The Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe Is an Ultra-Luxury Convertible

This is a 2013 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe drop-down and I mean, just look at it, this is a car designed to remind you that no matter how successful you think you are, no matter how well you think your life is going, there are people out there. there whose lives are so much better today for a while I'm going to be one of those people that I borrowed this 2013 Phantom Drophead Coupe from CNC Motors here in Southern California which is like the exotic car dealership in this area they have An endless inventory of awesome, crazy, awesome exotic cars. You can see some of their inventory by clicking on the links below.

It's really magnificent. Now CNC sent me a note and said, "Hey, you can pick some cars to review." for a long time and then I decided I wanted something where I could look down on peasants, so I chose this. Here's a little history. The Rolls-Royce Phantom of this generation came out for the 2004 model year and was originally just a sedan. the

convertible

version came out for the 2008 model year and Rolls Royce referred to it as the Phantom Drophead Coupe, interestingly more on that in a minute. Rolls Royce recently redesigned the Phantom with an all-new model, but the new Phantom

convertible

isn't available yet, so for now this is the most opulent

luxury

convertible you can buy.

As for the details, this car uses a 6.75-liter V12 with 450 horsepower and about 530 pound-feet of torque when this car was new five years ago. The base price for a Phantom Drophead Coupe started at $470,000. The sticker price on this one with options was just over half a million dollars. Today, five years later, CNC has this one listed for around $270k, which means it's half the price, but. Just because it's an incredible bargain compared to what it originally cost doesn't mean it's any less amazing than it was in 2013. So today I'm going to show you all that awesomeness and show you the mini. quirks and features of the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drop Head Coop, then I'll take it out on the road and drive it and then I'll give it an excellent rating and for more of my thoughts on the Drophead

coupe

, click.

Click the link below to visit autotrader.com oversteer, where I have also put together a list of the cheapest used Rolls-Royce models currently for sale on AutoTrader. Now I'm going to start the discussion on the Behemoth size of the Phantom flip heads like this. here is a Mercedes-Benz C-Class which is a normal rational car that a normal person could buy and next to it is the Phantom and you can see how much more massive the Phantom is, especially in terms of height, the belt line is The Phantom is so much taller that it almost looks like an SUV compared to the C-Class.

It's absolutely huge. The Phantom, you know, is a big car, but you don't really know how big it is until you see it in context next to a normal vehicle on the road, but it's not just the high beltline and overall height of this car that sets it apart. What makes it such an imposing vehicle on the road is also the length. Excuse me while I walk to the back of this car's Phantom Drop Head. It measures 221 inches long or approximately 5.6 meters by all metric measurements, put another way, it is two feet longer than a Range Rover.

Now 220 inches may not seem that long, it's the length of a full size truck or a little longer than a Chevy. Suburban but then you remember this car has two doors it's two feet longer than a Range Rover for a two door car it's just ridiculous now on the subject of this car's massive presence I want to talk about the wheels now I make a point to Never review cars with aftermarket wheels. I think the factory wheels contribute to the overall factory appearance of all the cars I review except this one. This car is so massive and has so much presence that I think the 24-inch aftermarket wheels are perfect.

It fits the character of this car and yes that's what these 24 are, why would you have anything less on your Phantom drop head? Next, move on to other features of the Phantom flip-up head. One of my favorites is the hood, this particular car has these. stainless steel option, so you have the hood finished in this beautiful stainless steel. The same goes for the front grille and, unusually, the A-pillar in the area around the windscreen. It's all this beautiful brushed stainless steel. Some people don't like the way they look. This, but I personally believe this, I think sets this car apart a lot from normal

luxury

cars that have plain paint on the hood.

Then moving on to the headlights, there is nothing particularly peculiar about the headlights, although they are split in half like the normal ones. headlights, the other is the high beams, perhaps the most interesting thing about the headlights is that stamped on the headlight cover it says RR, the Rolls-Royce logo, something you would never notice unless you notice it and then we move on to the doors , now there are a couple of interesting elements about the doors, one is simply the way you open them with this beautiful silver handle that also fits into this decorative piece on the side of the car, but as you can see, this handle is on the back front of the door. which is quite strange and that brings us to our Quirk related to the door next door, which is that they are rear hinged, so you open them like this and then you just walk into your Phantom flip head much easier than a normal door , but now there is a problem.

