Many have crowed over the fact that since "the split" in 1998 when the BMW Group purchased Rolls-Royce and VW/Audi walked away with Bentley that the latter marque's subsequent sales triumph has upstaged Rolls. Some even went so far as to suggest that Bentley's newfound success would make Rolls-Royce somehow redundant.

Well, not so.

BMW has published a report recently which shows that since the Rolls-Royce line was relaunched in 2003, the marque has consistently hit the mark by increasing sales every year. In 2006, 805 ($330K+) Phantoms were delivered to a fortunate few, up 1.1% from the previous year (796 Phantoms). Keep in mind that BMW's original production goal for the super-luxury division was originally around 500 autos per annum.

While these sales numbers do not challenge Bentley figures per se, they do serve to secure the viability of the world's most venerable automotive name.