A ROLLER FOR THE RICH, NOT JUST THE SERIOUSLY WEALTHY; Rolls-Royce wants a piece of former partner Bentley's action.(News)

Byline: GREG KABLE

Rolls-Royce will go back to its roots with a range of smaller and-gasp!-less-expensive models as the luxury carmaker seeks to lay the financial foundations for a prosperous future.

Described as possessing all the traditional Rolls-Royce hallmarks of engineering prestige and upper-crust luxury, the new cars are intended to rejuvenate the BMW-owned British carmaker with entries in the growing $150,000-to-$200,000 segment of the market.

"I believe Rolls-Royce has an opportunity to move into another price point,'' says new Rolls-Royce boss Ian Robertson, who previously headed BMW in South Africa.

"Our family of cars will grow to include more attainable models. Over the past 100 years we have made so many different types of cars, so there is a lot of scope for us to move forward,'' Robertson told AutoWeek.

The first of Rolls-Royce's new models, a sedan, won't appear before 2009, though Robertson is said to have already gained the backing of BMW chairman Helmut Panke. A number of styling proposals have been created, with final decisions on the product mix coming within the next year, Robertson says.

Spurring the move to extend the Rolls-Royce line below the hugely expensive Phantom is the success of the Bentley Continental GT. Bentley built some 5000 of the $171,000 Continental GTs in ...