Rupees 32 lakh. These days, that'll get you a nice executive luxury sedan. And not a basic one either. It'll have ventilated, powered leather seats, a touchscreen infotainment system and maybe even a hybrid powertrain. Something that'll really make you feel like you've arrived.
Right now, though, I'm standing in the display area at Dubai's Rolls-Royce Boutique – the first and only of its kind right now – staring befuddled at a price tag of Rs 32 lakh. Befuddled, because of course, it's not attached to a car. Nor to a motorbike, or a bicycle, or a surfboard. It's a picnic hamper; an optional accessory that you can put in your boot. Of course, this being Rolls, it takes 500 hours to build from oiled teak, saddle leather and polished aluminium, it houses Hungarian Ajka crystal glassware, and it can be customised to match your car.
And the look on my face right now – a mix of awestruck and baffled – is, it seems, why Rolls-Royce has brought me here. You see, the Boutique is not a showroom; that's a few blocks down the road. You can't buy a car here. This is simply a place for you to be awestruck and baffled; or 'inspired', as is the intention for actual customers. They come here to smell the leather that will eventually line their seats, run their fingertips over the wood that will become their dashboard, and wriggle their toes through several lambs' worth of wool to pick just the right carpet. They look at scale models of yachts, fiddle with custom-built electric guitars and picture themselves in some rather fashionable clothing on display, and yes, there are a few cars strewn around too, but it's all there for one explicit reason – to suck you into the Rolls life. So, that's what that feels like, then.
Rolls-Royce is a brand that's always leaned hard on tradition and history, and been quite firm about what it stands for, obstinately so sometimes. No pandering to trends, no base models, no diesels, no downsizing, and, for the foreseeable future at least, that's how it'll stay. The customers, however, are changing. They're younger, more fashion-forward, and generally live more active and interesting lives than ye olde aristocrats of the past, and this is something that must be addressed. At the end of the day it is still a business, and all businesses have to adapt to stay afloat. So, of course, Rolls is doing it in the most Rolls way possible. Say hello to the Black Badge.
