This this is your fault internet land. The reason that this thing exists is
entirely because of your crazy SUV love affair that's happening right now.
You see Rolls-Royce discovered that you were parking an SUV next to your Phantom
or your Dawn or your Ghost and they found out that this SUV was either maybe
a Mercedes-Benz maybe a Land Rover. God forbid it was an Escalade. And they
thought to themselves you know what that's just not acceptable. That should
be another Rolls-Royce next to your Rolls-Royce and so they've built this.
This is the 2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan. It's the first SUV ever from the
Rolls-Royce brand and it is pretty much as extraordinary as you might think it
is. So let's get something off our chest right off the bat here. This thing costs
more than the average family home in the United States. In fact this thing costs
twice the median average family home price between New York and California.
Now it starts at about $325,000 but if you get one just like this which is
fully optioned, loaded to the gills, it actually comes in at four hundred and
twenty thousand dollars which is actually twice what you would pay for a
really nice family home. Now if that number really doesn't bother you then
great you could probably afford one of these things but if you're like me and
there's no way in hell you're ever going to be able to afford to buy one of these
things well stay tuned and we're going to have a couple of really interesting
features to show you and maybe a couple of not so interesting ones.
The Cullinan is really long, it's really wide, its supremely comfortable
especially in back you've got these rear opening coach doors which are kind of
special. The Phantom has them too but when they're open like this it's kind of
a hard reach to get to them, plus they're really heavy and
that would require physical exertion to close it. And then Rolls-Royce isn't
about physical exertion, that's not money, that's not money at all.
What we need is a button, something that we could push to automatically close the
door and the Cullinan has four. One in each spot to close the doors and in the
back seat it's here on the D pillar. Just push and hold
and it automatically envelops you in silent luxury. In true British utility
fashion you can order your Cullinan up in what they call the individual
configuration in which case you have four passenger seating, two in the back
separated by a console but it also separates the cargo area from the cabin
with this glass partition. Now that's really nice in keeping the cabin very
quiet and separated from the cargo area and it prevents the muddy hunting dogs
from getting their paws all over the beautiful arctic white leather and the
black lamb's wool carpets. Now if you absolutely have to have a five passenger
SUV you can order the back in what they call the lounge configuration and it
gets rid of this console but if you do that you're gonna miss out on a couple
of things such as your lovely whiskey decanter and tumblers and also your
champagne fridge complete with Rolls-Royce flutes. So if Dr. Evil has
taught us anything it's that being rich and powerful means you can have laser
beams attached to just about anything whether they be sharks or ill-tempered
sea bass or super luxury SUVs and the Cullinan actually has laser beams up
here in the headlights. The Cullinan and the Phantom both have
laser beam headlight technology carried over from Rolls-Royce's BMW owners, the
low beams are LEDs and operate below certain speeds but when the traffic
clears and the road gets dark the adaptive laser high beams kick in they
enable you to see up to 650 yards down the road, nearly 2,000 feet or just over
one third of a mile and they're not like traditional low beam, high beam
headlights that kind of flow and adapt to the constantly changing conditions.
One of the best things about the Cullinan is the way it rides. It is so
smooth, it is so quiet. Potholes, I remember potholes. And you know railroad
crossings? Didn't feel a thing. It's like it wasn't even there. The ride of the
Cullinan is absolutely superior to just about anything I've ever driven. It
kind of feels like a 60s or 70s car in that regard and then it just floats
along but it's got better body control than anything frankly I've ever driven.
With a ride like this it truly is exceptional. How can so many cylinders
make such little noise? It's a 6.7 five liter V12 twin turbocharged
engine and it makes ungodly power but it's so
absolutely smooth. It's like driving an electric car. They've done an amazing job
making this just a serene calm experience.
The only thing nerve-wracking thing about it is you're worried that something's going
to hit it or ding it or scratch it and after you've paid that much money for it
that's the last thing you want. So you've arrived at the equestrian
event or maybe the Catalina Wine Mixer and there's just no more room in the
luxury skybox but you know what, the Cullinan has you covered.
This is called the viewing suite. Push a button on your open tailgate and this
slides out: a two-seat leather covered tailgate bench with a cocktail table.
It's perfect for watching your brood performing their show jumping
competition or maybe observing the latest helicopters for sale. I mean come
on it's not like we're going to be grilling brats and tossing a pigskin at
the Lions pregame parking-lot tailgate party are we? Peasants. But as amazing as
this really expensive SUV is it's not perfect. There are still a few things
that annoy me about the Rolls-Royce Cullinan. One of the things is this key
fob. This really feels kind of cheap. Yes it's done in the same turchese
leather that the interior accent is done, in which is just Italian for turquoise,
but it feels so ordinary. It feels so plain. There's only a couple of buttons
on the thing. It doesn't have any heft to it. I mean if you're spending this kind
of money on a vehicle like this I want this to be just as much jewelry as some
of these interior pieces are and this thing really doesn't feel any more
special then you get in a Subaru Crosstrek. One thing I find actually
really kind of ordinary about the Cullinan is the multimedia system. If
you're familiar with BMW systems at all you're gonna find this one very familiar
as well. It is basically the BMW system now. BMW owns Rolls-Royce so it does make
sense that you'd see some kinds of parts shared and this is one of the areas
where you don't really want to reinvent the wheel, even though there is a click
wheel or a touchscreen. However, you know, it works pretty well, it looks fairly
plain but it's easy to use so you know what I'm gonna let them go with this one.
Why on earth would they replace the beautiful bejeweled gauges in the Rolls-Royce
vehicles with these boring digital screens. The car is supposed to be about
artistry and motion but these are grey and
boring and they're plain. There's so many knots to tradition in the Cullinan like
the wonky climate controlled temperature sliders instead of an actual automatic
climate temperature number or the push-pull sliders for the vent controls.
Making the thing you look at most in the vehicle into something so mundane
it's really kind of a shame. But these are minor quibbles in what is an
extraordinary achievement from Rolls-Royce. This thing is quite unlike
anything I've ever driven. It is smooth, it is fast and anything you might read
about it sharing some history or some parts with BMW quite frankly isn't
important. They've made such a distinctly honest-to-God amazing luxury vehicle
that you know the old adage applies, if you have to ask how much it costs you
can't afford it and if you have to ask why, you really don't deserve it. This
thing is deserving of the praise and the price and if you'd like to learn more
about the new Rolls-Royce Cullinan you can look everything up on Cars.com.
you