Ah yes, I own a Corniche… (Rolls-Royce Corniche)

Member Name: Katachi

Product:	Rolls-Royce Corniche
Date:	14/01/01 (385 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sheer Luxury

Disadvantages: Very Addictive

I was on my way to upgrade my 5year-old SAAB 900S convertible when I stopped at traffic lights and looked left…
888 CZA was beckoning to me, I just had to take a look.
How could anyone resist the temptation to look at a 1970 Rolls-Royce Corniche parked outside a prestige car yard? Well, I couldn’t.
It was for sale and yes; I could have a test drive. I really enjoyed my drive, both the first part where I was passenger and then especially the second, where I was the driver!
The Hood folds back automatically and smoothly with just a slight hum. Red leather interior, complementing the elegant pewter grey metallic body. This car looked and felt like a dream.
I bought my Corniche for less than the cost of a new SAAB and I have enjoyed the car for 9 months. I had a lot of work to do on the car since it had been sadly neglected. I added rear seatbelts and replaced the front lap seatbelts with modern lap-sash seatbelts and also added an alarm to the central locking. The seats aren’t the originals and, given time, I will probably replace them with the correct seats. I need a wing mirror but there don’t seem to be many around that fit, I am getting used to driving without one and the rear view visibility is pretty good even with the hood up.
Please don’t ask me about fuel economy, I’d rather not think about it. For less than $100 I can fill the tank with Super (leaded) and once leaded is no-longer available I am assured by Rolls-Royce that unleaded will be fine. I use my car a lot, for anything I feel like. Taking the kids to school is great, as is nipping down to the local shops. Picking up a take-away is fun because the proprietors of the restaurant never seem to tire of coming out with our food just to have another look at the car!
I love driving to the beach or into the city, as the car is so delicious to drive along the freeway, floating on air, hopefully not too fast! For a windy journey I would prefer a
sports-car, though the turning circle of the Rolls is pretty good, the car was clearly designed to travel in smooth curves.
What more can I say? I love my Rolls-Royce, so do my teenage kids, and their friends! I think this is the most rewarding car I have ever owned. I do consider selling it for something more modern, where maintenance is easier, but I don’t think I would ever enjoy driving another car as much.

I hope my account is helpful to you, the specifications you can find on the Rolls Royce web site or in any number of books published on Rolls-Royce and Bentley. There has been a lot written about these cars and their history, I intended to keep the car only 6 months just for fun so be warned, driving one is very addictive!!


ps. I still love my Corniche!!
There are negatives to owning a Classic Car but the positives far outweigh them!!
If something goes wrong it's generally more nuisance than expense.
My repair bills are no higher than they were the year before on my SAAB but My car has been off the road whilst they were fixed for 6 weeks during the year instead of about 6 days.
Fuel is expensive, I get around 220 miles from a full tank of around 90 litres, but the power and performance of the car go with that!
I am now using the new Lead-free Super petrol without any problems, though apparently the RollsRoyce engines will run fine on Unleaded fuel.
I keep my car well maintained and use it on a daily basis, the same as I would any other car.


I have just bowed to pressure from my teenage children to buy a car with 4 doors and have therefore traded my Classic Corniche for a brand new Mercedes E200. Arguably they are of similar value but to find a buyer at that value would have taken considerably longer than the half hour it took to clinch the deal, which gave the Corniche the same retail value it had when I bought it 18 months and 10,000 miles ago. there are not many cars which hold t
heir value that well!!

I'll work my way up to a new Corniche one day!!

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