At this time’s Good Value or No Cube Rolls is known as a “collector’s merchandise” by its vendor, however suffers from a salvage title which could mitigate that collectability. Let’s see how this luxurious barge festivals in our critique.
Talking of ‘critique,’ that’s a phrase that the English language borrowed from French. So, too, is ‘Encore,’ which additionally occurs to be the identify of the automotive we checked out final Friday: a 1986 Renault Encore Spring Version. Not like French phrases popping up in English, Renault Encores aren’t all that frequent nowadays, and our automotive was much more unusual because it gave the impression to be in nice form. A CDN$4550 price ticket (round $3,258 American) sealed the deal on the little French kiss of a automotive, incomes it a stable 60 p.c Good Value win.
There’s an awesome outdated British sitcom from the Nineteen Nineties known as Holding Up Appearances, the gist of which is the primary character Hyacinth Bucket’s (pronounced ‘bouquet,’ should you please) ambitions of climbing the social ladder. Hyacinth’s efforts are always thwarted by her working-class—and idle-class—family and her long-suffering husband, Richard, who’s glad along with his middle-class life.
A part of that life is the automotive the Bucket’s personal, a Rover 216. That was a mid-sized saloon primarily based on the Honda Civic, not the fanciest of rides, to make sure. Hyacinth would have a lot quite been comported in one thing rather more befitting of her aspired-to stature, ideally one thing as ostentatious as a Rolls-Royce.
And who wouldn’t wish to instrument round in a giant, lovely Rolls? That’s, in any case, the head of luxurious and attainment, proper? After all, few of us schlubs might ever afford a Rolls as that luxurious is restricted to an unique membership of Richie-Riches. Or so it appears.
This 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupe is a automotive that appears prefer it ought to price six figures—computerized coach (suicide) doorways, starlight headliner, leather-based and wooden inside, and so forth.—however is tantalizingly priced within the higher five-figure vary.
The explanation for that could be a tainted title, which the vendor claims is the results of rear-end harm that wrote the automotive off however has since been absolutely repaired. Based mostly on the images, there’s nothing to let on about that deleterious booty name, nor that the automotive now has a salvage title because of it. The truth is, nobody must know that the automotive is as low-cost as it’s if all of us promise to maintain it on the down-low.
The automotive itself is fairly excessive. Regardless of intensive use of aluminum within the unibody chassis and suspension, these are nonetheless massively heavy automobiles, tipping the scales at greater than two and a half tons. That weight isn’t all that obvious from behind the wheel, although, because of the 452 horsepower 6.75 V12 that’s to be discovered beneath the flowery brushed steel bonnet. That’s backed up by a six-speed computerized, which powers the rear wheels.
Talking of wheels, these are enormous 24-inch aftermarket alloys on this automotive. Spectacular as these are, they’re completely loopy huge. Fortunately, the vendor says that the extra moderately sized manufacturing unit wheels will include the automotive. Different info gleaned from the advert features a stable upkeep historical past and the promise that each one service necessities are present.
Fairly amazingly for a automotive of this stature, there’s a considerable 150,344 miles on the clock. That’s loads and should point out that this Rolls was used as a luxurious rental. No matter such a postulated historical past, it appears clear and with out substantial put on, each in and out. Additionally, there’s an umbrella hiding within the door jamb, so there’s that.
If all that wasn’t sufficient to encourage your interior social climber, then the $86,000 asking value simply is likely to be. That’s means beneath what a clear title automotive would command, and so long as the insurance coverage firm doesn’t get its company panties in a twist, who cares about this automotive having a salvage title?
What do you assume? Is a salvage Phantom the proper strategy to see how the opposite half lives at round half the price? Or is $86,000 nonetheless an excessive amount of for even economically-minded followers of fanciness?
You determine!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go right here if the advert disappears.
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