Proper transportation for the American Express Centurion Black card-carrying elite
By Thom Blackett
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August 9, 2006
Overview
Rolls-Royce Phantom – Driving Impressions: In the realm of automotive performance, more than one thespian has scribed these words: Porsche, there is no substitute. After a few hundred miles behind the wheel of a 2006 Phantom, we'd like to propose a similar distinction for the
luxury sedan market: Rolls-Royce, there is no more obvious sign of wealth. During the same week that the Rolls resided under our care, our lot played host to a
Bentley Arnage and a striking
new Mercedes-Benz S-Class, neither of which elicited more than a passing glance in money-saturated Orange County, Calif. Ah, but the Rolls, that was a different story. All along the 405 freeway, in and around the local office parks, and while hitting local spots for photography, everyone tweaked the vertebrae to get a good look at the Phantom, an odd name for a 5,577-lb. collection of steel, aluminum, and enough leather to shoe the NBA for a decade. The Phantom's presence and allure is undeniable, though its value at $350,000 is questionable. Yes, the looky-loos will stare from afar until dust comes from their eye sockets, but buyers may be disappointed and surprised to learn that features such as a rear entertainment system and rear seat adjustment controls are optional, and that no amount of money will buy a bigger trunk.
Motivation for the 5,577-lb.
2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom comes from an aluminum 6.75-liter, 48-valve, 60-degree V12 with direct fuel injection and variable valve timing. Engine output is rated at 453 horsepower at 5,350 rpm and 531 lb.-ft. of torque at 3,500 rpm, all directed to the rear wheels through a six-speed automatic transmission. Michelin Pax run-flat tires are standard, with Goodyear Eagle tires measuring 255/50R21 front and 285/45R21 rear optional. Behind either set of rubber is a suspension system comprised of front double wishbones and a multi-link, self-leveling setup bolted to the rear; anti-sway bars are standard. With a top speed electronically limited to 130 mph and sprints to 60 mph requiring only 5.7 seconds, the Phantom takes full advantage of its four-wheel-disc antilock brake system, using large vented discs and benefiting from dynamic brake control as well as traction and stability control systems. The whole luxurious package – consisting of aluminum, composite, and steel body panels – is situated on an aluminum space frame and is directed by a variably-assisted, speed-sensitive rack-and-pinion steering assembly with a barge-like 45.3-foot turning radius. Mileage is EPA rated at 12 mpg city, 19 mpg highway; we recorded 9.4 mpg during a couple hundred miles of mixed driving around our offices in southern California.
Dismal fuel economy probably isn't much of a concern for buyers considering a vehicle that starts at $332,750, including a $3,000 gas guzzler tax and $1,000 for destination charges. In exchange for that enormous amount of loot the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom delivers coach-style power-closing rear doors, leather and genuine wood on nearly all interior surfaces, front and rear parking sensors, front heated bucket seats with memory and fold-out trays on the seatbacks, heated rear seats, Bluetooth connectivity, BMW's central iDrive controller, a GPS navigation system that also picks up local television programming, a multi-zone climate control system, and front side airbags. A power sunroof, power trunk lid, and illuminated mirrors, all optional features when the Phantom made its debut in 2004, were moved to the standard features list for the 2005 model year. Also included free of charge, so to speak, is a 420-watt sound system with dual subwoofers, a six-disc CD changer, and satellite radio; Rolls-Royce umbrellas integrated into each of the rear doors; and a hood ornament that can be set to retract whenever the vehicle is turned off (sorry, thieves).
That's the basic Phantom, which was not to be confused with the car Rolls-Royce loaned to us for testing. Our Silver Sand 2006 Phantom, with its Mocassin interior, carried with it a suggested retail price of $346,650. Here's a breakdown of what that extra $13,900 bought: a veneered instrument panel ($1,100); veneered steering wheel spokes ($600); veneered backs on the rear fold-out trays ($1,800); the Rolls-Royce logo stitched into all headrests ($600); front and rear cameras for the parking systems ($3,300); 21-inch alloy wheels with Goodyear Eagle tires ($3,000); a crossbanded elm cluster veneer ($2,200); and something labeled a “bespoke option" ($1,300). Not tacked onto our car was an optional rear bucket seat option with a DVD player, screens located in the back of the front headrests, a lower center console, power rear and side sunshades, and power rear seats. And not available at all on the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom are seemingly common features like cooled rear seats, rear footrests, or a host of outlets and accommodations for the laptop-carrying, business-conducting, chauffeured executive.
