When speaking with Rolls-Royce representatives, you won’t receive an answer about a base price.
They can give you a range of prices, but the company doesn’t have base prices.
That’s because every Rolls-Royce that they make is custom-made for the owner.
The Rolls is the ultimate luxury car.
If you’re interested in a Rolls-Royce, then you can expect a high price for your dream car.
Here are 10 reasons Rolls-Royce cars are so expensive.
Why Are Rolls-Royce So Expensive? (Top 10 Reasons)
1. Color Choice
One of the most expensive factors that determine the cost of a Rolls-Royce is the color.
When you first meet with a representative, they’ll first ask what color you want the car to be.
They have experience matching cars with a shade of lipstick or the color of your favorite dog’s coat.
Rolls-Royce boasts of having more than 44,000 different color choices.
They make painting the exterior of your car a luxury experience in itself.
If they don’t have the shade, then they’ll replicate it.
That’s part of the reason the paint job is so expensive.
They’ll go through several different shades of paint until they match the one you want exactly.
That even covers colors that aren’t available anywhere else.
For example, you may have enjoyed the particular shade of blue of the water when you went vacationing in Greece.
Rolls-Royce will discover that color even if that means sending a color specialist to your vacation spot.
They’ll research the shade, then put together a few different samples for you.
Once you find the one that you want, then they’ll use it.
When it’s on the car, you may decide that you don’t like it.
That means the process starts over.
The more complex your color choice is, the more expensive you can expect the price to be for your Rolls-Royce.
2. The Paint Job
Rolls-Royce hates calling the color on their cars a paint job.
It’s far more than that.
After you choose a color for your car, it’s named after you.
If anyone else in the future wants to use that shade of color, then Rolls-Royce will contact you.
They’ll ask you for your permission to use the color for the other person’s car.
You can always say no.
They ask you because they want to ensure that everyone has the chance to have a unique color that’s entirely their own.
They call painting the car a Surface Finish.
They don’t take your car to the paint shop.
Instead, they take it to the Surface Finish Centre.
Here, the car will receive at least seven layers of paint.
They’ve even done as many as 23 layers of paint before.
The more layers of paint that you want, the more expensive the car is going to be.
That’s because there’s a lot of paint used in the painting of a car.
It needs a primer before any kind of color can touch the car.
The primer helps prepare the car’s surface for painting.
It also makes it easier for the paint to adhere to the car’s surface.
Once the primer sets, the base coat of paint is then sprayed onto it.
Depending on the shade, it may need a few coats of the base coat.
Once that’s done, the actual color is then put on the car.
Again, this may take several layers to ensure even coverage.
Rolls-Royce usually puts two coats of clear lacquer on the car to finish it.
Lacquer gives the car an illustrious shine, but it also helps protect the paint.
Sometimes, per the customer, they use a few more coats of clear lacquer.
The price of your Rolls-Royce stems from the paint job because it’s a lengthy and custom process.
If you want as much of a polished paint job as possible, then you can expect it to be pricey.
They’ll need to go through several cans of paint to give you the look that you desire.
3. Paint Infusions
Sometimes a customer doesn’t want only paint on their car.
They want the paint infused with other materials.
Customers can choose to infuse their paint with crushed diamonds, gold, or any other type of material.
They need to provide the diamonds or pay Rolls-Royce extra to acquire the diamonds for them.
In the case of diamonds, they’ll send them to a reliable third party who will crush them for them.
Then Rolls-Royce will infuse the crushed diamonds into their paint.
When used on the car, it will have the shade of color that the customer requested, but it will also have a sparkle that only crushed diamonds can provide.
This makes a Rolls-Royce car expensive because you can easily add expensive materials to the paint.
If you have the money to do so, you can infuse your paint with gold or literally use gold as your paint.
It will require a specialist who knows how to infuse the paint properly.
That adds to the cost since specialists charge a lot of money themselves.
Making your paint job more complete by infusing it drives up the price.