The door is very far away and that is why it is difficult to close it. Fortunately, Rolls-Royce makes it easy. There is a button you press next to the A-pillar to the left of the steering wheel. You press it and then the door closes automatically. Get in your Phantom drop head, you don't have to worry about plebeian tasks like closing your own door and by the way, that door trick not only works on the driver's side of the car, your passenger gets out and is simply too rich to close his own door, no problem, there is a second door button in the same place, the first one presses it and the passenger door closes too.

We then move on to the trunk of the Phantom Drop Head Koopa before doing so. I want to talk about the key. I like this key because it is strange and cryptic. It has three main buttons. The one above is an arrow that points up and opens the doors. The middle button is the RR Rolls-Royce logo that closes the doors and then. The third and final button is just a square that opens the trunk. You have to know the code to be able to discover this key. More interesting than the key is the trunk, so I press the square button on the keychain and the trunk opens. and it's kind of weird, only this part opens up here, everything else down here stays in place, which is kind of weird.

Until you realize it's a split trunk, you press a little button on the top of this part of the trunk and then this. The lower part like a split tailgate on a Range Rover. I have never seen another car with a split boot, it is certainly not a modern car but this vehicle does have it and as you can see the bottom of the tailgate when folded is fully carpeted so it could be a good spot To sit back and enjoy a picnic now, the trunk of the Phantom Drop Head Coupe is a great place to illustrate how much better this vehicle is than your car.

There are several excellent examples and I'm going to start with the interior trunk release now in your car you have an emergency release inside the trunk in case you try to kidnap someone they can pull a little lever and get out it's usually this little latch cheap plastic and it's nothing in this car, it's plastic but it has a rim. in Chrome because even the emergency lock inside the trunk must have this aluminum coating around it to look beautiful in the next step of your car. You may have a warning triangle if it breaks down in a first aid kit, and in your car it's probably hidden in a compartment somewhere. that's labeled with a little sticker, not on this car, but on this car, it's in a compartment that has a piece of leather and the symbols of the first aid kit and the warning triangle are embroidered with this beautiful stitching because even the sign that shows where Those things have to be of the highest quality, so anyway you're going to open the little compartment where the warnings are that are tested in the first aid kit, of course, it's carpeted and the little bow that strips to open it are made of leather and are sewn.

Open it up and you'll be greeted by a couple of other items that are better than in your car, for example the first aid kit is not in a shitty little plastic bag, but in this beautiful cloth bag that is once again embroidered with the RR. logo in the words first aid kit, you also have a tool kit back here with a couple of pretty cool tools, there's a key that says Rolls-Royce so you know you have a legit Rolls-Royce key, not that shit. Now, if you get into a normal car, another interesting item in the trunk is the other side of the first aid kit and tool kit area.

You can see that there is another storage compartment. Open this and you will discover an additional storage space that you can place. stuff in there if you have stuff you want to hide and keep out of the way of your regular trunk storage. Next, I move under the hood. You can see the famous 6.75 liter V12 in this car. It is a very beautiful engine with Rolls-Royce printed on it. above both banks of cylinders is great, but my favorite item under the hood is not the engine itself, but the little label that lets you know which oil to buy.

Many cars now put a small label under the hood that tells you which oil they recommend. Usually it's a small sticker that you can peel off, but not on this car. It is a metal plate and is held in place with four rivets. Even the little sticker on this car that Castrol recommends is more luxurious and exclusive than on a normal car now. Next I want to move inside the Phantom folding head, but before I do that there are a couple of interesting elements I want to cover on the door, one of which is the umbrella.

Now when you open the door this way and get out, there is a little spot on the front fender where there is a hidden umbrella, you press a little silver button and they hand you the umbrella. They're in storage right now, but you get the idea, you press the button, you grab the umbrella and then you can just immediately cover yourself from the rain the moment you get out of your Phantom so you don't have to look for your umbrella, but that's not my thing favorite on the door panel. My favorite thing on the door panel is this little one. piece on the back of the armrest that says RR what is this exactly good you take it out and it turns out that it is an ashtray for the rear passengers the rear passengers have a small lighter in the armrest and their ashtray is integrated into the door and when they want to go to put out your cigarette in the back seats, you just take this little silver piece out of the armrest of the front door, you do that and then you can put it back in place and cover it, obviously there's one on top too. on the passenger side door so both rear passengers can have access to an ashtray, then move on to the inside of the Phantom Drop Head Coop as I start by showing you that it can store everything, this is what I mean by that.

