A poetic gearhead once said, “A car isn’t just four wheels and an engine, it’s home.” Well, my car’s closer to a cardboard box than a duplex, but the richest of the rich can always rely on manufacturers like Rolls Royce and Bentley to design the mansions of the car world. From cars that drive themselves, to vehicles dipped in gold, let’s check out some of the fastest, most futuristic, and of course, incredibly expensive luxury cars the world has to offer.
Bentley Bentayga Most Luxurious Cars
When Walter Owen Bentley started his car company in 1919, he set out to make a good car, a fast car, the best in its class. Bentley has always tried to fulfill this dream, and over 100 years later, old Walter might have just achieved his goal with the Bentley Bentayga. The Bentayga is a five door luxury SUV, and the Speed variant of this car is the fastest SUV in the world, reaching top speeds of 190 miles per hour. At $156,000, the Bentayga comes with a number of extravagant features, from a diamond encrusted clock on the dashboard, to air conditioning that purifies the interior air, because regular air just isn’t good enough for the elite. When buying a Bentayga, you can choose to fit the car with lamb’s wool floor mats, giving you the opportunity to wear your car like a giant slipper. It also features an events seat, a retractable leather bench that pulls out of the trunk.
You can gaze at the stars with a bottle of champagne, or become the comfiest people at the tailgate. If all that wasn’t classy enough, one of the Bentley’s optional features was designed by Viscount Linley, the Queen of England’s actual nephew. Linley’s Mulliner hamper is a $32,000 picnic basket, secured in the back of the SUV. That’s right, for just $32,000, you can either buy my car three times over, or have a picnic. The hamper includes a Bentley branded champagne cooler, cutlery draw, fine China plates, crystal glasses, and a cashmere rug, to keep the grass stains well away from your cashmere jumper. Just make sure you don’t crash the car with the hamper installed. You don’t want to get champagne all over your lamb’s wool floor mats.
Range Rover SV-Autobiography
Range Rover is one of the most popular brands of luxury SUVs, owned by everyone from the classiest soccer moms, to the richest Saudi princes. Range Rover’s most luxurious car, the SV-Autobiography, is high tech and ultra smart. Its terrain response system scans the environment, and automatically changes between five different driving modes, letting you drive on sand, snow, mud, rocks, and boring old asphalt. It’s one of the few luxury cars that lets the driver tear it up off road, while the passengers sip champagne and watch TV. Driving a $180,000 car through the mud might seem equivalent to hiking in a pair of Balenciagas, but Range Rover clearly wants you to take the car on adventures.
They offer a waterproof wristband instead of a key, letting you tap your wrist against the side of the door to lock and unlock it. No longer will you rummage through your drawers, or dig through the sand at the beach, looking for your keys. All you need is a tap of the wrist. But don’t worry, it isn’t all grit, mud, and puddles. It also has its own 4G wifi hotspot, HDMI ports, and loads of charging points. The back of the SV-Autobiography is like a lounge on wheels, featuring fold out tables, a mini fridge, and comfortable seats with built in massage rollers. Getting lost in the wild never felt so good.
Rolls Royce Cullinan
Rolls Royces are arguably the most luxurious cars in the world. Their double R logo and spirit of ecstasy hood ornaments, a sign of wealth, class, and high budget music videos. The Rolls Royce Cullinan is their first SUV, marking the company’s biggest car yet, which is apt, as it’s named after the Cullinan diamond, the largest rough diamond ever discovered. When discovered, the Cullinan diamond was worth $400 million, whereas the Rolls Royce only costs 325,000. What a bargain. The Cullinan has most of the features available in the aforementioned Bentayga and Range Rover, featuring lamb’s wool floor mats, and an optional picnic hamper.
Inside the car is where the Rolls Royce really stands apart. With its Offroad button, the Cullinan is more than capable of taking on deserts, jungles, and mountains, and the car’s onboard camera constantly scans the road ahead, adjusting the suspension to make sure that you always feel like you’re gliding down the highway. The car’s rear is known as the Palatial Suite, a massive space that’s trimmed with the finest leathers and cuts of wood. It also features a partition glass between you and the trunk, following the mantra that a Rolls Royce’s owner should never sit with their luggage or their dog. I don’t know about you, but I always let my dog sit in the front seat, whether I’m in a Rolls Royce or a Toyota.
