Like Maxie Kaan-Lilly, a 30-year-old real estate agent and model in South Florida. Her Rolls-Royce Dawn is her only car and she takes it everywhere, she said.
“It’s my ride-or-die,” she said of her white convertible.
Dawn prices start at over $350,000, before all options, and Kaan-Lilly considers her car both a sign of success and a business tool, she said. Customers are impressed when she picks them up at the airport and shows them around to view a property in the comfort and opulence of a Rolls-Royce, she added.
“Rolls-Royce is the pinnacle of success,” she said, “so when I got to that point in my career I decided it was an investment I wanted to make because it’s really an investment in yourself.”
Few other car brands have an average buyer age as low as Rolls-Royce’s. Rolls-Royce is owned by BMW, which also owns the British Mini brand. The average age of a Mini buyer in the US is 52, according to BMW, and about 55 for the BMW brand itself.
Data collected by the consultancy IHS Markit in the third quarter of 2021 shows that Rolls-Royce had a higher percentage of buyers under the age of 45 than many other luxury and exotic brands, including Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus and even Lamborghini.
The reason may be largely due to an age difference between the rich and the super-rich. People in Rolls-Royce’s target market—those with enough money to spend a third to more than half a million dollars on a car—are younger on average than those who are merely wealthy. Recent studies by Spectrem Group, a consulting firm that studies wealthy investors, show that people with wealth between $1 million and $25 million are, on average, about 62 years old. Those with a net worth of more than $25 million are on average 48 years old.
Spectrem Group Director Randy Wostratzky wouldn’t speculate on the reasons behind the age difference, but the difference fits the way Rolls-Royce Americas CEO Martin Fritches describes the brand’s customers. Rolls-Royce buyers tend to be entrepreneurs, elite athletes and entertainers, he said. He does not describe people who simply had high paying jobs and spent years carefully saving and investing, although there are some. For the most part, Rolls-Royce customers make their money while they are still young enough to enjoy it. And they don’t wait.
“We have a lot of new athletes and so on,” said Lonny Soza, president of Post Oak Motor Cars, a Rolls-Royce dealer in Houston. “Back in the day, these would be established MVPs and so on. These are the young guys just coming on the scene.”
“They’ve made a lot, I don’t want to say ‘sporty’, but slimmer, much cooler version of Rolls-Royce,” said Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, a marketing consultancy, of the new models.
Most importantly, however, according to Rolls-Royce and its dealers, were two additions to the lineup. First up is the Cullinan SUV, introduced in 2019. It appeals to younger customers, especially those with families, Fritches said. In addition to being practical as an SUV, it blends in better with other vehicles on the road today and appears less ostentatious than one of the big sedans.
Fadi Zaya, a 36-year-old Los Angeles luxury car consultant — he helps wealthy customers buy rare ultra-luxury cars — bought himself a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, although he admits he didn’t like it at first. Now it’s his favorite.
“I know others in the younger generation who like the SUV because it just feels younger,” he said.
In his SUV, Zaya got one of Rolls-Royce’s popular options, a ceiling starlight headliner that twinkles with tiny lights like stars in a night sky. However, he has been modified so that the “stars” are arranged to resemble the sky the night he was born, he said. (By default, the starlight headliner is set up to resemble the stars over the Rolls-Royce factory on the night the first Phantom was built under BMW ownership in 2003.)
Another factor bringing in younger buyers, according to dealers and business executives, is the Black Badge option package. On Rolls-Royce Black Badge versions, most of the chrome parts, such as the grille and Spirit of Ecstasy figurine riding above it, are made from dark, smoky black chrome. The suspension on these models has also been tuned for a slightly sportier ride, although – this is Rolls-Royce after all – the emphasis remains on a silky smooth ride.
The Black Badge option has been specifically designed to appeal to younger buyers who want something less flashy than Rolls-Royce’s traditional bright chrome, and it seems to work. It’s growing in popularity, says Jennifer Stroup, brand manager for Rolls-Royce Beverly Hills.
“We’re seeing more Black Badge orders than in the past, than in a long time,” said Stroup. “I mean, it’s a $50,000 option. It’s definitely a big choice.”
Rolls-Royce recently launched its own social media and content app called Whispers. Only available to Rolls-Royce owners, Whispers has the kind of content often placed in the slick magazines that many car brands send their owners. Whispers also offers opportunities to interact with other owners and offers such things as special travel packages.
More than one according to the automaker, a quarter of Rolls-Royce owners in America are Whispers members, and they tend to be younger. The app provides access to a world of others with, apparently, similar flavors and bank balances.
“It’s just unbelievable”, says Kaan-Lilly, “I mean, just network, meet friends, clients.”
It seems cliquey, but that sort of thing has a strong appeal to people with these levels of wealth and power, said luxury brand consultant Padraza.
“You want to know that the people you meet are safe and are your tribe,” he said. “That’s just the way the world is clustered.”