PerformanceWhen the topic is performance, few enthusiasts probably find themselves mentioning the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom. Luxurious? Hell, yeah. But a performance machine? Well, yeah, it's that too. Despite its 5,577-lb. curb weight, Rolls officials claim a 0-60 mph acceleration time of only 5.7 seconds.
That's within the realm of belief after a few miles behind the Phantom's large, thin-rimmed steering wheel. The V12 engine unloads gobs of power, but tapping into it requires a bit of patience and finesse. Dump the throttle and there's a slight delay before 453 horses and 531 lb.-ft. of torque kick in, after which point the Phantom moves out with unrelenting authority; ironically, gradually depressing the accelerator begets a more immediate response. Once up to speed, sprints from 80 to 100 mph are accomplished with incredible ease. Mated to the 6.75-liter V12 is possibly the smoothest six-speed transmission in existence.
HandlingSimilar to the throttle action, all aspects of the Rolls-Royce Phantom's handling feels delayed. The speed-sensitive, variable-rate rack-and-pinion steering system is nicely weighted, but there's little road feel and sudden inputs are addressed when the Phantom is good and ready. As expected of a $350,000 luxury barge, the ride is as smooth as glass over all but the roughest pavement, and not surprisingly, the car's composure deteriorates in direct response to each mph or degree added in a corner. Push the Phantom like only a drunk chauffer would dare and discover an understeering, plowing front end and limited grip from the massive Goodyear Eagle tires.
VisibilityAside from a select number of exotic supercars, a Rolls-Royce Phantom may be the most conspicuous automotive expression of wealth. This vehicle is about being seen
in, with the notion of seeing
out a distant afterthought. From the driver's perspective, outward visibility is, to put it politely, limited. The small rear window is hampered by a sloping roof line and oversized rear headrests, the side mirrors are too small to provide a sufficient view of one's surroundings, and the rear pillars are as thick as the owner's wallet. It would seem that the mentality was to make the Phantom so big and intimidating that other drivers would give way whenever this ship changed course.
Fun to Drive Corvettes are fun to drive. Jeep Wranglers are fun to drive. Winding out a
Toyota Yaris can even be slightly entertaining. And as much as we hate to say it about a 453-horsepower rear-drive ride costing more than our staff earns collectively, the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom is not fun to drive. The ride is soft, the handling lazy, and the brakes delayed. Plus the damn thing dwarfs nearly everything else on the road.
Now, if we were talking
fun to be driven in the Phantom would get two thumbs up. Passengers are treated to a posh interior with more room than a studio apartment, oblivious to the driver's attempts to stave off boredom.
Front ComfortCall us crazy, but as a Rolls-Royce, and one priced so high, comfort should be a given, and not just the front buckets or rear bench – even sitting on the hood should feel good on the ol' derriere. We'll have to leave that last bit a mystery since returning the Phantom with cheek dents in the aluminum bonnet was absent from the game plan, but we can attest to the inviting nature of the large, firm front chairs. They feature an electronic bolstering system that adjusts pressure depending on the car's motion, helping to keep the driver firmly planted and supported in even gentle corners. Overall room is generous, and the hospitality factor is aided by padded armrests on the doors and between the seats, a power tilt and telescoping steering wheel, and a leather-wrapped steering wheel that feels unusually thin in this era of thickly-padded sport wheels. Wood sills look upscale, yet do no favors for a resting forearm. Entering and exiting is accomplished with ease, though the doors are heavy – thankfully the Phantom features a soft closing system that assists with shutting the doors.
Rear Comfort Rear seat comfort is one of the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom's many strengths. The bench is soft, immensely spacious, and features a natural backrest position. There's enough leg room for your lankiest passengers, though head room, while adequate, might be tight for taller individuals, especially given the lack of any power adjustments. The front seatbacks are soft except for fold-out wood trays that, along with door armrests, are out of reach and thus rendered useless for shorter individuals. A large fold-down center armrest is a nice touch, but it has no storage or controls, requiring passengers to angle for a grab at the vent controls on the back of the front center console or reach for the cupholders near the floor. Oversized rear headrests are appreciated, but they don't fold away or retract to improve visibility when not in use. Finally, a button on the rear pillar automatically closes the rear clamshell doors, though that does nothing to lessen the wide step one must take to reach the recessed bench seat.
