Rolls-Royce Advice

It’s not breaking news that Australians are buying cars in record numbers, but the kind of cars we’re buying may surprise you because it seems to suggest many of us have too much money.

A luxury car can be defined in many ways. For some it’s a car that has a higher level of equipment, comfort and/or performance than an average car.

What is the definition of a luxury car? It may seem like an obvious question to answer, but like so many things in life, once you start to really examine it and scratch beneath the surface, defining a luxury car isn’t quite as simple as it first appears.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you will have noticed a rise in the number of SUVs getting around. In just the last five years SUVs have become the dominant vehicle type on our roads, with more than half of all new vehicles sold falling under the SUV banner.

SUV - three letters that dominate the automotive industry today.

Close your eyes and think of an ‘expensive car’ and the chances are your mind will immediately picture a Rolls-Royce.

To modern Australian families, the SUV is what a Commodore or a Falcon used to be - the sensible, obvious and most common choice of family vehicle.

The reason it's there goes back to the turn of the 20th century when a temperature gauge called a motometer sat atop the radiator.To make them more attractive, carmakers gave them wings or other adornments. By the 1920s, the water temperature gauge moved to the dashboard and the motometer was replaced with a radiator cap with an ornament. The bigger and more impressive the ornament, the greater the status of the car and the people in it.Rolls-Royce commissioned English sculptor Charles Sykes to create a radiator ornament in 1911. The result was the silver lady with wings that still signifies the Rolls-Royce brand, although the lady now automatically retreats into the bonnet when the car is unattended.