Here's What a $300,000 Rolls-Royce Was Like... in 1996

This is a

1996

Rolls-Royce Silver Spur when it was new 21 years ago. It had an original price of around $180,000, which is equivalent to about $280,000 in today's money. 21 years later, it's now worth about the same as a Welle-equipped Honda Accord. I borrowed this Silver Spur from my friend David, who runs a dealership

here

in the Philadelphia suburbs called Automobil Limited. I'm going to show you all of this, but first a little context, now that we all know the Rolls-Royce Phantom, which is Mondo's most opulent and extravagant Rolls-Royce, the expensive Rolls-Royce, on sale today long before the Phantom, t

here

was the silver sarra and before that, this is essentially the Phantom from 20 years ago.

This was the most opulent and extravagant luxury car of

1996

, so David mainly deals in late model used cars, like the new M Three, Porsche and Five series, but he got this and called me and said, Doug, you have to come see this and who am I to turn down the '90s Rolls-Royce Phantom. Today I'm going to show you all of this and show you

what

it was like when you bought a $300,000 luxury car in 1996 and then I'm going to take it out on the street. road so we can find out. how the driving experience has held up over time and of course for more of my thoughts on the entire Silver Spur experience click the link below to check out my call on autotrader.com oversteer now we'll start when Open the door to this and you quickly discover that the entire interior has so much wood it might as well be a forest, of course there is wood in the door panels and wood throughout the dash and wood throughout the center console, but is there any Have you ever seen wood on the sun visor mirror cover?

Once you get used to the wood, you look around the interior and start to notice an incredible number of switches and buttons for every possible function you can imagine, for example in this small area of wood in the center there are two unlabeled switches, the one here controls. the light right above your head, push it, it turns on, push it again, it goes off. The switch on the right. Why does that control the light on the passenger side? Two separate switches just to turn on a couple of ceiling lights, of course, how could you do that? otherwise, now talking about unlabeled buttons in the center, look here under the center console lid, you will notice two silver buttons that are not labeled.

Turns out those buttons control the mirrors. Push this and you can adjust the driver's mirror. adjust the passenger mirror yes that's right there are two separate buttons to control the two separate mirrors. Next up on our tour of interesting Rolls-Royce buttons from the '90s, check out this little button on the side of the steering wheel that lets you automatically adjust the steering column now. This is quite common in luxury cars today, but in '96 no one had this. If you drove by adjusting the steering column with a button, you must have felt like you were better than everyone else and you may have been next.

We come to my favorite. button of all of them, that would be the button in the center surrounded by wood that simply features the Rolls-Royce logo, press it and the ashtray appears classy. Then we come to perhaps the most interesting button on the entire car, which would be the oil button. Level Button: It's just a simple button between the hazard light switch and the fuel door release mechanism, but if you press it while the car is on for a second or two while pressing it, the fuel gauge It will temporarily show the car engine oil level.

It's an interesting idea and the theory behind it of course is that as a Rolls-Royce owner you don't want to get your hands dirty by going under the bonnet and trying to measure the oil level manually. A button will do another interesting thing I noticed. about this car is the speed at which the power windows and power seats work, it's really strange on most old luxury cars, the windows barely creak, look at this thing, those things aren't breaking anytime soon , they like bullets, speaking of electronics, here's a The strange thing is that the transmission lever is completely electronic, so you can move it randomly when the car is off without it actually changing gear.

Now on the front you may have noticed that the interior carpet was covered in plastic instead of the floor mats, that's because the floor mats are back here so they can be kept and they're back here because they cost around two grand dollars and they are made of lambs wool and look how thick and rich these mats are, oh it's so nice to see these things and you just want to take off your shoes and dig right now into the front where of course you will find the glove box which contains two One of my favorite things about the car number one, let's talk about the sound system, say you just bought your Rolls-Royce and want to see

what

the sound system is like at its best.

Rolls-Royce has thought about that. Here's the Rolls-Royce demo CD that came with this car 21 years ago so you can listen to it. sound system, but let's say you're the kind of owner who hasn't gotten into CDs yet - after all, it's 1996. Well, Rolls-Royce thought of you too because here's the demo cassette tape of the Rolls-Royce sound system. What is my other favorite thing? find in the glove compartment why that would be the owner's manual of course, complete with Rolls-Royce and Bentley Lo, because the two brands shared ownership at the time this car was built. Now, this owner's manual, as you can imagine, is full of some gems and I can't get to all of them but I will read to you my favorite part is titled Training School and it goes like this the training school offers a course for drivers of Rolls-Royce automobiles and Bentley the course covers the mechanical, electrical and body features of the car, with particular attention to the Daily SL's weekly checks and fitting procedures.

