Rolls-Royce Cullinan review

The Cullinan introduces a renewed functionality to Rolls’ typically magnificent cabin ambience. Real metal pillars connect the centre console and fascia, and there’s water-resistant ‘box grain’ leather on the dash-top, doors, and even the back of the key. The door bins comfortably swallow water bottles.

The driving position redefines imperious. The bonnet projects straight ahead. It’s like steering a pier, but rather than a funfair at the end, there’s only a Spirit of Ecstasy. It’s a Phantom, lifted a foot further off the deck.

Interestingly, the Phantom’s slender steering wheel is chunkier here: chauffeurs usually pilot the former and get used to using their fingertips, while the Cullinan is more likely to be driven by the owner. The instrument dials have beautiful graphics, the power reserve gauge is present (no rev counter in a Rolls), and the central multi-media display is now a touchscreen.

Speaking of which, how’s the tech in the Cullinan?

There’s a vast suite of assistance systems, including a four-camera system with panoramic and helicopter view, and an industry-leading hi-res head-up display. But the automotive industry is moving with unprecedented speed right now, and with few updates since 2018, the BMW software and graphics that underpin the infotainment are starting to feel a bit dated.

What rescues the Cullinan entirely is that the tech plays such a limited role in your experience of the car. Instead you find yourself utterly beguiled by the rotary temperature controls, the astonishing softness of the leather, the click of the switches. Everything operates with a heavy, deliberate action.

What’s life like for those in the back?

Rear passengers sit higher than those in front, either in lounge configuration or in sumptuous individual chairs (you can have a cool box and whisky glasses with that set-up, and whatever else you want – Rolls doesn’t have anything as proletarian as an options list, instead it has people to cater to your every whim).

But in terms of outright space, the news isn’t so good. Those rear opening doors (like the fronts, they can be closed electrically with a button) have quite small apertures, and the legroom isn’t massively generous. There’s certainly more space in the back of a stretched Range Rover. And you don’t sink into the seats as much as you expect.

But then you get moving. You sit back, admire the starlight headliner, the complete absence of noise, take your shoes off and wriggle your toes in the bottomless shagpile and realise you have very little to complain about.

Luxury travel for the luggage as well?

Depends on the configuration you go for. Go easy on the options and there’s 600 litres of space on offer. But we’d be tempted to limit our load space by specifying the Recreation Module, a motorised drawer specifically designed according to the owner’s preferred pastime. Or maybe ordering the Viewing Suite, which stores a pair of folding leather-clad, rear-facing seats and cocktail table in a special cassette.