Thursday 19th December 2013

Rolls-Royce Phantom: You Know You Want To

Monkey has been a good boy this year, and would very much like a Phantom from Santa

---

A used Rolls Phantom - that's what I'd like for Christmas.

Still looks great ten years from launch

Just because the BMW Rolls has always been a car completely removed from normal life doesn't make its German resurrection any less impressive. 10 years ago it was fighting both Maybach and Bentley, now having killed the former and rather dominated the latter in the £200K-plus category, it seems to own the market.

I still think those early Phantoms look quite superb today. Just as it did with Mini, BMW's design team brilliantly reimagined the Rolls shape for this century - and for sheer road presence the Phantom has no equal. It takes real stature to leave an S-Class looking like a C200.

They hold their value well these V12 wafters. The basement asking price seems to be in the 80s, which must suggest trade prices in the late 60s. Mileages can be very high, and I have no idea as to their mechanical robustness, but given that they really are built like nothing else on sale, one has to assume they're pretty tough.

Could you see Harris in this seat?

The big questions surrounding potential Phantom ownership surely lurk around colour (two-tone, definitely not white?) whether one should be able to see into the rear cabin (clear glass always preferable) and, most importantly, should one drive it, or be driven in it?

This last point is vexatious for a small, perma-tanned male like myself because it is hard to deny that most other road users would assume that despite owning a Phantom, I was driving it for someone else. 

So I would need to be chauffeured in my Phantom, which is a real shame because they are quite lovely things to drive. 

Here's a nice black one. 

---

ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM
Price: £123,990
Why you should: A sensibly specced Phantom at a sensiblish price
Why you shouldn't: A driver would probably be needed also

See the advert here

 

[irfan1712]

Id drive mine if i had one, just like Simon Cowell

One of my fave cars of all time..hard to think of a car that has more road presence today!

[thatdude]

I'd drive it while wearing a big day-glo coat and put some paint tins on the back seats.

[f328nvl]

Why don't adverts for Rolls Royce always feature pics of the back seats?

[gck303]

>>> I have no idea as to their mechanical robustness, but given that they really are built like nothing else on sale, one has to assume they're pretty tough.

This, to me, sounds like a very dangerous assumption. I get the impression that Bentleys can be ruinous to keep on the road.

Okay, I know the line 'if you need to ask the price, then you can;t afford it'. However, it does not stop it being a valid and interesting question.

[converted lurker]

I would certainly have one of these in my post lottery win garage. They seem to have magically possess the ability to be awesomely ostentatious without the vulgarity and hostility one might normally associate with such an object.

I would use mine for the schools run primarily. I suspect you could get as many ankle biters in there as you can the Galaxy..


Also what excellent residuals - not that expensive a car to own really.

[CampDavid]

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/r...



Gets around the problem of having a driver and thus saves you money in the long term

Can you afford not to?

[CAPP0]

f328nvl said:

Why don't adverts for Rolls Royce always feature pics of the back seats?

If you have to ask this, then I'm sorry, this is not the car for you….

[rohrl]

thatdude said:

I'd drive it while wearing a big day-glo coat and put some paint tins on the back seats.

A roof rack with ladders and bucket would look good.

One of my neighbours is a hospital consultant and drives himself in a blue Phantom. You wouldn't look like a chauffeur unless you wore a peaked cap.

[deltashad]

Would be quite spectacular picking up little miss deltashad from school in one of these beauties.

Even if it was half the prices and bearly affordable my genitalia isnt large enough to take the gamble into Rolls Royce ownership

How big are yours?

[Krikkit]

Must admit I do like the Phantom - in non-Rapper spec they are a pretty elegant and impressive thing to behold.

Wasn't it Nick Mason who drives his around the Nurburgring?

[Gorbyrev]

Bet that would make a stunning tow car!

[Twoshoe]

I like the way the advert needs to mention it's got electric windows - gosh, who'd have thought it?!

[BeirutTaxi]

Cue E65_Ross et al from the barge thread arriving to dribble over this.

[GTIR]

My customer has a drop head one. Utterly gorgeous.
The doors are hydraulic.

He bought a new Ghost fixed head "for the winter".

[mrclav]

CampDavid said:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/r...



Gets around the problem of having a driver and thus saves you money in the long term

Can you afford not to?

Now that is naughty. I WILL own a 'new' Rolls at some point (probably a Ghost though).

Edited by mrclav on Thursday 19th December 10:50

[F-Stop Junkie]

Krikkit said:

Wasn't it Nick Mason who drives his around the Nurburgring?

He did for a newspaper piece, to see if he could do lap in under the time it took to play a Pink Floyd track. I can't remember the track, but he couldn't...

[ode]

Anyone else think the dashboard looks hideous? What a mess.

[F-Stop Junkie]

gck303 said:

>>> I have no idea as to their mechanical robustness, but given that they really are built like nothing else on sale, one has to assume they're pretty tough.

This, to me, sounds like a very dangerous assumption. I get the impression that Bentleys can be ruinous to keep on the road.

Okay, I know the line 'if you need to ask the price, then you can;t afford it'. However, it does not stop it being a valid and interesting question.

There's a lot of metal in there, but no active aero or cutting edge tech to fail. Everything is just the same as you'd find on any other car, but bigger. For example the car has two batteries, so no matter how much TV you watch or champagne you keep chilled, the engine will always start. To keep these topped up and the car running, two water cooled alternators, because it would be awfully inconvienient if Sir's alternator were to fail and the car was stranded...

To be honest, and maybe when my numbers come up, I'd love to get a modern RR, and do London to Beijing in it. Be fascinating to see if you could and how the car would hold up.

[PistonBroker]

converted lurker said:

I would use mine for the schools run primarily.

There's a chap does the run to Taunton School in a black and silver drophead. As Monkey says, they are rather imposing. It's quite something to see this chap threading it through the parked cars during morning rush hour on Bindon Road!

[athol]

Utterly fabulous. Would love one.