Tales From the Block – 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost
Rolls-Royce Ghost Plays the Sad Role of a Defective Orphan
Once a brand-new vehicle rolls out of the factory, it’s bound to live a life of twists and turns. The average vehicle sees multiple owners, states, and maybe even wrecks during its lifetime. For many, the auction block is an inevitable layover. Even for vehicular royalty like this Rolls-Royce Ghost.
“Tales from Block” highlights one of the many steps pre-owned vehicles go through in our country. Once the original owner sells or trades-in their ride, it can either be sold at the lot, sent to auction, or even scrapped if it’s a really crappy one. Cars expensive and cheap are typically sent to the auction block in hopes of attracting solid buyers. We keep the auction house’s, buyer’s and seller’s names secret for privacy reasons.
This 2011 Rolls-Royce Ghost is a perfect example of a high-end car owner utilizing a major auction to locate a worthy client. How? If a seller believes their hometown buyers won’t bring the money desired, they’ll allow an auction house to broaden the reach to a national level. Perhaps a midwest town isn’t the best market for a British heavyweight.
With little over 37,000 miles, this Ghost has certainly been driven. It’s not clear whether the vehicle was driven for personal use only, or put up for hire (as many Rolls do), though the commercial-quality wrap indicates the latter. Yes, I said wrap, because the gotti black and white masks an otherwise handsome metallic blue body. If you pay close attention, you can actually see the wrap starting to peel in a few areas.
Auction Day
Surrounded by Bentleys and S-Classes, the Ghost hit the auction block and was instantly a hit. Online bids poured in left and right, though none from the actual auction floor. At the end of its feature, the Rolls-Royce Ghost had successfully locked a $92,000 bid, which is over 50% less of its original $245,000 starting MSRP. We later found out the selling party agreed to this bid, despite having set a $98,000 reserve ahead of the auction.
Interestingly enough the buying party was local, which further sped up the buying and transportation process. Unlike other stately sedans that ran across the block the same day, the Ghost found a home quickly and at a heck of a price.
In the time between the vehicle being sold, and this story being written, a rather unfortunate turn of events took place. We found out the buyer of the Ghost has filed for arbitration of his purchase, claiming problems with the vehicle. The nature of the problem(s) isn’t clear, but may be Carfax or Autocheck related. In case you’re not aware, both of these are accident, history, maintenance, and ownership reports.
What do you think about this Rolls? Would you take the plunge at 60% depreciation, or would you avoid it like the plague?