4. Hand-Made Car Detailing
Rolls-Royce hires its own coach stripe painter and car detailer.
If you ever want a coach stripe on your car, then there’s one man in the entire company whose job it is to paint it.
Because they have a single painter doing pinstripes and other car detailing, you can expect to wait a bit.
The longer it takes for your car to receive its detail, the more expensive it’s going to be.
That’s because the painter has to travel to the location of your car.
It may not be at a facility where he’s currently working.
This is also true if you decide to add a coach stripe to your car after it ships to your home.
They’ll send their painter to your location.
Rolls-Royce never ships a car back to its facility.
It sends its workers to the owner of the Rolls-Royce car.
That means if the car is in Chicago, then the painter is going to Chicago.
They also use specialized brushes for the detailing work.
Many of those brushes are man-made.
The hair in synthetic brushes tends to leave marks behind.
That isn’t good enough for Rolls-Royce.
Instead, they purchase expensive and specialized squirrel-hair brushes.
In their experience, these types of brushes don’t leave brush marks behind.
The result is a smooth detail that looks as though it always belonged to the car rather than having been painted.
The sheer quality and attention to detail mean a high price.
The painter is a specialized artist who earns a hefty wage.
The paints and brushes are expensive.
If the painter needs to fly somewhere to detail a car, then the ticket price is also high.
All those factors cause the price of the Rolls-Royce car to rise.
5. Self-Righting Wheel Centers
If you ever inspect the inside of a Rolls-Royce, you’ll notice that the steering wheel is always upright.
That’s because they never want the RR logo to be upside down or turned to the side.
It must always be upright.
To accomplish this, Rolls-Royce creates handmade self-righting wheel centers.
Even if you park the car in a certain way, the wheel will turn itself until the RR logo is back in the upright position.
This small detail not only makes starting up your car and driving it that much more convenient, but it also makes the car look good.
It shows that the Rolls-Royce brand takes itself seriously.
The problem with a self-righting wheel center is that it’s expensive.
The company already uses the best materials possible to make steering wheels.
They want the wheel to last, ensure it shows as little wear and tear as possible, and it needs to be able to self-right itself.
This means that their engineers need to spend extra time with the steering wheel center.
An expert will manufacture it, then install it.
Then it will go through a few quality assurance tests to ensure it always rights itself.
All these steps add to the price of the steering wheel, which adds to the price of the Rolls-Royce.
However, it’s another small detail that makes Rolls-Royce stand out from other car designers.
6. Insulation
When driving inside of a Rolls-Royce, you’ll notice something immediately.
There’s virtually no sound.
BMW wanted to make a silent ride.
They didn’t want those who drive a Rolls-Royce to experience the sounds of the road or the sound of the car.
This ensures that executives can take calls without worrying about car noise making their caller impossible to hear.
It also makes the ride more enjoyable as a whole.
To keep the ride silent, BMW uses more than 300 pounds of insulation in the interior of their car.
That isn’t cheap.
Insulation, itself, can be cheap, but using 300 pounds of it isn’t.
It also has to be carefully arranged inside of the cabin.
There still needs to be enough sound to avoid auditory sensory deprivation, but it needs to be quiet enough not to annoy the driver.
It takes time to find the right balance.
If something seems off, then the designers will scrap it and start it over.
The insulation also needs to fit in the car.
Specialized tools, materials, and designs allow the insulation to fit inside of the cabin of the car.
If you want a quiet ride, then Rolls-Royce can help, but it will come at a steep price.
7. Specialized Tires
Insulation isn’t the only thing that makes a Rolls-Royce quiet.
BMW also uses specialized tires to reduce noise.
They use the tire manufacturer Continental to manufacture and produce their tires.
Instead of using air to inflate the tire, Continental uses a special type of foam.
Not only does it provide a smooth ride, but it also reduces road noise significantly.
When testing it, they found that their tires reduced the overall noise of the road by nine decibels.
Besides having quiet tires, they’re also long-lasting.
Since they make these tires specifically for Rolls-Royce cars, the price of them is high.