Lagonda Taraf
Lagonda is a company owned by Aston Martin, and manufacture their most luxurious cars, like the 2015 Lagonda Taraf, an extremely rare car with only 120 built. Each one was priced at one million dollars, making it the world’s most expensive luxury sedan. According to Aston Martin, Taraf translates to ultimate luxury in Arabic, and the name fits the sleek golden car perfectly. While the owners of a Taraf probably place their private chauffeurs behind the wheel, whoever drives will discover a top speed of 195 miles per hour, getting from zero to 60 in just 4.4 seconds.
The Taraf could hold its own on a racetrack, but it’s still designed for comfort, especially in the back seats. It’s body is 18 feet long, resulting in huge amounts of leg room, and the interior is filled with an expensive leather, wrapping the owner in a cream colored cocoon. But if you don’t like the Taraf, it’s fine. You can just buy three Rolls Royce Cullinans for about the same price.
Mercedes Maybach S class
Mercedes-Benz might be one of the world’s most famous luxury car manufacturers. The only brand with both a Formula One racing team, and a hit song by Janice Joplin. Maybach produce Mercedes most luxurious cars. The company aiming to redefine what luxury means in our time. For me, there’s nothing more luxurious than a trip to the spa, and the $186,000 Mercedes Maybach S class is the first car that brings that experience to your back seats. Its spa packages include the Warmth package, causing all of the seats and surfaces in the car to give off a warm heat, as orange and red lighting moves around the interior. The massage chairs are filled with small rubber balls that inflate and deflate through an air pump, massaging your back.
With the Warmth package, these balls move up and down softly, following the timing of your breathing. I’m getting sleepy just thinking about it. So, maybe this isn’t the best thing to use while you’re driving. Your spa experience might rapidly become pretty unrelaxing if you fall asleep at the wheel. An even sleepier sounding spa package incorporates sounds from a singing bowl, an instrument used by Buddhist monks while they meditate. Owners can combine any of these features with the Mercedes Air Balance package, an automatic perfume dispenser that sprays a custom scent into the car through the air vents, making sure your nose doesn’t miss out on all the luxury.
The fragrance that comes with the car will last you a few months, but you might want to use it sparingly. A refill will cost you $110 at a Mercedes dealership, and what’s wrong with a good old fashioned air freshener? If all that isn’t enough, the car is also intelligent. The Maybach S class features MBUX, a built in AI assistant, like Amazon’s Alexa. As you speak to MBUX, it’ll get to know you and your preferences over time, learning your favorite climate control settings, or frequently driven routes. The S class isn’t just a car, it’s your new best friend.
BMW Nautor’s Swan
In my experience, the uber rich love three things, owning luxury cars, flying to space, and yachts, and that’s why the team at BMW decided to collaborate with luxury sale yacht manufacturer, Nautor’s Swan, offering a one of a kind car that offers drivers all of the luxuries of a sailing yacht, without having to get their feet wet. Unfortunately this priceless BMW can’t drive underwater, but there’s plenty of yacht-like features in the car, making it feel like you’re sitting on a deck in the middle of the Pacific, instead of sitting in traffic on the middle of the highway. The interior is made out of expensive teak wood, with large, comfortable seats, and being a unique version of a BMW 7 Series. Even the non-yacht-themed versions of the car have some incredible features.
New models of the 7 Series allow drivers to channel their inner Luke Skywalker, by waving their hand above the gear stick to turn up the volume, or flick through contacts. The car also features a remote control key, turning your $100,000 ride into a two ton RC car, allowing you to drive backwards and forwards in a straight line, letting you move in and out of tight parking spaces without having to actually get in the car. BMW clearly has big plans for the future too. In 2018, they signed a patent for a bottom filling champagne glass, allowing the passenger to drink champagne without the inconvenience of pouring it. These BMWs will be the first cars with a built in champagne tank, and giving that technology to the ultra rich sounds like a DUI waiting to happen.
