I’ve been dailying my new-to-me 2017 Rolls-Royce Dawn for a couple months now, and I’ve noticed it really changed the way I feel about cars.
People are overly friendly to me. They wave, take pictures, and constantly compliment both the car and me in a way that doesn’t happen with any other car I’ve driven. The compliments have a common theme: “You look happy, and I’m happy for you.” It’s happened so often that I can’t deny the commonality – especially contrasted with my other cars, where the comments are appreciative of cars, the styling, or their cost, but I never hear people actually say, “I’m happy for you.” It happens all the time in the Rolls, which surprises me!
It’s a relaxing cocoon. It’s quiet, rides well, and turns driving into a much more chill experience. While I can drive it aggressively (and sometimes I do), that’s not a rewarding experience because I find myself distracted by the car’s mass, especially during braking and cornering. The Dawn makes the driving part of the trip a non-event. It’s not tiring at all. I actually find myself wishing it had less gauges, like no instrument cluster at all. All I use is the heads-up display with the speed limit and the car’s current speed.
It’s not perfect by any means. I find myself filling up the 22-gallon gas tank a lot because it only has about 250 miles of city driving range. The oddly-shaped trunk can fit lots of carryons and soft bags, but not a single large checked bag. Parts are wildly expensive. The infotainment system predates Apple CarPlay. When Rolls-Royce eventually offers a convertible version of the electric Spectre coupe, only the CarPlay part will be addressed – the rest of the limitations will remain. So even if Spectre convertibles were reasonably priced – which they won’t be – I still wouldn’t replace the Dawn with one.
It changes the way I view other cars. Before buying the Rolls:
- I saw my 911 Targa as a comfy grand tourer, and my old 1964 356 SC as a sports car
- Now, I see the Dawn as a comfy grand tourer, and my 911 Targa as a sports car
When I get out of the Dawn and into the 911, the 911 rides so low, the manual shifts feel brutal, the exhaust noise seems loud, etc. One can argue that various flavors of the 911 are more sports car or more grand tourer – like the GT3 is more sports car, and the Turbo is more grand tourer – but getting out of the Dawn, all of the 911 range feels like a sports car. Before the Dawn, I’d wanted to try sportier flavors of the 911, but now, I don’t. When I get out of the Dawn, the 911 Targa 4S totally scratches the sports car itch.
However, I can already see a change coming. In a year or two, I’ll probably sell the 911 and replace it with something more hard-core. I’ve had my eye on used McLaren 600LT Spiders for a while, with their top-mounted exhaust and crazy Senna seats. It depends on how our house sale goes, and what kind of garage we end up with in the new place. It’s surprisingly hard to find nice houses with big garages in Vegas.
