1982 Rolls Royce Silver Spur review from North America

Fuel pump fuse melted. I was told by the dealership that this is a common problem. Some fuses have become so hot that the circuit board cracked. They have an upgrade for this problem. I think they called it a fuse 13 upgrade. 13 being the number of the fuse. They no longer will use the fuse and place a circuit breaker in its place. The Bosch fuel pump is a big pump and pulls lots of juice and melts the fuse is what I was told happens.

Rolls Royce was still using lacquer paint on this model year. The paint work on these cars in awesome. However since it is lacquer, you need to invest time and labor in taking care of this delicate paint. The body panels fit perfectly and are the straightest you will see on a car.

The engine is extremely quiet. The engine has sufficient power to move this heavy car. It is not a fast car though. The engine temperature gage shows extremely cool even when going up a mountain. I guess the big radiator, 10 quarts of oil capacity, and engine oil cooler keeps the engine cooler.

This car features the reliable and cheap to service Chevrolet Turbo 400 along with the GM A-6 dual belt air conditioning compressor.

The ride of the car is about like most Cadillac models, it is not as smooth as a Lincoln though.

Wind noise is slightly more than a Lincoln or Cadillac due to its traditional body design.

Quality of the interior is much higher than a Cadillac or Lincoln. Real wood of high quality compared to low quality wood and plastic that looks like wood. Wool carpeting compared to nylon. All leather used inside and no vinyl whereas a Cadillac or Lincoln just has leather seating surfaces.

The mineral oil brake system is complex and difficult to find people to work on it other than the dealership. It has not given any problems yet.

The dash light bulbs are poorly designed; they have threads like lamp bulbs. Road vibrations make the bulbs unscrew themselves and the dash needs taken apart to tighten the bulbs.

The factory radio is a Blaukpunt. It is complete trash and cannot compare to a Delco or Ford radio of the era.

The intermittent speed on the wipers do not have a way to set the timing of the pause. there is only one x second pause when using the intermittent speed.

The gearshift is small like a turn signal switch from a GM car. The gear shift just slides up and down into gear. It does not need to be pulled toward you then shifted. It is so easy to knock this car into another gear while turning the steering wheel or to bump it into gear while parked. To make matters even worse the cruise control buttons are located on the gearshift. This is the worst part of the car.

Overall, I really love the car. It is a Rolls-Royce, but it is by no means a perfect car. I have yet to find the perfectly designed car. It appears that many of the quirks in these cars are with the electrical system.