At this point you can see the controls for the infotainment system, the ashtray and the infotainment screen itself displayed in place, but none of those things have to be displayed if you don't want to see the annoying infotainment controls, you can just press them . the center console and they're gone, you don't want to see the ashtray, push it towards the center console and it's gone, and my personal favorite, the infotainment screen, if you don't want the screen to clutter your dashboard, press this little button. to the right of the steering wheel and then the screen folds down and is replaced by an analog clock like the old school pre-screen world that most Phantom owners probably lived in, but in addition to being able to fold things up and hide them .

Take it out and out of sight, this car also gives you the opportunity to reveal many things that at first glance are hidden, for example the power seat controls are some of the strangest I have seen in any car, they are not small. buttons on the side of the seat, instead you press this little silver button on the lid of the center console, it opens and you can see there are some kind of power controls on the seat and to adjust the seats, it's very strange , you press the area of ​​the seat that If you want to adjust it, it lights up red and then you move the seat using this little silver joystick on the front, what this basically means is that you can't just adjust the seat when you get in and the seat is too forward.

Simply press the button and move it back, instead you have to open the center console, highlight the area you want to press and then move the small joystick to move the seat. It's very strange, even stranger is the fact that the seat controlsheated seats are fixed in place on the side of the center console, meaning it's easier to simply press the button to turn on the heated seat than it is to move the view, which requires much more effort. An interesting element with the seat controls is the headrest, you can see the The headrest is this beautiful single post headrest with the RR logo embroidered to move the headrest, highlight the back of the seat and then move the joystick up or down and you can see the headrest moves up or down correspondingly what you do and it looks really cool when it does now talking about opening things to reveal hidden things if you're looking before you noticed there are two silver buttons on the center console the Rear silver button opens the center console itself which is a storage area but also has a USB port and a few other things but that's mainly what it is for now.

Another interesting hidden element in this car is the glove box which is hidden in many cars but in this one it is especially unusual partly because opening the glove box is strange, there is not just a latch that you pull, but you press this little silver lock on the left of the glove box and it opens up and when the glove box is open you will find that there are some hidden controls in there that you wouldn't have known about otherwise, for example you have the control that raises and lowers the spirit of ecstasy which is the hood ornament of this car at the front if you press the little down arrow next to it.

For the spirit of ecstasy, it will go down to the grill so that no one can steal the coveted Rolls-Royce hood ornament. When you want to pick it up again, just press the little arrow to the left, go up and the spirit of ecstasy will reveal itself again. Automatically, another hidden item in this vehicle is the other glove box, as I mentioned there is a small silver lock that opens the glove box wide, to the left of which is another silver circle with no label. You press that and it opens the bottom glove. It's worth noting that the lower glove box doesn't actually have that much storage space, it's actually there as the place where they put the six disc CD changer, you can go in there and fit your CDs and another cool interior item where there's something hidden.

It can be revealed that there is a small black panel in the middle. You push it in and then it slowly reveals the plastic lid surrounded by a chrome trim. When you remove the lid, you'll find a small carpeted storage area. I'm not sure what I would put it in there, but it's a little hidden piece, I guess, for your phone or something else that you don't want other people to access. Now, speaking of hidden items, it's worth noting that the button in the middle of the entire board is not labeled. It's simply a silver circle, so what exactly does that do?

It's simple, it's just the volume control, if you turn it and if you press it, it turns the stereo on or off. Now, right above the volume control, it's one of my favorite features on this car. and those would be the eight little preset switches. Now the presets aren't that unusual, you can preprogram them for radio controls or to perform other functions in the vehicle, but what I like most about them is the fact that you do have the infotainment screen on. and you just run your hand over the presets, you don't touch them, you just slide your hand over them, the infotainment screen detects that maybe you're feeling the presets and it opens automatically so you can know what exactly each preset does again.

You don't even have to touch the preset to make this happen, you just have to run your hands over it, the screen will reveal itself so you can then see what your presets do next in terms of interesting controls in this vehicle, you have the controls . on the top of the windshield next to the mirror, how about the fact that there are two separate buttons to turn on the dome lights? If you press the silver button the dome lights turn on very gradually if you press the black button in the middle it turns on instantly. So you can choose how quickly you want the dome lights to come on in your Phantom.

