CHECK OUT CARS & BIDS
This is a brand new rolls-royce wraith it is the most beautiful rolls-royce built in decades and it’s also tremendously expensive with all the options one of these can easily crest 350 thousand dollars so today i’ve borrowed this wraith from a viewer here in the philadelphia area to show you what you get when you spend that kind of money if you don’t know the
Wraith it’s essentially the two-door coupe version of the rolls-royce ghost sedan the entry-level model that slots below the 400 000 plus rolls-royce phantom while the ghost starts around 300 000 the wraith’s base price is 320 and options go from there the wraith seats 4 and it’s powered by a 624 horsepower 6 liter twin turbo v12 a slightly more powerful version
Of the top engine in the bmw 7 series since bmw owns rolls-royce so that’s a general overview of the wraith but it doesn’t even come close to covering the coolest parts which is all of the wraith’s insane luxury equipment and features and cool little details today i’m going to give you a tour of all those things and then i’m going to take the wraith out on the
Road to show you what it’s like to drive a 350 thousand dollar brand new rolls royce but i’ll start with those corks and specifically before i even get inside this thing the key fob i wish you could feel this key fob it feels like it weighs about a pound i’m not exaggerating and it has on it four buttons there’s one with a triangle one with a square one with
A little alarm in case you’re trying to figure out which rolls royce is yours in the parking lot and then the last one has on it the spirit of ecstasy it gets crazier from here for example it turns out that spirit of ecstasy button on the key fob locks the doors but when you press it it also does something else that’s right when you lock the doors the spirit of
Ecstasy retracts into the hood so it doesn’t get stolen when you unlock the doors that would be the little triangle button the spirit of ecstasy comes back out into the sunlight but back to getting inside i take my one pound key fob i unlock the doors and you’ll notice that the door handle isn’t back there it’s over here why is that that’s because the door is
Rear hinged allowing you to simply glide gracefully into your rolls royce and i’m not done with the door stuff yet i say that because once you have glided gracefully into your rolls-royce the door is so far away do you ask your butler to close it for you no you press a little button located here and the door closes automatically now the really interesting thing
About this whole door button situation is you got to hold it down or you can just kind of decide where you want the door to stop with little pushes of the button that’s kind of weird but it isn’t the coolest part the coolest part is over here you see from the driver’s seat you can not only shut the driver’s door but you can also shut the passenger door which has
To be about the coolest party trick i could imagine except possibly for the umbrella yes that’s right the umbrella you see hidden inside here in a nice little heated pouch so it stays warm and dry is the umbrella to get it out when the door is open push a little button and then it pops right out and you can just push it up and immediately when you get out of your
Rolls royce you are shielded from the rain and you can just walk away now we’re still not inside the car but i swear we will get there eventually right now let’s talk about two of the cool buttons right here on the door panel number one is the window switches they’re like window toggle switches this finely crafted little button that you push to roll down the window
Maybe even more interesting is the mirror control take a look at that in your car you can move it left right up down and this thing it’s a joystick so you can finely place the mirror perfectly exactly where you wish it to be all right finally inside the car let’s talk for a second about the headlight switch there’s no stupid little button you turn or whatever this
Is a real old-school rocker switch and it is heavy this is how you know you’re in a rolls-royce and that isn’t the only notable switch or button inside this car there are many many more for example the climate control let’s say you want to change the speed of the climate control air well there’s not a little knob you turn with dots that get larger in some sort of
Cryptic fashion instead this thing has a little knob that simply states in words the airspeed soft medium high maximum that’s rolls royce also you see this beautiful giant wood panel on the dashboard well it hides the infotainment system which is borrowed from bmw and in order to get to it you have two options number one you can press unlabeled silver button just
Push it and the wood retracts and you have your infotainment system or you have another option to access the infotainment system with the other option just adjust any of the infotainment buttons in the center console like for example the giant center control that’s completely unlabeled except for the spirit of ecstasy another button situation i absolutely love in
This car is the heated and cooled seats which have their own devoted panel in the center control stack with individual lights for driver heated passenger heated driver ventilated passenger ventilated 12 individual lights to let you know exactly what level you have your heated and cooled seats on the best part you can have the heated seat on at the same time as
The cooled seat of course like everything there are drawbacks in life the drawback to this is that the ventilated seats are optional and they cost 2 650 extra dollars another interesting bit in the center of the car the two wood panels finished with silver touches that hide some interesting items open the lower wood panel and you’ll find his and hers ashtrays
Of course you need that open the upper panel and you’ll find two cup holders of course you expect that but you’ll also find a little home where you can store the key while you’re driving another interesting control now earlier i mentioned that when you lock the doors the spirit of ecstasy automatically retracts on the hood when you unlock them it automatically
Pops back up but that’s not the only way that you can control how the spirit of ecstasy goes up and down in fact there’s actually a function in the infotainment system menu settings entitled spirit of ecstasy you go navigate to it and you can raise or lower the spirited ecstasy at your whim now that isn’t the craziest part the craziest part is say you’re driving
