Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II 2016 Review

Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II
Road Test

The Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II, with its company’s long history and fine heritage behind it, should be one of the world’s best cars. The Series II updates, including LED headlights, redesigned front, new bonnet, new wheel bearings and new front seats, promise to add further refinement to Roll-Royce’s ‘smaller’ sedan.

This car is one of Britain’s finest, built by a company that produced cars once described as the world’s best. As described by a Rolls-Royce advertising exec, no doubt… But there is no doubt that Roll-Royce is an exclusive brand bought by the uber-rich.

While the Ghost II lists at $595,000 (plus on-road costs), the price for the test car came to $739,796.30. If you asked nicely, RR would surely knock the 30 cents off the bill.

There were a raft of extras thrown at this car, from the panoramic sunroof to the TV tuner, the 21-inch alloy wheels and even lambs-wool floor rugs. Missing (though on the options list) were items such as Active Cruise Control.

Despite sitting in the shadow of the enormous Phantom, the Ghost II is still big. It is just more than 50mm shy of two metres wide, and takes up just short of five and a half metres of garage length. While it looks much taller in the metal, it is ‘only’ 1550mm high. Almost, but not quite SUV-tall.

Taking a close look at the paint and trim, it’s hard to find a flaw. It is like a ra-ther large lump of exquisite jewellery. Precious stones are not sold by weight, but if we take gold as an example, it sells for around $55,000 a kilo. So at $304 a kilo, the Rolls is astoundingly good value.

Suicide doors (rear-hinged doors) are so named because, before the advent of door safety catches (or seat belts), if such a door popped open the results were often fatal. Rolls-Royce has brought back the rear-hinged door — with strong safety locks, of course — to the Ghost II’s rear doors and you can see why old-timer cars had them. It makes getting in and out of the back much easier, especially with the auto-close function in the test car. A button up near the third side-window activates an electric motor that closes the door.

Up front, the new for Series II buckets envelope you with a firm yet somehow discreet hold. The pliant leather helps hold you in place too. With the extendable under-thigh cushion now standard in Series II, the one complaint about the previous seats — a lack of under-thigh support — has evaporated.

The control layout is easy, once you get used to it. The three main controls — engine start, gear lever and park brake — seem scattered randomly at first, but soon you see it as normal. The rest of the controls are well laid out, even though some of the steering wheel control button icons or lettering were so small that I needed my reading glasses to see what they did.

The infotainment screen has a few different ways to tackle it, using a console controller wheel, buttons just below the screen or for some features there are steering controls. I resorted to the console control wheel, as it seems easiest, but found the infotainment menu a bit clumsy. It takes several steps to go from current Bluetooth audio selection to sound adjustment and back, for ex-ample. Even though the controller is really easy to use, the menu should be more logical.

Even though the Ghost ownership base is populated mostly by owner-drivers (to fetch a phrase from the trucking industry), there will be owners for whom the back seat is their preferred fixture. The rear seats are really comfortable, with the new curved outer backrest making staring down your opposite number in the back much more effective.

Leg room is tight in the back with the front seats racked right back, but they only need to go back that far if a seven-footer needs all the room up front.

As the 6.6-litre V12 whirred into life, there were no unseemly warning chimes or bells to besmirch the start of the RR driving experience. That is, of course, provided that you don’t try to move the car from Park into gear with the door open as I did for photography. Then a discrete warning chime sounds and the information screen gently reminds you that one must close the door before moving. The car still refuses to move from Park either, just in case you didn’t get the hint.

This feels like a big car when threading your way down suburban streets. However, for tight parking spots, you can employ the aid of the (optional) parking cameras. There are two perspectives: side view, which is really intended for entering roads where it’s hard to see the cross traffic; and an overview, which is great for inserting the RR into a tight garage, for example. Backing up is done with the assistance of a rear-view camera, which you need because the pillar box rear window doesn’t reveal much near the back of the car.

This is an easy car to drive slowly, and also holds a set speed better than any other car I’ve driven. If you want to hold 59km/h up on the heads-up display, that’s what you get with only little variation. You’re not always fettling the accelerator to keep an even speed. On cruise, it’s just as good.

This is a quick car, and other than the bonnet rising and your back being pressed into the leather, there is little to tell you that the RR’s engine is aiming to achieve V-Max. The 12 cylinders could just be heard doing their good work, but in easy cruising this could almost be an EV.

Perhaps the only thing you should be able to hear is the rush of fuel being sucked into the engine. The Ghost II averaged 19.6L/100km on test, with an even mix of urban and intra-urban driving.

The automatic doesn’t just seem to presage road conditions, it actually does. It is a Satellite Aided Transmission, so it predicts what you’re going to encounter because it knows exactly where you are. The shifts are each carefully chosen and delivered. This is probably the ‘conventional’ transmission at its finest.

The ride was lush, the air suspension carefully absorbing much of the up-and-down bits on the road. That is, except sharp bumps like potholes, which were met with a thump. It was not jarring, but such a contrast to the Ghost’s otherwise compliant ride. To be fair, the test vehicle’s optional 21-inch tyres with their 35 aspect ratio were only able to absorb so much road shock. Perhaps the standard 20-inch tyres would be a bit better.

It’s not wise to throw any car around at its limits on public roads and certainly not one that’s worth as much as a nice house. At a brisk, gentlemanly pace, the Ghost II gripped steadily through corners and, despite the pliant ride, the body didn’t try to skate on its door handles.

The steering though, had just about no feel at all. It seemed as though the steering wheel was connected to the wheels through an interpreter. Thankfully, nothing was lost in translation, but the response at the wheels is not quick. The disconnect was not helped by the thin steering wheel rim, and while at 38cm overall diameter the wheel is not overly large, it felt it.

Some cars are born great, some cars achieve greatness, and others have great-ness thrust upon them. The Ghost II in the last category, yet it does well in its own right. It is beautifully put together, is the definition of refinement (road-shock absorption aside) and it is very quick.

How you justify the greatness of a car based on its cost relative to others is an-other thing.

2016 Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II pricing and specifications:
Price: $739,796 (as tested)
Engine: 6.6-litre twelve-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 420kW/780Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 14.0L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 327g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: N/A

Also consider:
>> Bentley Mulsanne (from $662,858 plus ORCs)