Tesla Model X
Teslas are known for their electric motors, high tech gadgets, and getting launched into space, and the Tesla Model X is their most luxurious vehicle to date. Like all new Teslas, the car can drive itself, using highly sophisticated adaptive sensor systems and AI, allowing the driver to take their hands off the wheel, and kick back while the car chauffeurs them around. The driver can get their Tesla to parallel park with the tap of a button, or even summon their car before they get in it, making it drive around and pick them up. The 2022 Model X comes in at $106,000, and it rejects the norm in every way, with falcon wing doors that open upwards, and a steering wheel that, well, isn’t a wheel at all.
The 2022 version of the car features a yoke. No, not that kind of yolk. A rectangular yoke used for steering, like the controls of an airplane, making you feel like you’re driving a spaceship. If that isn’t enough, you can use the steering wheel to fly an actual spaceship on Tesla Arcade, a gaming system built into Tesla’s 17 inch touch screen dashboard. It features old school games like “Solitaire” and “Skyforce Reloaded,” but it’s also powerful enough to run triple A games, like “The Witcher 3,” and “Cyberpunk 2077.” This was my childhood dream, but maybe it’s a better idea to just keep an eye on the road.
Lexani G-77 Sky Master
If you like the idea of improving upon established good things, Lexani are the kings. Taking a Ford F-550 pickup truck, and converting it into the one million dollar, Lexani G-77 Sky Master. The Sky Master aims to bring the ambience of luxury aerospace travel to the road, providing a private jet on four wheels. Perfect for the multimillionaire who’s scared of heights. The car is essentially an upmarket van on the outside, but it isn’t filled with ladders or buckets of paint. The main room features six Italian leather seats, a 65 inch Samsung TV, a kitchenette with a coffee machine, and an office space with a retractable desk.
For longer journeys, there’s a restroom on board with a sink that’s coated in 24 karat gold. The van features a boardroom in the back, holding four chairs, two flat screen TVs, and a retractable table. The seats fold down into a double bed, because are you really that fancy if you’ve never fallen asleep on Italian leather? You’ll sleep softly too, as the Sky Master comes with an upgraded suspension system that absorbs any bumps in the road. If you close your eyes, it’ll really feel like you’re flying without the risk of turbulence.
Karlmann King SUV
Lexani aren’t the only company that’s given the Ford F-550 a makeover, but unlike the dazzling Sky Master, the Karlmann King SUV is a Ford going through its goth phase. The angular SUV is massive, futuristic, and officially the most expensive SUV in the world, starting out at around 1.9 million dollars. The Karlmann has all the treats that every super villain needs, containing reclining seats, a PlayStation 4, a coffee maker, and a massive TV.
The optional features include alligator skin seats, real gold trimmings, or bulletproof plating. Apparently most of their customers opt for the bulletproof option, which makes me wonder what kind of people are buying these cars? Unfortunately the Karlmann King’s so heavy that it can only get up to 87 miles per hour, but who needs speed when your car is this intimidating?
Rolls Royce Phantom
Don’t you just love star gazing? Sitting on a hill, staring at the sky, thinking about the universe? You know who doesn’t have time to star gaze? Billionaires. That’s why the rolls Royce Phantom displays 1,526 fiber optic stars on the ceiling above the passenger’s heads. Rolls Royce gives the owner the option to customize the stars, to depict any constellation. And if you look closely, you’ll notice shooting stars firing across the car’s interior. As you can expect, the Phantom’s optional features are absolutely insane, from anti-paparazzi curtains, and secret umbrella compartments, to night vision cameras, and a humidity controlled cigar holder.
