End of the line for Rolls-Royce at its spiritual home

Since handstitching the steering wheel of a Rolls-Royce takes longer than to build an entire Ford Focus, workers at the luxury car maker's Crewe plant could be forgiven for a little nostalgia yesterday as their last model rolled off the production line.

The landmark, reached after 56 years of Rolls-Royce production at the Cheshire plant, is not, though, another symbolic death knell for British manufacturing. Though the Rolls-Royce name has been sold to BMW, Crewe's output of Bentleys – a marque bought by Rolls-Royce Motors in 1931 – will now more than quadruple under the factory's owner, Volkswagen.

But Peter Cable, a senior production manager, could not deny that there was something imperceptibly "different" about making a Rolls.

"It was the feeling you had in yourself when you made it," he said, gazing at the last in the line, a two-door Silver Ghost convertible. "On a rainy day in Cheshire you could imagine the places that a convertible Rolls would go – the west coast of America, the south of France. It's a good boulevard cruiser, to drive and be driven in."

True to form, the last model was a little special, even by Rolls-Royce's standards. Conifer green Wilton carpet, spruce green hide upholstery, the Rolls' Spirit of Ecstasy emblem within the interior marquetry (silver plated, of course). And – Mr Cable's favourite touch – a timely return for the red Rolls badge that was on the first model, the 1907 Silver Ghost. Though no price has been put on the Corniche, it is a collector's piece and probably worth in excess of £250,000 – with considerably more for petrol.

"She's a bit thirsty with all this manoeuvring around," Mr Cable conceded when the 16-miles-per-gallon Corniche was taken off for a top-up.

Now the workforce will turn its attention to Bentley, traditionally a marque to drive rather than be driven in but just as personalised. One customer sends a make-up sample to Crewe every two years and asks for her next Bentley in that colour. Bentleys accounted for 80 per cent of the plant's sales before Volkswagen took over. Now the figure is more than 90 per cent.

The new Bentley GT coupé concept car will be launched at the Paris Motor Show next month and, in time, Crewe may find itself up against the Rolls, as BMW is gearing up to make its first model next year at its new hi-tech plant at Goodwood, West Sussex.

Philip Hall, of the Sir Henry Rolls Memorial Foundation, said it was "a sad day" that Rolls and Bentley were going in different directions. "I suppose that's progress," he said.,

But at the Rolls newsagent on Rolls Avenue, Crewe, the owner, Keith Fletcher, was surprisingly unmoved. "This could be good news. They reckon there'll be 1,000 new jobs when they make more Bentleys."