Rolls-Royce defends claims it concealed engine defects

Rolls-Royce has denied claims made by two former employees in a US lawsuit that it "cut corners on quality control requirements" and "lied to" customers. The pair also alleged that the firm "routinely used defective parts designated as 'scrap only'". The two are challenging a court order that prevents them from releasing information which they claim reveals details of what the firm concealed. Rolls-Royce has defended itself and said the lawsuit is "without merit".

BBC

Will obviously have to see how this pans out, but in the very least these allegations are worrying and of the type that could potentially kill a company?

reply to post by solidshot

Will obviously have to see how this pans out, but in the very least these allegations are worrying and of the type that could potentially kill a company?

Interesting, at one time people paid the outrageous prices on quality products because they were hand built, well designed and the best money could buy. The reputations that came with those products made them elite, highly sought after, and guaranteed money coming in as demand was always greater than supply. With time the integrity of a number of good brands has died. And it's possible here is another case of that.

I guess when I want to buy a car for the price of a house, I will have to buy a Maybach from now on.

reply to post by solidshot


Manufacturers have been doing this for years and years and years. If it had the potential to kill a company (which it should tbh) then Ford would of died a long time ago.

Seriously, read about the Ford Pinto case. Ford's engineers found a critical design error in late stage development which meant in a rear side crash the car's differential could be pushed into the gas tank, piercing it, and thus causing an explosion/fire posing serious threat to the driver. The engineers brought this to the attention of the corporate side of Ford, who simply worked out it would be cheaper to pay out the insurance to potential victims than install a metal barrier in each car preventing the whole problem altogether.

This ultimately resulted in quite a few people dying and many, many, many serious burn injuries.

Ironically, this backfired on them and in the end they got sued in a few court cases which resulted in A LOT more money being paid than if they had just installed the preventative measures. It just goes to show HOW LOW a big corporation like that will sink to for the love of profit/$$$. It is absolutely disgusting.

However, like I say, Ford is still around and kicking and most people don't even know about this or won't give a #. The same thing will probably happen with this case as well.

Originally posted by boncho
reply to post by solidshot

Will obviously have to see how this pans out, but in the very least these allegations are worrying and of the type that could potentially kill a company?

 

Interesting, at one time people paid the outrageous prices on quality products because they were hand built, well designed and the best money could buy. The reputations that came with those products made them elite, highly sought after, and guaranteed money coming in as demand was always greater than supply. With time the integrity of a number of good brands has died. And it's possible here is another case of that.

I guess when I want to buy a car for the price of a house, I will have to buy a Maybach from now on.

edit on 5-7-2013 by boncho because: (no reason given)

Its the Rolls Royce company that makes jet engines. It split from the car company in the 70s.

Rolls Royce cars are branded products of BMW and have no connection to the historical Rolls Royce other than the name.

The old plant where they made the last real Rolls Royces is now the operating base of Bentley (who themselves are now owned by Volkswagen).

reply to post by solidshot


Rolls Royce owns BMW...so....yeah

The certification of the quality of aircraft parts is a legal requirement - using parts designated as "scrap" would land you with a manslaughter charge - as has happened around the world occasionally.

the cost of such stringent quality requirements is part of the reason for the "bogus parts" scandals that occasionally break - the value of a certified part can be many times the value of the same item without certification for use in aviation.

so there is definitely an economic incentive - but it would be pretty stupid for RR to do this as official policy or anything even "winked at" - it really would shut them down instantly if the FAA or anyone else thought it was true - every suspect part would have to be audited - possibly half the airliners in the world might be suspect.