It’s a niche market which means they’re expensive.
It also means replacing car tires can be expensive as well.
You need to find a carrier of Continental tires, then have a specialist put them on for you.
Since they’re filled with foam, you may also face unique problems if you end up ripping your tires on some debris on the road.
You may find replacing them difficult and expensive in your local area.
The process of manufacturing foam-filled tires also has its own costs.
Those costs add to the price of the Rolls-Royce.
8. Customized Dashboards
Another area of the Rolls-Royce which is customizable is the dashboard.
Past customers have had a lot of fun customizing their dashboards.
Some love to use gold or diamonds.
Others turn it into an art gallery with actual expensive pieces of artwork.
The dashboard is a large area where you can have a bit of fun with the design of your car.
You can also expect your fun to come with an expensive price tag.
Dashboards are handmade at Rolls-Royce facilities.
They use quality materials to make the frame of the dashboard.
Then, depending on how you intend to customize it, they’ll need to acquire the materials first.
Then they can put it all together.
The complexity of your dashboard determines how expensive your Rolls-Royce is going to be overall.
If you’re using expensive hardwood, for example, then you can expect the price to reflect that.
If your dashboard requires BMW to find and hire specialists for materials they’ve never worked with before, then you can expect the price for your car to be high.
They won’t deny a custom design or plan.
That’s what makes Rolls-Royce so expensive in the first place.
As long as you have the money to spend, they’ll use it to make your customized ideas a reality.
9. Starlight Headliner
One of the staples in any Rolls-Royce car is the Starlight Headliner.
This is a series of holes in the top of the car with lights behind them.
It makes the ceiling inside your car look like the night sky.
It’s a beautiful feature that many owners love.
If you don’t like the Starlight Headliner, then you can always choose to remove it.
However, many choose to keep the Starlight Headliner in place because it’s a standard Rolls-Royce feature.
Anyone who sees it knows it for what it is.
The Starlight Headliner takes 16 hours to make.
That’s why Rolls-Royce cars can be expensive.
They hand-make every Starlight Headliner.
They’ll poke holes through the fabric of the headliner and then run a fiber optic light through them.
Customers can also choose to implement their own starry designs or favorite constellations.
Since these require more precise work, you can expect the price to rise as a result.
Along with the lights, the embroidery that covers the ceiling is also handmade.
It’s tailored to the color that the customer wants.
They go beyond color, too.
If customers want a specific design, then they’ll take that image and make it work with the lights.
Their goal is to create a sort of 3D image or a hologram of the image.
Since each one is custom for each customer, the process takes time and costs money.
Altogether, the Starlight Headliner can significantly add to the price of the car.
10. Brand
When you buy a Rolls-Royce car, you expect it to be expensive.
That’s because it’s all in the brand.
BMW has made a name for itself in its Rolls-Royce collection by providing the ultimate luxury car.
Everyone knows that luxury comes with a high price.
The brand also makes itself known for its customization.
No matter what you want or how long it takes, the company will honor your requests.
You can just expect an expensive bill when it’s finished.
Because Rolls-Royce has a reputation for being expensive, it is expensive.
It feeds into itself.
A Rolls-Royce car isn’t known for speed or performance.
It’s known for its luxurious features and ability to act as a status symbol.
It’s expensive because it’s made to be that way.
Conclusion
If you want to own one of the most expensive cars on the market, then you need to buy a Rolls-Royce.
With complete customization available, you can make your car as expensive or as affordable as you want.
The process of customization and the sheer amount of detail that goes into the making of the car adds to its expense.
Consider the top 10 reasons above when you’re planning to purchase a Rolls-Royce for yourself if you want to save some money.
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Anonymous says
Wow dats actually amazing
Rodericks John says
Outstanding research about why Rolls Royce is so expensive! Could have included a a bit about the shock absorbers and safety elements too. Of course we might come across some details which we never knew.
Linus Nnaa Amadi says
Rolls-Royce is indeed a car to have