Now, another interesting element on this car is the shifter that comes out of the steering column like an old Chevy truck. Obviously it's a lot better than you push it down to dry, you push it up to reverse in neutral in the middle and to access Park you push the end of the lever towards the steering column and then you're in Park talking about strange decisions in the steering wheel area, it's worth it. Note that the horn is not in the center of the steering wheel like in most other cars, but you can sound the horn by pressing these little black spokes at the top right and top left.

Another strange thing up here is in the gauge cluster that you can see. It has a speedometer, a fuel gauge, it also has a tachometer, but it is not a tachometer, but a power reserve meter. It doesn't show how fast the engine is spinning, but rather how much power you have in reserve when you hit the bottom. it goes down to zero as you're using full power and when you're just cruising it's always close to 100 until you actually step on it, another unusual thing that only Rolls Royces have these weird climate controls that are so weird adjusting the temperature is the most strange, they are these strange sliders that you can slide from blue to red depending on whether you want cold or hot, all the others have gone to numbered temperatures, but Rolls Royce still lives in the days of a blue and red, they seem unusual to us too the dials you can use to adjust the fan speed.

It's not that unusual to see dials to adjust the fan speed, but the strange thing about this car is that they are wrapped in leather, even the fan speed adjustment dials are inside. This car is wrapped in leather for the ultimate in luxury. Now next we move on to the rear seats in the Phantom Drop Head Coupe and to access the rear seats, it's really cool that you press this little silver button here on the side of the front. seat and then you pull this little silver latch that pulls the front seat forward; There is absolutely no plastic involved in this process, but you still climb into the back and you'll find that there's a reasonably spacious space back here, although not as much as you could.

That's to be expected considering the enormous size of this car, but once you get back here you discover a couple of interesting quirks and features. An interesting quirk of the back seat is that there is a grab handle for the seat located right here, I suppose, so that when you are getting in or out, you can just pull on it, get up and get out easily, another interesting Quirk here under the handle under the rear cigarette lighter that I showed you before, interestingly there is a rear storage compartment. Here, it's actually quite big. I can't imagine most people will find this, but it's here for all the things rear passengers want to store.

Another interesting element in the back seat is the fact that even the rear passengers have their own climate zones. You can see the little red and blue slider, just like you have it in the front, the rear passengers can adjust the desired temperature, although very few people will probably be in the back seat of this car, and then there's the center armrest. It's not that unusual to have a center armrest in the back seat, but I love the fact that in this car, when you start to lower the center armrest, there's a hole left that isn't filled with leather, so in this car they kind of have de It's like an auxiliary piece of leather that goes in and closes that hole when the center armrest is down so that nothing has to be exposed by the leather in this beautiful leather interior.

Another interesting element in the seats if we look at the headrests. You can see that they have very nice printed RR as do the front seats, but there is also something else printed on the top of the headrest. You can see it says rollover protection system. This system has an explosive charge inside the headrest. designed to explode when the car detects a rollover and these huge anti-roll bars protrude that will prevent the car from crushing the occupants in the rear. Convertibles should have this system and this car has it and they are just built in. there, ready and waiting to spring into action should this car roll over, but neither of those items are my favorite feature about the back seats.

My favorite feature is the fact that even though this car is wide open, the roof goes down, all the windows are wide open. aerial experience, if I want, I can do this. Yes, that's right, the rear passengers have their own individual window so I don't have to talk to you and now, with all those minor details out of the way, it's time to move on to the What you were waiting for and that would be the foreign roof now that I have proven the fact that this car is indeed a convertible. I want to talk about another strange peculiarity of this vehicle which would be its name Rolls Royce.

This vehicle is officially referred to as the Phantom Drophead Coupe even though it is actually a convertible and not a

coupe

and to make things even stranger there was actually a Phantom Coupe with a fixed metal roof and then there is the Folding coupe that has a soft top. My theory here is that Rolls-Royce feels that the top, when in place, is isolated enough to make this car a coupe in traditional parlance, you drive and you don't hear anything, it's like a coupe, but in In Rolls-Royce terminology, folding head means convertible. So this car gives you the best of both worlds: coupe insulation but drop head convertible and technically it is a drop head coupe but it is a convertible and those are the mini quirks and features of the Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe convertible 2013, now is the time.

