Most of the contenders here are limousine saloons large enough to make the average three-bedroom semi-detached house look small, but one or two of the most demure and desirable SUVs in the world cut also.
So, if you like the idea of being chauffeured around like Lord Sugar in a car special enough to make you feel ten feet tall and you can afford the very best life has to offer, well, lucky you. Here's what your drivers should be ordering.
1. Rolls-Royce Ghost
The Ghost was a line in the sand for Rolls-Royce when it appeared in 2009: the beginning of a transformation that took iits annual production volume from hundreds to several cars per year.
Now in its second generation, the Pnantoms's understudy has evolved substantially. The Ghost's mechanical underpinnings were once adapted from those of the BMW 7 Series, it now shares the same 'Architecture of Luxury' platform as the Cullinan and Phantom. There are also innovations such as Rolls-Royce's mass dampers for the front suspension and an active anti-roll bar for the rear axle, which help bring ride quality closer than ever to that of the Phantom.
2. Mercedes-Maybach S-Class
The richest and most special car in what might be the most universally respected and admired limousine range globally, the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class is the modern standard-bearer for Daimler's Maybach super-luxury brand.
To judge by appearances, you'd say it was at least as much S-Class as Maybach, and that's the result of Daimler's strategic decision, taken a few years ago, to broaden the reach of the Maybach marque by creating 'halo' Maybach models across some of its more normal Mercedes passenger car range. The ultra-rare, Simon Cowell-spec, Maybach-only 57, and 62 limousines were at the same time consigned to history.
And so that fact that car is only' as S-Class may be at once its biggest strength and its key vulnerability. Compared to a Rolls-Royce or Bentley, S-Class might not cut of mustard for drool-worthy kerbside appeal, but being an S-Class also makes this car the recipient of all those advanced active suspension and driver assistance technologies. It helps to make it so brilliantly refined, rich, and cosseting.
3. Bentley Mulsanne
A limousine that's singularly aristocratic, whose presence announces itself from hundreds of yards away and whose agenda is all about serving the interests of the passenger first and the driver a definite second may sound appealing in theory. But if you suspect the reality of ownership of such a car might not appeal quite as much, don't worry, because the super-luxury class has something for you too: the Bentley Mulsanne.
Deliberately more modest and discreet in its appearance than a certain key British limousine rival, the Mulsanne is a top-level luxury four-door that's grand with a small g. it feels less formal than the Rolls-Royce Phantom, and its interior ambiance is more like that of the paneled smoking room of an old gentleman's club than the Phantom's chandeliered ballroom. The material quality, the luster fittings are second to none.
4. Bentley Bentayga
The Bentayga has had an eventful passage through the Autocar road test evaluation process. Being the first in a barrage of super-SUVs to come to market in 2016, we first rated it highly, with a caveat or two, in W12-engined form, and then rated it higher still when Bentley introduced an Audi-sourced 4.0-liter, 429bhp turbocharged diesel V8 in 2017, which made exactly as much torque as the twelve-cylinder petrol motor but at more accessible crank speeds.
5. Range Rover SVAutobiography
The top-rung, long-wheelbase Range Rover has come a long way as a luxury car since the genesis days of the famous SUV upon which it's based. The modern SVAutobiography, hand-finished by Land Rover at its Special Operations base near Coventry, is a car that's now fully 5.2 meters long and 2.6 tonnes in weight at its heaviest. It was conceived to take full advantage of the embryonic market for super-expensive SUVs and the high regard some have for the Range Rover brand, and it does so quite effectively.
6. Mercedes-AMG S65
Though soon to be overhauled, with the all-new S-Class as the base car, the mechanical make-up of the top-of-the-range performance version of the outgoing S-Class limousine hasn't changed much in more than a decade. Since this car has a leviathan of a twin-turbocharged petrol V12 that produces 621bhp and 738lb-ft of torque, you could argue it hasn't needed to.
It's an engine capable of sending a two-and-a-quarter-tonne, 5.3-meter-long, rear-driven limousine from 0-62 mph in just 4.2sec, and that's before it's really settled down, found its legs, and got going, don't forget.
7. Alpine B7
If it is exclusivity you crave, do not be fooled by the BMW badge on the long bonnet of the Alpine B7. Of all the exceptional and rare cars on this list, perhaps only the Mercedes-Maybach is as unlikely to hove into your view on public roads, and the typical B7 price-tag of close to 200,000 after options reflects that.
As ever with Alpine, there are two sides to its version of a series-production BMW model. On paper, figures of 600bhp and 590lb-ft from the twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 suggest the B7 functions as an out-and-out alternative to the M7 BMW won't build. And terms of performance, perhaps this is the case - the B7 benefits from considerable modifications to both its powertrain and suspension to make it faster than any other 7-Series and better handlto make it
The grandest and greatest luxu andnce in motordom was replaced by Rolls-Royce in 2017 and given a glittering five-star road test welcome by our road testers shortly thereafter.
Owners will love it at least for the extravagant statement of wealth and status it endows and for the unmatched sense of occasion you enjoy when traveling in one. But, while any won't ever know as much, the latest Phantom is also an utter joy and a rare pleasure to drive. Its superbly comfortable and singularly isolating ride comfort can be sampled from the back seats, of course, and is like nothing else you'll encounter in a car. Gently loping and deliciously indulgent-feeling but also supremely quiet and smooth, despite Rolls-Royce's fitment of the latest run-flat tire technology.
9. Bentley Flying Spur
Bentley's four-door 'Continental'-series limousine started its modern life as the Continental Flying Spur in 2006, only dropping the nomenclature prefix that links it with Crews' current two-door GT with its biggest model overhaul yet in 2014.
But the Flying Spur is now in its third generation, something that's not difficult to detect from the prouder, more muscular design, which borrows heavily from the most recent, attractive Continental GT coupe. Crewe's 'junior' saloon also dramatically benefits from a new platform co-developed with Porsche and used four-wheel steering and active anti-roll bars. It also better insulates the fantastically opulent cabin from the road and provides the basis for genuinely good driving dynamics. Grip, balance, and steering are all noticeable improvements.
10. Rolls-Royce Cullinan
Goodwood's Marmite addition to the super-luxury segment arrived in 2018 responding to a significant amount of Rolls-Royce customer feedback that a more daily-usable, all-surface-capable, family-practical model would be a very welcome way to augment the firm's showroom range.
The Cullinan has been met by enough criticism of its design, from all quarters, to have st in aspic a sense that its maker has taken a significant risk in introducing a car that some have described as awkward and unlovely and others have slammed in even less sympathetic terms. But if Rolls-Royce's market research holds, and a year's worth of confirmed orders is a good sign that it will, the collective revulsion of those who wouldn't have bought a Cullinan anyway will do little to prevent it from becoming a commercial success.
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