Into a rough area like where people have bmws instead of rolls-royce and you want to lower the spirit of ecstasy more quickly than navigating through the function well all you have to do is press the number eight that’s the shortcut for the spirit of ecstasy menu and from there you can easily raise or lower it without having to go through all those menus that are
Difficult in case your spirit of ecstasy is in grave danger speaking of the infotainment system another cool easter egg in there when you go to vehicle info it doesn’t just pop up a generic picture of a car instead it’s the rolls royce grill with you guessed it the spirit of ecstasy now once you get into that vehicle info area of the infotainment system you have a
Bunch of options but my personal favorite is called search by picture instead of the old school way of looking something up alphabetically you can just point to where it is on the car and the car will explain what it does oh and one last really cool infotainment system feature the infotainment system in this car actually features animated depictions of all of this
Car’s functions in buttons and systems my personal favorite is the one for dynamic stability control which shows an image of a rolls-royce fishtailing around a corner that is of course with dynamic stability control off during cornering without dsc and without adjusting your speed the vehicle will tend to slide no one will ever watch any of these things but they
Put it in there anyway just in case just in case someone was gonna make a video about it now let’s talk about the gauge cluster which is really cool not only do you have three finely crafted old-school traditional gauges that look beautiful but you also have a multi-color gauge cluster screen it’s a cool combination of the old and the new maybe more interesting
Is the fact that this car doesn’t have an rpm gauge like most vehicles instead it has a power reserve gauge that goes the opposite way that tells you how much power you have left in reserve that’s the stately way to do it now despite the fact that this is a coupe with a v12 with 624 horsepower don’t go thinking this is some sort of performance car it wafts and
Glides down the street as i will show you there is one way to add a little sport to it although that’s kind of a dirty word with rolls-royce on the transmission lever there is a button marked low which for some reason tightens up the gear changes and makes the car a little quicker but that’s the only sport you’ll find in this thing but all the luxury of the wraith
Isn’t limited to the front seat there’s also the back seat small though it may be now getting to it is kind of interesting you pull on what has to be the most opulent feeling luxurious rear seat pulling thing in the world then you press this little button to move the seat forward and then you can climb right in and there are a couple of interesting things in the
Rear seat of this car number one is the fact that there are separate climate controls for the rear seat passengers even though nobody’s ever really going to get back here there’s also separate cup holders and separate ashtrays and in a throwback to all the rolls-royce sedans of yore there’s even a little mirror on the rear pillar so you can look at yourself such
Small luxury touches are all over the wraith like the gorgeous clock on the dashboard that says wraith and includes the rolls-royce logo the suspension height adjuster button includes an image of a car and not just any car but little wraiths same story with the trunk closer button there’s an image of the wraith with its trunk open push it and the trunk closes so
You don’t have to bother it’s also hard to discuss this car and not mention its profile it’s tear drop rear end shape that gradually tapers off has been a little controversial i think it’s beautiful and i also like its gorgeous five spoke 21 inch wheels but the style of the wheels isn’t even the coolest thing about them the coolest thing about them is the center
Caps now in your car the center caps with the manufacturer logo they turn along with the rest of the wheels you drive down the street but in this car the wheel centers are weighted so as you drive down the street the little rr logo in the middle of the wheels is always pointing the proper direction that way onlookers always know that you are in a rolls-royce another
Awesome tech feature of this car is the side view camera system now the hood in this car is very long so it’s kind of difficult when you come to a red light to make it right on red to see exactly what’s coming fortunately there’s a remedy for that you just push the little camera button next to the steering wheel and the two side view cameras turn on greatly increasing
Your vision that way you don’t have to inch forward like some plebeian so those are all the amazing features of the wraith but the experience doesn’t stop there right now i’m going to get this thing out on the road and find out what it’s like to drive a brand new 350 000 rolls royce and of course for more of my thoughts on the entire rafe experience click the link
Below for my column on autotrader.com oversteer the feel of simply the steering wheel it’s just like so vague and nice and pillowy all right here we go that’s a nice car too that little riding lawn tractor oh yeah i should mention i just got out of a diablo which you’ve already seen that video and i’m now in this and oh i mean i enjoyed the diablo but i’m enjoying
This also in a completely different way oh it just feels so nice this is just so nice yeah the thing i love about roses uh is just that they don’t care to engineer the car for any bit of you know all these companies now want a car that’s both sporty and relaxing and luxurious and it’s practical and it’s a sports car and it’s all this stuff and rolls-royce is like
No no no we’re going to focus on one thing and they do that one thing masterfully god i mean just getting started it just sort of moves off the line it just sort of glides it doesn’t it doesn’t you know there’s nothing harsh at all about this car nothing you’re so insulated in this car you’re just unbelievably insulated i don’t have to deal with and there’s a