To take it out on the road and see how well it handles when driving the Phantom Drophead Coupe Convertible, the first thing you notice when you get into this vehicle is the incredible quietness and ease with which everything is. I mean, the steering is very light and you don't have to do anything and you just feel refreshed just getting into this car while accelerating, you hear basically nothing, you don't hear any wind noise, just minimal engine noise, there's no exhaust, It's big, you have the feeling that it's big. or behind the E38 7 Series and you feel like you're in an SUV looking at it, but it's so quiet.

I mean, we're passing construction equipment here, they may be working, they may not. I have no idea anyway, it's going pretty well. I wouldn't necessarily call it slow, but it's obviously not rushed when you step on it. Clearly the acceleration experience is clearly tempered by the transmission, which intends to provide the smoothest possible experience and succeeds, but the downside is of course that it doesn't exactly have quick shifts, it's just lazy, soft shifts. , there's no urgency in the power, you can floor it and go and whatever, but it's not meant to be a fast car. The people who own these have 10 other cars and they have a ton of fast cars, the whole point of this car is that you just want something to relax and have a comfortable experience, but mostly you are so isolated that you are incredibly isolated from anything that happens in the world around you.

The world of others is drowned out, it feels as quiet and as far away as is intended, and they achieve it so well in doing it, and the impressive thing is that they achieve it so well, even with a soft top, many times, you know, that adds For some, the cure a little more, it's not so quiet, well not in this car, it's as isolated as a ghost sedan that I put in now because this one has these spare tires that are narrower tires, I can imagine the trip. the quality is not that good, you can hear a little noise from the tires.

I suspect the stock wheels with wider sidewalls and such would be even more comfortable and insulated, it's hard not to feel like you're a good king of the world when you're driving this thing looking over this enormously long hood and then at the end you have the spirit of ecstasy that you've learned your whole life is like the ultimate symbol of luxurious opulence and the funny thing is that people pass you and whatever and you just don't care about any of it matters when you're driving this car you just don't care about any of it because you just don't have to, you're already king of the world you don't have to go fast to prove your point you don't have to change lanes you don't have to be the first anywhere it doesn't matter when you're in this car the thought of like oh, I should. be the first at this traffic light oh I have to change lanes those thoughts no longer apply when you are in this vehicle and that is the Rolls-Royce Phantom Coop with folding head, yes the new Rolls-Royce Dawn is technically a convertible more expensive, but The Dawn is based on the level Rolls-Royce Ghostessential.

The Phantom is the flagship of the model line and do you really want to drive it? A basic Rolls-Royce, of course not, you want it and you want to drive it. look around and look down on all the commoners who drove past you in their shitty little Bentleys and Mercedes and now it's time to give this car a score Doug starting with the weekend categories and the drop coupe styling is OK, it's not beautiful, but it's very distinctive and interesting and gets a six out of 10. Acceleration from 0 to 60 is 5.7 seconds, so it gets a 4 out of 10.

Handling is okay, sure, nothing fantastic and it gets a five out of 10. the fun factor is good, it's a lot of fun to drive this and play the role of someone who is better than everyone else, although i suspect it would be even more fun if you actually had the mansion in the watch collection to back it up, it still gets a six out of 10. cool factor is strong, they're cool and special and it gets a 7 out of 10 for a total weekend score of 28 out of 50. As for categories and daily features, it's loaded with great technology for the next generation Phantom, but much of it is just that last generation and gets only a 7 out of 10.

The comfort is incredible and easily gets a 10 out of 10. The quality is decent, but it's starting to look A little dated inside and who knows what it's like to maintain and own. when it gets an 8 out of 10. the practicality is fine, it has a large interior, a decent boot and four seats and it gets a four out of 10. finally it rates, it's a bargain compared to the original price, but it's still hugely expensive and has It's a long way from falling and earns a 5 out of 10 for a total daily score of 34 out of 50. Add it all up and Doug's score is 62 out of 100 and that's how it compares to other high-end luxury cars.

I've tried it, it falls behind most of them largely because they're newer and a little better here and there, but even though it's five years old, the Phantom Drophead Coupe still has the luxury chops to compete with the best foreigners.