Editorial: Why A Rolls-Royce?

It’s a surprisingly common question, though you’d have to be pretty privileged to be able to ask it. Indeed, when I find myself behind the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class (an opportunity I must admit is afforded to me only because of my bloody awesome job), I too sometimes ask what the point is of spending so. much. more. money. in order to have the Spirit of Ecstasy guide my way.

I have owned an (older) S-Class and, once again thanks to my job, I’ve found myself behind the wheel of several Rolls-Royces in the past. For fairness I will talk about the smaller, ‘more accessible’ Rolls-Royce Ghost which so many like to point out is actually a BMW 7-Series beneath, as that would be the closest comparison to the superlative Mercedes-Benz S-Class, Audi A8, Jaguar XJ, and indeed the big 7er.

Yes, any of the aforementioned big limousines are excellent at separating you from the outside world. You are surrounded by double-glazed glass, fastidiously-polished veneer, and leather so soft it makes you wonder what skincare routine they subject these German (or sometimes English) cows to. You are often bombarded with the very latest technology that the industry can offer like AI-powered driver-assistance technology, the highest-fidelity audio systems, and more digital screens than your living room. They live up to their function as the pinnacle of the range, the culmination of whatever their respective parent companies can manage.

But, in a Rolls-Royce… 

A Rolls-Royce isn’t so much the best that Goodwood can manage, but it represents the very best that the entire motoring industry has managed up to that point, and it’s all tuned only to soothe, to relax, to isolate. While the ’S’ in ’S-Class’ may very well stand for ‘Superior’ (it doesn’t but let’s glaze over that quickly), a Rolls-Royce doesn’t need to remind you of its superiority. Where everything else must inform the masses of its opulence and grandeur, a Rolls-Royce simply is. It doesn’t even tap you on the shoulder to make way for its greatness – you make way for it just because you know, intrinsically, that you should.

Driving a Rolls-Royce Ghost, the ‘approachable’ Rolls-Royce I should mention, makes you feel immediately that you have arrived. Even when you’ve just borrowed one from your friend who really should leave his chequebook out when you come round, the Rolls-Royce lends you the stiff upper lip you need to pull it off convincingly. Instead of seeing a cabin festooned with buttons and technology like you would in a BMW 7-Series, you just get an analogue clock, acres of what used to be trees, and you’re sat on what used to be one of perhaps eight bulls have given their lives for your comfort. 

Hang on, I hear you saying. Did you say bulls rather than cows? Doesn’t leather come from cows?

Yes they do, my keenly observant friend. But Rolls-Royce doesn’t use hide from cows because cows get pregnant, and since we have not yet turned the page where it’s not okay to body shame livestock, pregnancy causes stretchmarks, which are not acceptable to adorn the passenger compartment of a Rolls-Royce. So they use bull hide because bulls, well, you get the picture.

This is the world a Rolls-Royce, any Rolls-Royce, presents to you. They don’t need you to know that they skin bulls, not cows, to appoint your cabin because all they need you to do is appreciate how soft, supple, and flawless the leather is. They don’t need you to know that a small clearing has been made in a sustainable, renewable forest in order to ensure the tops of your doors and the face of your dash feature the colour, texture, and grain that befits a product that rolls out of Goodwood. All you need to know is that, when you have left your office where you head some multinational multi-billion Ringgit business, you can find refuge in the rear of your Rolls-Royce where between the bustle of work and the adventures of home, you can gather your thoughts and prepare yourself for what lies ahead in absolute, perhaps even extreme comfort.

So the next time you find yourself asking, from the seat of your S-Class or 7-Series or XJ or A8 why anyone in their right mind would spend more money on anything but, I hope you find my answer satisfactory.

If you must ask, then a Rolls-Royce is not for you. It’s something you understand not in your head, but in your heart, in your veins. Venture into a Bentley perhaps if you have far too much money burning a hole in your pocket but a Rolls-Royce, is not for you.