Advanced driving techniques are also included in the course. There's also an address of the training school and a phone number, in other words, if you thought your driver alone wasn't enough, you could say hey, why don't you get out the owner's manual? You turn to page 1-6 maybe you should think about spending some time at the school of instruction, so why is there that information about the school of instruction? in the owner's manual because a lot of people were actually chauffeured in these cars and when you sit in the back seat it's easy to see why you would want to do that, for example, it's very clear that there's a lot of room back here, but something is missing ah Yes, my footrest is located in the seat pocket in front of me.

I take it out, put it on the floor and now I have a place to put my feet H, so you relax in the back seat, but maybe you decide that. If you want to work well, Rolls-Royce has thought of that too. There is a small tray table that can be removed from the back of the front seat. It's made of wood, of course, it's surprisingly sturdy, and when the car is on it, the trading table is even illuminated. you can see what you're doing, they really thought of everything, but who cares about footrests and trays?

Say you're late for an important meeting where you have to look good, they've thought of that too. I've installed mirrors back here so you can look at yourself and located right next to the mirror is a small unlabeled switch that controls guess what dome light so you can look at yourself even better. Now, one last ultra-opulent rear feature I'd like. To mention, in the center armrest, you lower the center armrest which is full of leather and open the small console box of the armrest and you discover a cell phone holder, right there was a cell phone holder in the back. this car, so you could basically sit here with the footrest down and the tray ready, looking at yourself in the little mirror and talking on the phone.

I bet you would have felt very important doing all those things in 1996, going abroad. One of the first things you notice when you try to enter is how heavy the doors are. This is what I mean. I'm going to try closing the door on my Land Rover, also a 1990s British vehicle, with a light push pretty easily, but when you try to use that same light push to close the heavy doors on this thing, even a harder push won't work. it will work like basketball with this door that now moves towards the trunk. Li, you have one of my favorite features of this car to be able to access the keyhole to get into the trunk, you had to lift the Rolls-Royce badge to reveal the keyhole, that's not so crazy actually , quite a few 90's cars had what a lot of 90's cars didn't have was a little magnet mounted under the little flip thing so it would stay down while you were driving down the road now this thing is pretty heavy it probably would have stayed down on everyone Anyways they didn't need to put the magnet there, but they did, that's attention to detail, another of my favorite things on this car is inside the fuel door, to open it you press a little button inside the car and it opens.

Now this car uses unleaded fuel, obviously, but apparently that wasn't so obvious in 1996 because After opening the fuel door, you also have to push aside a small cutout that says unleaded fuel only before you can get to the gas cap. Another interesting piece of attention to detail now on your car, you probably have a VIN plate on your door stuck on this thing I don't even know what this is those are those Lions there's a flower pedal the Rolls-Royce logo is silver that's it which they bought from you for $300,000 in 1996 also interesting on the outside of this car you turn this car turns on and the antenna goes off which was true on a lot of cars from the 1990s that's not my favorite thing of the whole antenna situation, however, oh no, my favorite antenna element comes from the endless glovebox of hilarity.

Now I must mention when Automobile Limited acquired this car. It was a one owner, someone bought this thing in '96 and had it for 21 years, meaning it had all the original stuff, including the glove box. You already know what this is. This is Hershman Auto Car Antenna Cleaner, no dirty fingers. cleaning your antenna they gave you this when you bought a Rolls-Royce so that when the antenna was on you could go back there and clean it with this antenna cleaner which is now 20 years old and 1 year another thing they gave you when you bought a Rolls-Royce is this strange letter holder shaped like a Rolls-Royce Grill, but wait, there's more.

Pull this out and you'll get a cool pen with the Rolls-Royce Spirit of Ecstasy on top. Well, now you have a pretty clear idea of ​​the features. and the Silver Spur's creature comforts and features, but first how it drives well, let's first talk about what's under the hood. Below here is a 6.75L V8 that Rolls-Royce used with various modifications over the years. The interesting thing about this engine is Rolls. -Royce never published a horsepower figure, but in all of his marketing materials he simply said enough. The general feeling is that the engine made around 300 horsepower, maybe a little more, perhaps more interesting is the fact that the transmission was just a General Motors. four-speed automatic used in several other GM vehicles, not a crazy beast, talked about an expensive Rolls-Royce transmission with that in mind, it's time to take it out on the road.