Interior Noise There may be no better vehicle for the noise-averse road traveler than the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom. With double-pane windows and copious amounts of sound deadening technology and material, this baby is q-u-i-e-t. Wind noise? Nary a whisper, and the beast of an engine is muted even under full throttle. Even those 21-inch tires do all of their talking outside.
Loading Cargo Despite its grand size, the Phantom's trunk is actually smaller than you might expect because of a rear seat that's placed so far back in the cabin and a cargo area design that limits side cubbies. However, there is a deep storage well available under the left side of the trunk floor. The Rolls-Royce Phantom offers a comfortable liftover height accented by a chrome sill plate and leading to a fully-lined cargo area, including the power deck lid. A few chrome tie downs are provided, as is a grab handle, though there is no pass-through and folding seats are expectedly absent.
Build Quality Perfection should be the word of the day here, and for the most part that's the case. Yet, spend an inordinate amount of time perusing the details of the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom and one will notice a few faults worth noting, if only because a $350,000 vehicle should remain faultless under even the most stringent inspection. The driver's dash vent built noticeable condensation after the air conditioning had been used for awhile – that's not a big problem unless, as is the case with the Phantom, the surrounding material is real wood that really doesn't need to be exposed to moisture. Also of note, from the driver's perspective the grille sits higher than the hood and looks misaligned. Outside, the gaps were wider than expected yet consistent, except for the space around the trunk lid which was off by just a bit.
Materials QualityAs befitting a Rolls-Royce the materials used to construct the Phantom are beyond reproach. Covering the seats, doors, pillars, and nearly every other surface is top-notch leather, with beautifully polished light wood filling in the gaps on the dash, doors, and elsewhere. Whereas interior trim in lesser automobiles often appears fake, there's no question that the Phantom's wood paneling is gen-u-ine. Chrome accents the steel rotating vents, interior door handles, and exposed lower seat brackets while dimpled leather has been stitched to the armrests and center console. Overhead is a soft woven headliner that outclasses what you'll find in any other production car, and the deep-pile floor mats had more than one staffer contemplating a quick nap in the back of the Rolls sans shoes.
StylingWhen 21-inch wheels look appropriate, you know you're dealing with a huge car. Likewise, the rest of the Phantom is equally mammoth. The massive chrome grille gives the car tremendous presence, stylish chrome accents set off the long carved hood, and soft contours accent the upper lower flanks. With all its largeness, the Phantom's headlights and taillights appear disproportionately small. Inside, the Rolls-Royce Phantom offers an upscale blend of light wood, rich leather, and handsome chrome accents.
StorageLarge as it may be, the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom offers only adequate interior storage. Up front are storage cubbies on each door, dual gloveboxes, a slide-out slot on the center dash appropriate for cash or parking cards, two cupholders a bit out of reach below the center panel, and a center armrest with space lessened by the placement of a cell phone holder.
Rear seat storage space is also lacking. Again, storage cubbies are built into the doors, yet besides seatback pockets that can be hard to reach when sitting in the recessed seat, there are few other areas designed to hold gear. The center armrest is padded yet is devoid of cupholders, storage, and any controls, and as is the case up front, two cupholders are curiously placed at floor level.
Infotainment ControlsDriving a Rolls-Royce is an enlightening experience. Without it, you might think that every possible automotive innovation, every bit of current and cutting-edge technology, every available feature has been packaged into one of the market's most expensive production vehicles. And then you drive it and discover that iDrive in a Rolls is just as bad as iDrive in a BMW 3 Series, causing difficulty performing the most basic commands, like finding a basic road map. The system has been simplified, but it's still a lot more challenging than it needs to or should be. That same navigation screen can pick up local television stations in the Phantom, but only when the car is stopped and then the picture cuts out often and never gets better than fuzzy. Plus, the 6.5-inch screen is all but invisible to rear seat passengers, who only get viewable screens and rear sound controls when the rear bucket seat option is selected. In a $350,000 ride that's just lame. But, hey, at least the steering wheel audio controls are standard fare and there are few basic radio buttons located on the dash, albeit without any clear indication about what they do.
Climate ControlsClimate controls employed within the 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom are only marginally better than the entertainment controls. The basic temperature and fan speed dials are present, but many buttons are recessed so deeply that you have to contort your body to get the proper angle to read what they're for. Now that's luxurious sophistication. Rear seat passengers, at least the shorter ones like one of our editors, have to scoot up on the seat to reach the vent controls on the rear of the front console. If there's a silver lining, it has to be the separate dials up front that allow different temperatures to be set for the upper and lower vents.