There’s nothing classier than fine art, and one of Rolls Royce’s features turns the Phantom into a literal art gallery, displaying work from critically acclaimed artists on the dashboard. This clip shows the different options available, offering art made out of diamonds, 24 karat gold, or feathers. I think I’d stick with the gold. Like everything, Rolls Royce takes this a bit far. For the Immortal Beauty dashboard option, they grew an individual rose in the English countryside, flew it to Nymphenburg Palace in Germany, then recreated the flower in porcelain. You can display some of these porcelain copies in your car, taking a piece of England with you wherever you go. Personally though, I keep England with me by loading my car with teabags and crumpets.
Gold Rolls Royce
The Sultan of Brunei is a pretty flashy guy. He holds the largest private car collection in the world, owning around 7,000 cars, with a combined value of over five billion dollars. He has over 600 Rolls Royces, but one stands out above the rest. When the Sultan of Brunei’s son got married, the Sultan had parts of their Rolls Royce limousine plated with 24 karat gold. The car was adorned with lavish gold ornaments, and an outdoor seating area, showing the newlyweds off to the public. Along with a fresh lick of gold paint, this brought the car’s value up to 14 million dollars. Nice and subtle, Mr. Sultan.
Custom Class
The Sultan of Brunei isn’t the only person who decided to pimp their already decadent ride. A company called Garson specializes in taking mass produced vehicles, and glamming them up. In 2018, they unveiled a special Mercedes-Benz SL600 at the Tokyo Auto Show. The Merc was bedazzled with over 300,000 Swarovski crystals, its dashboard, gear shifter, and wheels all getting the same treatment. Garson’s Mercedes is pretty astounding, but I’m not sure I’d like to drive behind it on a sunny day. Lots of other luxury car companies stick solely to interiors, aiming to make preexisting cars more luxurious inside for passengers. The custom Mercedes Viano by Carisma, for example, takes a pretty nice people carrier, perfect for a taxi company, or a family of five, and turns it into a mobile cinema, with a huge flat screen TV, two reclining seats, a wool carpet, and a drinks bar.
Every car that Carisma works on is totally unique, so there’s no strict price for the Viano. They’ll tailor make the van to their customer’s exact specifications, and work out how much it’s worth at the end. I’m wondering how far you could push this. A van with a bowling alley, an arcade, a hot tub? Oh, I was kidding. Turns out two friends already built one in 2015, hoping to set the record for the world’s fastest hot tub. I wonder if it’s allowed to drive in the car pool lane. (narrator coughs) Arguably the sleekest custom car interior jobs are carried out by Russian company, Top Car, specifically with their work on the Porsche Panamera. Already a high end sports car, Top Car fit their Porsche with white crocodile leather, a Birchwood trim, and real gold accents.
These custom cars don’t come cheap, though. The Top Car Panamera priced at $567,850. In comparison, the hot tub car sold for just $26,500 in 2018. I know which one I’d rather have, but let me know your choice down in the Comments. Maybach 6 Cabriolet. Next up we’re gonna take a look at some concept cars, exploring what car companies think their vehicles will look like over the next 100 years. According to Mercedes, the Maybach 6 Cabriolet was designed to be timeless. A concept car that would’ve been seen as beautiful 100 years ago, and will still be seen as beautiful in 100 years. It’s a six meter long convertible, most of the length taken up by its massive hood.
The car is easily big enough to fit six people, but it only holds two, taking up the room with futuristic digital displays, and bright blue lights. Pretty, right? Only two of the Cabriolets have ever been made, and while the car isn’t currently available to buy, it’s already been used in music videos, and it’s set to be used as Bruce Wayne’s car in the upcoming DC movie, “The Flash.” That’s right, it’s a real life Batmobile.
Renault Trezor
Renault’s conceptual take on the sports car of tomorrow might seem pretty ordinary, until you see somebody try and get in it. The Renault Trezor doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it does reinvent the door. The Trezor is a one door car for two people, the entire top half of the car lifting up when the owners want to get inside. I call it the clam of the highway. If the Trezor’s a clam, then where are the pearls? Well, its door might seem like a gimmick, but the few Trezors that Renault actually made were incredibly quick.
They had a drag coefficient of 0.22, or in plain English, they were incredibly streamlined, due to their lack of doors. Like you’d expect, the futuristic car is completely filled with touch screens and computers, and it also features little Eiffel Towers on the hubcaps, making the Trezor one of the fastest, sleekest, and Frenchest concept cars around.
