Actually Rolls Royce hardware was not very special at all. We used to supply them in the 80s and 90s and they were bog standard alternators, starter motors, wipers, switchgear supplied to Ford and Vauxhall etc etc. They did have faults but spent the (huge) profits on getting mechanics out to customers to fix things double quick so reports of true unreliability were somewhat squashed by the customer service.
That was when it was (crap!) British management, maybe German stuff is better now, but frankly BMW, Merc and Audi don't have a great reliability reputation nowadays, though still better than British Leyland I guess.