Secondary ControlsThe 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom is a product of BMW, the same company that introduced the world to iDrive. Hence, finding an interior suffering from a bit of overengineering was not a total shocker. For instance, the front seat controls, awkwardly located in the center armrest, feature one button to select which section of the seat to adjust, and then another toggle to actually do the adjusting. Somewhere, that apparently made more sense than the less complicated systems used in other vehicles (and with fewer buttons). But at least the front seats offer standard power adjustments – the rear seats only move when the optional bucket seat option is selected.
Otherwise, secondary controls are straight forward with door lock and power mirror buttons on the door switch panel, headlights on the left side of the dash, and steering wheel stalks for wipers, cruise control, and turn signals.
SpecificationsTest Vehicle: 2006 Rolls-Royce Phantom
Price of Test Vehicle: $346,650 (including a $1,000 destination charge and a $3,000 gas guzzler tax)
Engine Size and Type: 6.75-liter V12
Engine Horsepower: 453 at 5,350 rpm
Engine Torque: 531 lb.-ft. at 3,500 rpm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Curb weight, lbs.: 5,577
EPA Fuel Economy (city/highway): 12/19 mpg
Observed Fuel Economy: 9.4 mpg
Length: 229.7 inches
Width: 78.3 inches
Wheelbase: 140.6 inches
Height: 64.3 inches
Leg room (front/rear): 40.5/37.3 inches
Head room (front/rear): 40.2/38.5 inches
Max. Seating Capacity: Five
Max. Cargo Volume: 16.2 cubic feet
Competitors: Maybach 57
2nd Opinions
Rolls-Royce Phantom – Christian Wardlaw's Opinion:
A Rolls-Royce Phantom is for riding in, not driving. It's just too big, too complicated, and attracts too much attention to use as personal transport. If your gig is driving the privileged class about town, however, the Phantom is a great place to call the office, decked out in opulent leather, glowing wood, gleaming chrome, rich carpets, and lush seating fit for royalty. Grasp the thin-rimmed, large diameter steering wheel and step on the gas. The Phantom lifts off the line with grace, gathering speed in a deceptively rapid fashion if you keep your foot in it. The view over the long hood is just like that of my dad's old 1979 Lincoln Mark V – just replace the Linc's rectangular star hood ornament with that chrome-dipped Flying Lady, which drops into the radiator shell with the press of a button. Old-school ideals of class ooze from this car. From the upright radiator shell and formal roofline to the slabs of polished wood trim and incandescent interior lighting, the Rolls-Royce Phantom represents the best in retro-mod styling for the super luxury sedan class. The car is big enough to dwarf the commoners, too, even on roads littered with SUVs, serving to make those sequestered on the rear bench feel even more self-important. After all, when it comes to this Rolls, the passenger is clearly the focus, not the driver.
Rolls-Royce Phantom – Ron Perry's Opinion:
There are those that drive and those that are driven. The Rolls-Royce Phantom is aimed at the latter, but after spending a weekend behind the wheel I think I may have to rethink my career path – the life of a chauffer doesn't seem so bad.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom is huge. Forget parking one in your standard two-car garage. The Phantom's magnitude is apparent on the road as well, and Rolls-Royce has accommodated for it. Can't see over the hood and around the cars parked on the street to see oncoming traffic? There are cameras for that, both front and rear. You also sit high in the leather seats for better visibility. Aside from its size, the Rolls-Royce Phantom is actually a pleasure to drive. It rolls on beautiful 21-inch rims that could easily be mistaken for 24s and the ride can only be described as cruising on a cushion of air. The styling and character lines of the Phantom would be most at home in the courtyard of a mid-century castle. It exudes class and distinction whether rolling down the road or sitting stately at the curb.
Inside, the theme continues. Magnificent hides and wood cover the interior, which is accented by chrome knobs and switches. The interior is expansive and filled with neat little features like a button that makes the flying lady disappear into the grille to thwart thieves, automatic door closers for back seat passengers, a navigation and television screen that flips into the dash to reveal a jeweled clock, and climate controls that allow you to set a different temperature for your feet and upper body. The only big downfalls of the Rolls-Royce Phantom are the iDrive system that BMW has installed and the lack of luxury items found in much less expensive cars like reclining rear seats, front and rear back massagers, and cooled seats to keep everyone fresh and crisp.
If I ever hit the lottery jackpot I would most likely buy a Phantom, minus the driver of course, because I enjoyed driving it too much to share.
Photos by Ron Perry