Crv i don’t i don’t want him in my life and you don’t have to right like that’s the thing about this car it just glides and it wafts and it actually you know the thing i’ve come to realize about rolls royces is they don’t body roll like you’d think i think i think most people think that a rolls royce is a body roll kind of car that like you go around a corner and
It wafts like a boat like an old 70s lincoln yeah but that’s not really true it’s pretty composed actually it’s just incredibly relaxing oh this car is just so nice there is no car i would rather get in after like a long day of work you look out over that spirit of ecstasy which i have raised now at the moment i under i might have decided and you just you how can
You possibly have a care in the world the thing is that guy’s driving a camry when you’re driving a camera versus when you’re driving this when you’re driving this your worries are about like the asian bond market you know that guy’s worried about like his dishwasher is really leaking a little bit you know you’re in such a different world than everybody else and
Partially because you’re driving a 350 000 car but also you’re just insulated from having to think about these things people buy this car because in the rest of their life they’re insulated and they want an automotive experience that matches that we’re at the stop light there is no way to know that this car is running right now zero way you i’m not exaggerating
When i say you can’t hear the engine it’s not like oh you can slightly hit the engine you can not hear the engine at all if i trump the turn signal it’s a bmw signal there’s no way to cancel it if i drop the turn signal the only sound i hear is the ventilated seats which is nice the only thing i can hear is that then when it’s in the air conditioning the things
That are making me more comfortable yeah i guess i haven’t i’ve forgotten to floor the accelerator you really don’t think about stuff you’re not thinking like oh i want to see it let’s see and let it rip you’re not thinking about the stuff when you’re driving this car you’re just thinking oh it’s so relaxing you don’t the idea of flooring it and getting a crazy
Acceleration time simply never enters your mind i mean the owner tells me that he often finds himself driving five or ten miles an hour under the speed limit because it just doesn’t matter how fast you’re wafting and uh he makes the point that sometimes you you rather just stay in the car longer rather than get to where you’re going it’s actually kind of funny
You know i’ve driven every luxury car driven the s class and everything and they’re all really nice but uh you just it’s almost unbelievable the level of difference you you just hear more you feel more it’s not like you hear a lot or feel a lot in those cars and owners of this car are the kind of people who have experienced those cars and they say i want that
Next that next little bit and i’m willing to pay because the incremental changes at this point are like incremental changes in top speed on supercars you have to pay a lot more for every additional little bit and the people who buy this car are doing that so now you’ve seen all the cool features of the wraith and i’ve told you what it’s like to pilot a 350
000 luxury car down the street you may not think a car any car is worth 350 thousand dollars and that’s fair but the people who buy this will be scoffing at you and your opinion as they drive along wafting in their luxury cocoon and now it’s time for the doug score we start with the weekend categories that measure appeal to enthusiasts and specifically styling
I love how the wraith looks but i’m trying to be objective here and its design has been controversial some don’t like the teardrop shape it earns a six out of ten for acceleration the wraith does 0-16 an impressive 4.3 seconds which earns it a 7 out of 10. as for handling the wraith is relatively secure and certainly above an average car but it’s big weight in
204 inch length and sure it isn’t too precise around corners so it gets a 6 out of 10. the cool factor is undeniable certainly not on par with the most head-turning stuff but not far below it earns an 8 out of 10. the final weekend category is importance or significance the wraith is certainly cool but in the grand scheme of things i don’t think we’re going to
Look back on this as a defining car still it’s more significant than a regular car so it earns a 6 out of 10. that brings its weekend score to 33 out of 50 placing it exactly where you’d expect behind the true sports cars like the porsche 911 turbo and the audi r8 next up are the daily categories starting with features i debated back and forth on this one as the
Wraith has basically everything all the stuff i mentioned plus modern safety gadgets like lean keep assist and radar cruise control but it doesn’t have anything truly innovative like tesla autopilot and that keeps it from a perfect 10. still it earns a really strong 9 out of 10 which is a hard score to get the next category however is luxury and here there’s no
Question at all the wraith is the most luxurious car i’ve ever driven and it gets a perfect 10 out of 10. the first one i’m yet to give out next up is quality which measures reliability and materials materials are excellent but reliability is a question mark based on what i know about older roles models i wouldn’t want to own one of these out of warranty still it
Gets a strong 8 out of 10. as for practicality the wraith’s trunk is 16.6 cubic feet and that’s normally good for a 5 but the wraith’s truly terrible fuel economy of around 14 miles per gallon and its tiny back seats knock that number down to a 4 out of 10. finally we get to value this is an amazing car and a truly incredible place to spend time but 350 thousand
Dollars is just crazy money for one of these especially since they’re known to depreciate heavily and quickly it’s certainly worth it to some people but objectively this car’s value isn’t above average or even average it earns a 4 out of 10. nonetheless that brings its total daily score to 35 out of 50 well above anything else i’ve tested and with good reason this
Would be an amazing place to spend your days add the weekend and daily scores together and the total dug score is 68 giving the wraith the new highest doug score just edging out the first generation audi r8 it deserves it it’s stylish and cool good enough for weekend duty and quite possibly one of the best daily drivers on the market assuming you can afford it
Transcribed from video
Here's a Tour of a $350,000 Rolls-Royce Wraith By Doug DeMuro