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.
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
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