling cues sourced from the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph sedan, but it shared little mechanically with the BMW-engined car. Instead, the Corniche's body was set onto the older platform used for the similarly-styled Bentley Azure, thus it was the first and only Rolls-Royce descended from a Bentley rather than the other way around.

The Cornice were given every luxury and refinement characteristic of a Rolls-Royce, such as a Connolly leather interior, Wilton wool carpets, chrome gauges and a wide choice of exotic wood trims. Dual automatic temperature control, a six-disc CD changer, automatic headlamps and automatic ride control was standard. The 6.75 liter turbocharged V8 engine offered 325 horsepower and gave it a top speed of 135 mph and 0-60 acceleration times of eight seconds. The convertible, weighing 6,840 pounds, was built more for comfort than for speed.

In total, 374 fifth-generation Corniches were built.

by Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2019