The Mercedes AVTR
If you think a collaboration between Mercedes-Benz, and the James Cameron movie “Avatar” sounds insane, then you’d be correct. Regardless, the Mercedes AVTR is the end result of this strange mashup. A concept car ripped straight out of a sci-fi film, the car is steered with a single flat joystick, instead of a steering wheel, allowing you to tear through Pandora’s highways with the flick of the wrist. Remember when I said the Renault Trezor doesn’t reinvent the wheel? Well, the AVTR does, carrying you around on four blue light filled donuts.
This unusual shape means that the wheels can rotate, allowing the AVTR to drive sideways, or even diagonally. Another totally unique feature are the 33 scales that run along the back of the car. Mercedes calls these scales bionic flaps, and they allow the driver to send signals to the outside world. When the car speeds up, the flaps become more streamlined, and when you brake, they flip up, letting other drivers know exactly what you’re doing. An updated version of the car showcased at the 2021 Munich Auto Show, can read your mind for real.
Once you stick some electrodes on your head, and plug yourself in, the AVTR uses something called a brain computer interface, to record your brain activity, allowing the driver to trigger some functions of the vehicle without moving a muscle. This new matrix style way of driving might just be the future of travel, but just try not to sneeze, or you might set the wind screen wipers off.
BMW Vision Next 100
If a car based on an alien planet isn’t good enough for you, how about a car that looks like an actual spacecraft? For BMW’s 100 year anniversary, they started to use the motto, “The Next 100 Years,” exploring what BMW cars could look like in 3016. Apparently that car is a self-driving four door sedan, completely covered in lizard like scales, with wheels enclosed in a protective casing. The interior and exterior of the Vision Next 100 is covered in metal triangles, that move as the car turns and accelerates, making the car appear as if it’s breathing. I can’t tell if this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, or the creepiest.
The scales on the outside of the car are just for show, but the interior triangles flash red whenever there’s an obstacle or hazard coming up in the road ahead, making sure that the driver is prepared for anything. The car is self-driving, but if the drivers of tomorrow want to get behind the wheel, like grandma used to, it features a steering yoke that automatically folds out of the dashboard. Once they get driving, the wind screen acts as a heads up display, telling the driver when to brake and speed up, and showing them where they should drive on the road for maximum speed.
The car also constantly scans the road, locking onto cyclists with a big red box. Unfortunately, I mean, thankfully, the car doesn’t fire rockets at the cyclists. It simply warns the driver of a potential hazard. The scales inside the car also spinning around and flashing red. If these hazards disappear behind a wall or parked car, the BMW tracks them, making sure the cyclist or pedestrian doesn’t suddenly spring out in front of you. Of course we’re a while away from this heads up display technology being real yet, but with Tesla already blending the world of video games and driving, we may not be all that far off.
Bentley AI Concept
According to Bentley, none of the concepts we’ve seen so far are luxurious enough. To them, being that their brand name, and the decadent custom cars they produce, are almost synonymous with luxury, the effort of having to look at the road is too straining for their elite customers, and it’ll soon be a thing of the past. Bentley’s concept car for the future is completely open plan, featuring four seats gathered around a futuristic coffee table, with no steering column in sight.
The star of the show is of course, the little blue AI hologram butler in the middle, who you’ll be able to look in the eye as you ask them to shuffle your retro mix of Justin Bieber and Ed Sheeran. Move along, MBUX, I’ve got a new best friend. Every car company seemingly has their own futuristic concept ideas, and new concept car designs appear on social media every day. The future looks bright and comfy.
Read More >>> Best Mercedes Benz cars
From mobile lounges stuffed inside limousines, to self-driving cars overflowing with gadgets and pod-like seats, who knows what the elite will be driving in 10 years time. I know one thing for sure, I definitely won’t be able to afford one. Which of these luxury cars would you buy if you had the money? Let me know down in the Comments below, and thanks for Reading.
