Just for anyone confused as to why the two cars share certain features like the unleaded fuel only warning behind the fuel cap door and the radio antenna, when they are separate companies, here is the reason. Back when these cars where made, Rolls-Royce owned the Bentley brand, having acquired it in 1931. It was only in the late 90s that when the luxury cards deviision of the Rolls-Royce company was put on sale that RR went to BMW while Bentley went to VW (there is also a now separate Rolls-Royce airplane engine company). There is an interesting fact about the way the sale went down, that led both BMW and VW to be caught in a bind where neither could make the luxury cars they bough the brands to make. You see, back in the late 70’s the original RR/Bentley company went bankrupt, the British government stepped in to bail out the company as they were the manufacturer of military airplane parts. They UK government then sold the factories producing RR’s and Bentleys cars to a private investor, licensing the Rolls-Royce & Bentley names, logos, etc. In 1998 the Rolls-Royce brand was licensed to BMW, but not the factory making RR and Bentley cars, which was sold to VW (who did not have the licensing rights to the Bentley name or logo). This created a weird situation where BMW could make a car and name it a Rolls-Royce or Bentley but not the cars currently forming the line-up for the two brands while VW could make the cars but couldn’t legally call them Roll-Royce or Bentley cars or use the then current model names. Shortly afterwards, MMW and VW made a deal in which BMW would gain full rights to make RR cars while VW would gain rights to use it’s newly acquired Bentley factory to make Bentleys (it didn’t really care about making RR’s) with rights to the Bentley brand name, car model names, logos, etc. They are now formally separate companies once again, as they were pre-1931.
Another interesting fact, Rolls-Royce was traditionally said to be the type of luxury cars your chauffeur would drive you around in while Bentley’s are the car you drive yourself around In. This is why the Bentley cars got better engines with more power while the Rolls-Royce’s were built more around the notion of better comfort at slower speeds.
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