Rolls-Royce Camargue

At launch, the Camargue was the Rolls-Royce flagship and the most expensive production car in the world. At its official U.S. launch, the Camargue had already been on sale in the UK for over a year. The New York Times noted that the U.S. price at this stage was approximately $5,000 higher than the UK price. In the 1970s, many European models retailed for significantly less in the U.S. than they did in Europe in order to compete with prices set aggressively by Detroit's Big Three and Japanese importers. The manufacturer rejected this approach with the Camargue, referencing the high cost of safety and pollution engineering needed to adapt the few cars (approximately 30 per year) it expected to send to North America in 1976. The recommended price of a new Camargue at launch on the UK market in March 1975 was £29,250, including sales taxes. and was the first Rolls-Royce to feature an inclined rather than perfectly vertical grille; the Camargue's grille was slanted at an angle of seven degrees. The car was sold in very limited numbers in European, American, Canadian, Australian and Asian markets. Several of the cars have since been modified into convertibles by after-market customizers. ==Reception==

The Camargue received a varied reception, having ranked as one of the "10 Worst Cars"'as chosen in 2010 by readers of The Globe and Mail; and having ranked 92 in a 2008 poll of the 100 ugliest cars of all time by readers of The Daily Telegraph. Autoblog said the Camargue had been ranked "conspicuously low on the list," adding the Camargue "really was horrid, no matter how well it sold." In response, noted automotive journalist James May said the Camargue "is not ugly, either. It has presence, like that pug-faced but well-dressed bloke down the pub." In his 2019 study of the car, Bernard L. King argues that the Camargue was an important statement-car, proving that the motor-division of Rolls-Royce could bring new product to market after its near financial ruin following the collapse and nationalisation of the Rolls-Royce aero-division. In addition, its high price-point not only raised much needed revenue for the cash-strapped motor company, it also acted as a "halo" car avant la lettre, generating new customer interest in the marque, showroom footfall, and increased sales of the relatively more economical Silver Shadows. As King writes:It proved to be what is known in the motor industry as a "traffic builder". [...] When the 1976 Rolls-Royce sales figures for the USA were totalled, it was revealed that there had been a massive 42 percent increase over those in 1975, with 1,230 cars delivered to customers compared with the 1975 figure of 865. This substantial increase David Plastow [then managing director of Rolls-Royce] put down to 'the heightened awareness of the Rolls-Royce marquee [sic] generated by the introduction of the Camargue to the American market'. ==References==