I do have experience with English cars, I will never buy one again. Over the years, I have owned and extensively driven Jags, Bentleys and RR. They are just not reliable.

 

I would differentiate English cars into pre/post English ownership. Range Rover, Jaguar literally had parts just falling off while driving. Utter crap that became great after BMW and Ford (and now Tata) spent countless billions to make these cars desirable and more reliable.

Same for Bentley and RR; before the German ownership of VW and BMW, these cars were electrical and mechanical nightmares. Their famous luxurious interiors were designed for nothing but English climate. Have one of these cars in CA or Arizona and you'll see the wood and leather cracking in record speed.
I can't remember how many low mileage RR's I have seen with a "vintage" leather look.

BMW didn't even bother to salvage anything from their prior company. They started fresh and created the most desirable RR in the companies history IMO. But let's not the Phantom an English car. This thing is a 100% German car build in the UK in a German factory.
Bentley followed a ver similar path. Once again, the Continental is really 100% German. Both brands have done a really nice job making he interiors look English while applying some more durability to each bit.

Connelly leather, however, still ages quite quickly...

 

I have owned two SuperSports... I have had absolutely zero problems with either one... The first one I purchased "used" (a friend of mine passed and his wife pretty much gave it to me) and I traded that in on a new one...

I compared the SuperSports to my 06 E55, as honestly, I think this has the best interior of any MB... The new ones (sans this new S Class have been utterly awful... My wife's Kia has a nicer interior than her 2010 C Class did and the E class and even S Class are (were) no exception... Cheap plastic is expected in a Kia... Not so much in a MB... And the sad part is, at least Kia tries, somewhat, to hide it... No such case in MB... The new S Class is definitely an exception... Hopefully the trend continues...

I think luxury is more of a tactile process... Price doesn't always equate to luxury...

 

Ahh, yes the W211 interior. Still the best M-B interior to date to me as well. Not the most solid or well constructed but the best design and most worthily luxurious. I'd definitely say I miss it more and find it more superior to my W212's who while much tougher and more durable, were full of cold, hard cheap plastic and a non-coddling design.

From what I understand, BMW had no choice but to restart Rolls Royce from scratch. All they bought was the Rolls name and Spirit Of Ecstasy logo. VW bought the actual business (workers, factories, etc.) of both Bentley AND RR, but BMW totally pulled a fast one on them by buying the logo.

*IF* I'm remembering this correctly, VW can technically build a car with the Rolls Royce name, but can't use the Spirit logo (my memory's fuzzy on that).

I grew up with a W126 300SD and a Rolls Royce Silver Spirit. Even in my earliest years, I knew that the Rolls was far and away a more premium product. I used to "hate the Mercedes" and always wanted to ride in the Rolls. The smell, the leather, the soft materials, etc. Like I said, it's all about your senses.

The W126 was WAY more ahead of the Rolls in the 80's than the W222 would be to the Rolls' Ghost today, as in the 80's the Silver Spirit was *technically* an actual piece of sh** and the W126 the best car on the road. These days, the Ghost is a German car which already with lots of fluff thrown over it (Germans nailed it on buying the English cars, btw, they provided their engineering know-how then sent it to England to get painted and leather'd, i.e "don't touch the fundamentals, just do the one thing you guys do best", and they knew there was an explosive market for that as people were even buying these cars when they truly were overpriced pieces of junk).

Point being, back then the Mercedes was far more superior to its English counterparts, but people still paid tons more for the English counterparts. These days, the Rolls' actually provide engineering comparable to Mercedes, BMW, etc. If a young kid with no political "agenda" when it comes to cars sits in a W222 then a Rolls Royce Ghost, rest assured he/she will absolutely feel more comforted by the Rolls, and would find the Rolls far more expensive and special.

 

K-A, once again brilliantly stated.

 

Thanks my friend.

 

It is just a psychological, placebo effect IMO. I think if Mercedes sold the same number of S-classes as Rolls, and at a similar price (but with maybe just thicker carpets lol), the kid would find the S similarly exclusive and special..

 

It's true, some is tangible and some is psychological. I can tell you the things that popped out to me when I was a kid (what made me love the Rolls):

1- It was white on tan, while the Merc was a gold on "brown" (with that stinky old M-B Tex). The SD's "Diesel tractor clack" didn't help. With those out of the way....

Otherwise, the plush carpeting, the "wool" (?) headliner, the SMELL, the extra supple leather, the extra wood, and of course even as a child that Spirit Of Ecstasy logo was so powerful. Nowadays that effect will be even more starkly different as Rolls is still very exclusive and the Mercedes brand has been massively diluted since the 80's.

I'd say in actual build quality, Mercedes has always been vastly superior to Rolls, however it was the "fluff" that sold the Rolls. Nowadays, the Rolls quality is actually closer to Mercedes than ever, as the Rolls is now a BMW, and the extra "fluff" is still there, so IMO the dynamic between the two is the same as ever (if not even more apart from each other than before).

Mind you, I would never pay Rolls/Bentley pricing, just ridiculous to me, I'd buy the S Class or a loaded 7 Series over a Ghost for a plethora of reasons, but if I had the excess funds to do so I might change my tune on that, lol.