1996 Rolls Royce Silver Spur 6.75L V8
Summary:
The 1996 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur was the best year of the later models
Faults:
Aside from routine maintenance and care, nothing had gone wrong with the car.
General Comments:
The car is amazing, definitely the most comfortable I've ever owned. That goes a long way, considering I owned a 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Car before this.
The car is big, beautiful in and out, and immaculate. The power the car has is actually good. While it's no sports car, you'd be surprised at how quickly the car picks up speed. The thing you've gotta watch out for with big, heavy cars is that as they pick up speed, they generate a lot of momentum, which is good for keeping the car in motion without putting your foot on the pedal, but braking becomes a bit more difficult, especially with other cars around.
The real wood and leather interior is by far the finest I've ever seen in a car. It tops my old Lincoln in almost every way. It's not too advanced like the new BMWs and Mercedes, but it's definitely by no means low tech.
Handling is actually pretty good for a car of this size. The rack and pinion steering is definitely better than the recirculating ball used in the Lincoln. However, it's not completely fair to compare this car to one that is far larger. I specifically wanted a 1996, because in 1997 they added those sixteen inch wheels that hurt the ride quality in exchange for better handling.
As for gas mileage, my last car was a 1978 Lincoln Continental Town Car with a 460 V8 that got 8-14 MPG, so I'm pretty tolerant in this field. It's definitely better, around 12-17 MPG. Unfortunately, the better fuel economy is offset by the fact that the Rolls uses premium fuel, which is more expensive.
All around, the 1996 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur is a great car in practically every aspect. They sure don't make them like this anymore. Servicing is costly and must be done like every couple of months or so. I've helped offset the servicing costs by not taking it to the dealer, as they're not the most complicated cars in the world to work on, and the dealerships are ridiculously overpriced.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 27th August, 2012
14th Dec 2015, 05:40
I am reading that the 16 inch wheels were on the 96 Spur... and 97-98. Did you maybe get a late production 95 to still have the softer 15s?
Or maybe it IS a 96, but not the "real" Spur, but instead the America-only, base trim, cheaper "Dawn"?
15th Jan 2016, 08:56
Generally speaking, compared to other automakers, Rolls-Royce's use of parts were kind of a mess. This is generally because when they had a big change coming up the next year, they didn't dispose of their remaining stock of the old parts; they just kept using them alongside the new ones.
The Rolls-Royce Silver Spur in general is a good example of this. The car was officially discontinued after 1997, but they kept making them through 1999 alongside the Silver Seraph to use up the remaining bodies and parts.
1996 was the first year of the 16 inch wheels, but Rolls-Royce still made some of the new cars with the old 15 inchers, as they still had a good number left over from 1995. It's not too uncommon to see a 1996 Silver Spur on the old 15s. However, by 1997, all of the cars were riding on the 16s.
23rd Sep 2012, 13:33
In my opinion, these late model Spurs are some of the finest cars ever made by Rolls. You're right when you say they don't make them like this any more. The newer styles are so over the top and brutish looking to be considered true Rolls-Royces in my opinion. Today's newer models aren't even truly British any more; now they're almost all BMW designed and built.
The Silver Seraph, while also a beautiful car, started the whole trend, because it was powered by the BMW V12 engine instead of the traditional Rolls-Royce V8. It also had many BMW sourced parts. Why they had to go with the underpowered V12, we will never truly know the answer to that. Completely ridiculous, considering Bentley kept the V8, and now makes far more powerful cars than Rolls.