Rolls-Royce Phantom

// £85,000–£160,000

A sense of complete superiority Looks have aged well, tech not so much

“You can drive a Phantom hard, but you just wouldn’t,” says Christof Cowens, of high-end used dealer Vintage & Prestige Classic Cars. Meaning: a secondhand Phantom is hardly likely to have sufered the abuse routinely meted out to turbo hot hatches.

To ride in a Phantom is to be borne along in isolation from the rude cares of the world outside. To own one is the same. It’s a very reliable and trustworthy machine.

The aluminium body is pretty much corrosion-proof, the engine an unstressed n/a BMW V12, the transmission the stalwart ZF and the electrical architecture standard BMW stuf. So an expert will often fnd you good-value BMW-boxed mechanical and electrical parts.

A car that’s been maintained ofcially can qualify for Provenance, R-R’s approved used scheme. Worth it, as it includes two years’ warranty and servicing.

Owning a Phantom is perhaps the sign that you’ve arrived in life. But you still need to know where you’re going. Cowens says the main “fault” isn’t a matter of reliability but an intrinsic issue: “The early cars have a 2003 satnav and it’s just very poor.” The minor upgrade in 2009 did little to help. So he recommends the post-’12 series II cars, which got infotainment actually designed in this century, along with adaptive LED headlamps in the facelifted front end and an eight-speed autobox.

One we found...

2009 Standard wheelbase with 51,000 miles for £110k. Pre-facelift but still in the Provenance scheme: two years’ warranty and servicing included.