Video: 2016 Rolls-Royce Dawn

But it's based on the classic 1952 Silver Dawn, and it's also a sign that our friends across the pond might not just be a collection of ghouls. Now at $335,000 to start, the Dawn is more expensive than the phantom sedan and also a little more expensive than the Wraith coupe, which is British for coupe. As a Rolls, it has the family look, and of course, that includes the spirit of ecstasy hood ornament. In this case, we have the optionally uplift version. The car has some of the other Rolls-Royce hallmarks. Like our badges in the center of the wheels that are always upright even when the car is moving. Like the wraith, it has coached doors that this this way. It is actually, essentially, based on the wraith, has the same wheelbase, but they say 80% of the sheet metal is different. The biggest difference, obviously, is that this is a convertible, or as they say in England, a drophead. Another neat trick, because it's so hard to reach a coach door, power closers, just push the button, up by the eight pillar. Rolls-Royce decided to go with a powered soft top for the Dawn, they call the motion a Silent Ballet waiting for the silent opera, but I don't know if I'll ever see it. I closes or opens at about 22 seconds. It can even operate when the car's in motion up to about 30 miles per hour, which is great. I think you'll agree. Even though retractable hard tops are pretty popular now this is a good look for a soft top. They also say, this is the quietest convertible you can buy. I couldn't say for sure, but it's certainly close if it isn't you hear a little noise from the back, but nothing out of the ordinary, probably quieter than the average car that isn't a convertible. Another thing worth noting is that the dawn is a four-seater, it's a true four-seater not a two plus two as they call them. You can fold the front seat forward. The rocker switch here allows you to move the front seat forward. And I'm six feet tall and I fit fine in here even with the seat back, plenty of headroom. And that's actually better than the Wraith two-door door, which is really more of a two plus two. So a Rolls is trying to make this car actually usable more or less as a family vehicle. I think it goes without saying that the interior of this rolls like any is the lap of luxury. You get terrific aromatic leather. The wood trim is all real wood, obviously, but it's also bookmatched which means the veneers are cut from the same piece of wood so they're actually mirror image on either side of the car. As an option you can actually get this entire deck done in Canadel or you can get it done in Teakwood if you want. You can probably choose your wood through the bespoke program. And honestly, this wouldn't be a Cars.com Rolls review, if we weren't to go through the list of the extremely expensive options, because the cars are worth more than our homes. And we're a little bit bitter for one solid silver Rolls-Royce monogram door inlay, you can get seat piping, contrast stitching, lambswool floor mats, instrument panel upper additional top stitch, combined seat piping and stitching, Canadel Paneling. You can get the spirit of ecstasy gold-plate, you can get it solid silver, you can even get it illuminated from the inside like it's made of crystal. Then there's always the crowd pleaser in Rolls-Royces. The umbrella worked into the fender because it rains a lot in great Britain. Since we're talking about a price, if you lose this thing, the simplest version $900 to replace. So part of the fun of a Rolls-Royce is how much it costs. Even though we make fun. We have to admit it's kind of special to be in, to drive around, to show to people. Overall it's about the experience granted, I haven't talked about the driving, but I can tell you it's very nice. It's not supposed to be a sporty, very heavy few hundred pounds shy of three tons that actually gives it a feeling of solidity and they compensate with good suspension design and a turbocharge V12 engine that has 563 horsepower. So it does zero to 60 in less than five seconds. (car trunk closing)