What makes this car so attractive even when you just walk in is This car comes from an era where defining a luxury car was about workmanship, craftsmanship and quality of materials, in modern times technology is what makes a luxury car, but when this was new, just the stitching on the leather and the quality and the wood grain, that's how people define the silence of the vehicle, the ride, that's how people defines a luxury car, they didn't care if it had the latest Gizmo and gadgets, it wasn't as important as it is. now it's boy it's so incredibly smooth the ride just slides over everything else the other crazy thing you feel when you drive this car is just the sweep the hood is so long and then you turn the hood and the hood ornament just travel through your vision.

Oh, this car, it's so quiet and so smooth. When you push it all the way, you hear the engine, but it doesn't feel overdriven like it would in a modern car and they certainly haven't tried injecting. any exhaust note it's like you know it oh a little more engine a little more engine it's amazing when the car is stopped you can't hear anything I rolled up the window I can't hear anything rice

rolls

used to say the only sound you could hear When the car was running, the clock moved forward and in this car, that's so true that you can't hear a thing at all.

I can whisper and you can still hear me now. I'm doing I have a right-on-red situation here at some kind of closed intersection and I'm afraid to turn because the hood is so long.I'm not sure everything is okay, here we go, now all the cars have turned. I can do it. It's so funny floating and sliding down the road it's amazing when going over a bump sometimes it takes a couple of bumps to even it out but the benefit is when you go over something you just don't feel it you just don't feel it I can't believe how smooth how smooth this car is and how quiet it is, oh I'm 40 now, it's very quiet, this is a 20 year old car, it's not like it's something new and they've added all these new high quality technologies. soundproofing measures this car is 20 years old here is a bridge with a 3 ton weight limit I don't feel any sense of rush or urgency in this car my worries disappear until something breaks uh it is so you can sit here ah this car is Just incredibly smooth and quiet.

I know I keep repeating this. I'm impressed. I drive a lot of cars. I drive a lot of luxury cars. The problem is that in today's world and most of the cars I drive, people want at least something resembling sporty, but Rolls-Royce simply forgot that we are not even going to offer the slightest bit of performance, exhaust or handling. . This car is designed specifically for driven drivers and people. that they just want an experience that they don't want to hear from the 99% when they drive this car, okay that's the driving experience, but it's not the whole Silver Spur experience, you see the Silver Spur was the long wheel. version based on the regular Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and was really designed to be chauffeur driven, so I asked David, the owner of the El Limited car, and the owner of this car, for a little help.

This is the right life, the seats are so nice back here. I can't forget the interior condition of the car. He is so cute. You know, it's a testament to what used to be handmade vehicles and what's out there now because you know everything is mass produced, a lot of things are handmade. It still has many mass-produced qualities. It's amazing how much space I have back here. I can, if I want to lie down, you can. I can just lie down, so that's like that's the experience I want to have when I'm. sitting on rice

rolls

, you know, of course, yeah, wow, this thing makes rice, it drives pretty well, right, the seats aren't supportive, but it doesn't even matter, they're so big, any direction you go, you're just you.

You're still in the seat. I love how thin the steering wheel is, so it's not even like you said they didn't even try to make this car anything remotely like a sports car, it's like this huge mass of very expensive craftsmanship materials, right? I just have to get you down the road looking amazing, how's that going? But they didn't even try to make that aerodynamic, they're just out there, right? It is fun. I love the rear doors on the outside, I think anyway because of the long wheelbase yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's obnoxiously long, they're not even trying to say, hey, um, this is a normal four-door car, um, the aroma is there, that's right, everything is aging with the right smell.

Yes, and it's not like that musty smell you get in a car that's been stored and never driven properly. This is like a real British Heights thing. God, it's so nice to be back here. It just feels. I'm really, really enjoying this. I have driven a few of these, this is by far the nicest one I have come across. It has to be because the maintenance history is incredible, yes, and it is wonderful. Mark, there you go, the 1996 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur. Imagine buying this car with the equivalent of $300,000 20 years ago. Imagine having it for 20 years and then finding out you could trade it in for a 2 year old Dodge Durango.

It's awesome, it's funny, it's ridiculous and now we know what it is. it was like having the most extravagant and opulent level of luxury from 21 years ago, sorry do you have any gray Pon, but of course?