About Bristol
Bristol Cars is a manufacturer of hand-built luxury cars, based at Filton, near Bristol, England. Bristol Cars has no distributors nor dealers and deals directly with customers; they have a showroom in Kensington in London. They claim to be the last wholly British-owned luxury car builder. The cars have only ever been made in very small numbers. The most recent published official production figures were for 1982 and stated 104 cars were produced that year: the current production is certainly no greater than that.
Image and company philosophy
Bristol builds expensive but, in the company's words, "nicely understated" cars. The Bristol values are those of tradition and practicality, rather than ostentation. Bristols built today are the same in major details as any from the past 30 years or more. The cars are still handmade, taking four times the man-hours to complete than other luxury cars.
The styling is discrete; owners would call it an acquired taste. It is more an engineers' creation than a stylists' effective packaging for the contents and good aerodynamic qualities. As a four seater luxury model, the cars are also surprisingly small. Although Bristol saloons provide "dignified express travel for 4 six foot persons and their luggage", efficient packaging means that a Bristol Blenheim is narrower than a Ford Mondeo and shorter than all competing cars. Luggage space is huge; the spare tyre is stowed behind a hinged panel in the front left wing and the battery and fuse box in the right so that they do not take up valuable space.
The cars are designed to be effective daily transportation rather than occasional indulgences. With regular maintenance, the company expects a Bristol to outlast its owner, and Bristol Cars will maintain any car they ever built. The vast majority of parts are in stock, and they will remanufacture or hand-make any other required parts.
