Rolls-Royce: Ghost whisperer

Rolls-Royce Ghost. Photo / Supplied

As you might know, Rolls-Royces can do amazing things. This one, the Ghost, built an entire showroom. Last week, the doors opened on New Zealand's first official Rolls-Royce Motor Cars distributorship in Auckland.

It's something Bob McMillan, of Team McMillan BMW, has been wanting for nearly a decade. But he got the green light from the factory only in late-2010, as the marque looked to expand on the back of rapidly increasing sales - largely courtesy of its new entry-level model, the Ghost.

Ironically, a showroom is required but not necessarily the place where most Rolls-Royces will be sold. "Personal contact is important," says McMillan.

"We don't expect to sit back and wait for clients to come to us. We'll invite people to come and experience the car over a three or four-day period. That's what will sell it."

That's the offer that came to me, and notwithstanding the small matter of $550,000 - hardly a figure you'd associate with "entry-level", but still $225,000 less than the Phantom - I embarked on a week with a Ghost.

Daunting? Surprisingly, no. It's still a large car, at nearly 5.5m in length, but there's such a feeling of goodwill among people towards any Rolls-Royce that I never felt nervous about driving it.

Perhaps it's because it was clear to everybody that this car could not possibly be mine, but it was an object of admiration and fascination to everybody I encountered. You don't get that very often with a luxury car.

The Ghost didn't feel as familiar as I had rather cynically expected. It's based on the underpinnings of the BMW 7-series - it's the first Rolls to platform-share - and like the Phantom it's powered by a BMW-sourced 6.6-litre twin-turbo V12 engine with an eight-speed automatic transmission.

However, the only bit of BMW I could see or touch was the iDrive screen, which has been renamed Control Centre Display for the Ghost. The rest is bespoke, hand-built and, well - very, very nice. Wood, leather, lambswool.

You're not really supposed to smoke the tyres in a Rolls-Royce. Although you're more likely to in a Ghost than any other, which might be why its V12 engine is in exactly the same state of tune (420kW/780Nm) as the flagship Phantom. That makes the smaller, lighter Ghost the faster car. It can hit 100km/h in 4.9 seconds. That's serious performance.

The ride is firm but not intrusive and the car is capable of proceeding down the road in utter silence, which is what you expect of a Rolls-Royce.

Don't expect gadgets that will wow you, because that's not what this car is about. But you can have absolutely any colour you like and choose from a huge line of trim options: anything from special seat piping ($5000) to leather headlining ($12,000) to stainless steel pinstripes ($11,000). That's what a Rolls-Royce is all about.

However, it also stands to reason that anything you can have on a top-line 7-series, you can have in a Ghost. Driver assistance systems such as lane departure warning and active cruise control, or the likes of a rear-seat theatre system are readily available - although they are still extra-cost.

Does the Ghost represent value? It's a hand-built car and that's a hard question for us non-millionaires to answer. Rolls-Royce tells us its clients typically have several other cars, so it's not a case of making a buying choice between one vehicle or another. That goes as much for the Ghost as the exotic Phantom.

The appeal of the new model is not necessarily that it's a cheaper Rolls-Royce, but that it's a smaller, more useable one.

However, McMillan acknowledges he has already taken clients out of Mercedes-Benz's and Bentleys. BMWs too, presumably, even if he wouldn't like to say so: "But the real rival for a Rolls-Royce is a beach house or yacht," he explains.

Well, I wouldn't really know about that. But I do know a week in the Rolls-Royce Ghost was one of the memorable and enjoyable motoring experiences of the year. Probably one of the most memorable experiences full-stop. Recommended.