Rolls Royce
There is no greater symbol of luxury than Rolls Royce. The cars are a status symbol for the truly rich. Rolls Royce has a long history of building the finest luxury cars in the world and this is something that continues to this day. They are one of the few companies in the world that still hand builds their cars. Not only does this ensure the high quality of the vehicles it limits how many can be made. Increasing the brands value as a status symbol.
Rolls Royce are probably the most famous producer of luxury cars in the world, this is a position that they have held for quite some time. The company was founded just after the turn of the twentieth century and has always been focused on building top quality cars. While the cars may sometimes have been questioned on the grounds of performance there was never any question when it came to luxury. Rolls Royce still builds their cars by hand just like they always have and this is a big part of what makes the cars so famous. Obviously hand built cars can only be built in limited numbers and this exclusivity is a big part of the appeal of a Rolls Royce.
In recent years there has actually been a pretty big improvement in the performance side of the cars that are produced by Rolls Royce. They entered into a partnership with BMW to provide the engines and various other parts for their cars. This resulted in much better performance since BMW was able to put much greater resources into research and development. Ultimately this partnership resulted in BMW taking over ownership of Rolls Royce although this only happened as the result of a complicated deal involving Volkswagen and the naming rights of the cars. After the takeover BMW built a new production facility for Rolls Royce and really helped to market the cars. This has resulted in strong sales, although of course Rolls are still only available in limited numbers.
If there is one thing that stands out on a Rolls Royce it is the hood ornament. Known as the Spirit of Ecstasy it is what makes a Rolls Royce a Rolls Royce. It is also probably the only hood ornament anywhere that has its own anti-theft device. The ornament is designed to be retracted inside of the body of the car in the event that anybody tries to tamper with it. The other iconic feature of a Rolls Royce is the grill. This has remained unchanged on a Rolls Royce for decades. In fact this is the reason that BMW ended up owning the company. They had the rights to the name, ornament and grill design. Volkswagen realized that you couldn't have a Rolls Royce without these and ultimately ended up having to sell the whole company to BMW for far less than they had paid for it.