MotorMouths

While still brazenly extravagant, the Rolls-Royce Ghost is a totally modern saloon, and one that the super affluent may actually demand to drive themselves.

Despite the similarities to the Phantom, the Ghost has a personality all its own, due largely to its underpinnings, which are courtesy of the 7 Series from parent company BMW. This lineage gives the Ghost a unique blend of a limousine’s body with a driver’s spirit.

If you have the means to purchase in this category of automobiles but prefer to do the driving yourself, or need an ultra-luxury sedan specifically tailored for daily use, the Rolls-Royce Ghost should be at the top of your shopping list.

The rich view their automobiles as a necessary accoutrement to their elevated lifestyles. The 2010 Rolls-Royce Ghost lives up to those lofty requirements by simultaneously being a rolling work of art and a status symbol beyond reproach.

Like every great Rolls-Royce, the Ghost is a paragon of effortless motion, uncannily smooth and silent, with a ride like a magic carpet. But it doesn’t wallow like a drunken water buffalo the moment you swing it into a turn.

Those looking for an automobile with the presence and luxury of a Rolls-Royce Phantom but with a more manageable size and acquisition cost should be pleased with the 2012 Rolls-Royce Ghost.

The Rolls-Royce Ghost is easy to hustle down the road quickly; and yet, it handles and rides with a unique, almost inexplicable isolation from the world around you.

The Ghost is incredibly fast and rewarding to drive—sporty, even—but it does not sacrifice the serenity, calm, and effortlessness that is essential to a Rolls-Royce. It cossets and insulates, but it also flies.

The Ghost not only rivals its larger sibling, the Phantom, for driver involvement — which was expected — but also for refinement and feeling of well-being, both so important to Rolls buyers.

What can you expect from something that, at $245,000, is probably the least expensive Roller ever sold? The Ghost continues Rolls-Royce’s lineage with all the panache, presence and performance of its storied predecessors.

Those looking for an automobile with the presence and luxury of a Rolls-Royce Phantom but with a more manageable size and acquisition cost should be pleased with the 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost.

I’ve experienced many cars that handle better, but few that lend such a sense of place and well-being as the 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost. So this is what it feels to be like the idling rich.