From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Copy of a customer's letter complaining about ill-designed bodywork and deciding to sell the car.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 130\1\ scan0050 | |
| Date | 27th May 1933 | |
| COPY 46, Porchester Terrace, W.2. May 27th, 1933. Dear Mr.Platford, I want to thank you for your promptitude in having the car attended to. I hear that they found water in the carburettor which accounted for much of my trouble no doubt. One is tempted to compare the treatment I had at your hands with that I received in London. On the way home, Mrs. Daniels and I thought the matter over and we have decided to sell the car, take the loss and buy something less expensive according to the loss we sustain. We felt quite happy about the chassis and knew that it would be in order after you had done what you wanted to do to it. The body, however, is another thing. As you discovered for yourself, it filled up with fumes and nearly stifled us on the way home. The driving seat is the most uncomfortable seat I have ever sat in (literally) and the paint is soft and coming off all over the car. In my opinion the body is ill-designed and should never have been put on a Rolls chassis. Its faults can only be discovered after a run of 20 miles or so and one therefore brought us the belief that wrongs would be righted. The head of Freestone & Webb made it unpleasantly clear to me that he only intended to do the minimum he could unless I paid him, and I simply cannot afford to pay for the job twice over. I have made a great mistake in putting myself in their hands and I should like to be able to start again with a new chassis and have another body built by better coachbuilders, but I cannot afford to do so. We are therefore advertising the car and frankly admitting its faults and hoping not to sustain too big a loss. Once again thank you for your trouble. Yours very truly, (sgd) Christopher Daniels. | ||