The Best Chauffeur Cars in Los Angeles: Which Ones People Ask to Be Driven In, and Why

The car	What it is for	Who books it
Rolls-Royce Cullinan	The arrival: sill height, coach doors, a boot that takes the luggage	Weddings, hotel-to-venue evenings, the airport when the whole trip is one car
Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600	The quiet: two recliners, a console, the thickest glass we hold	Executives, a client who does not want to be seen, anyone doing calls in the back
Rolls-Royce Wraith	The entrance: a coupé with rear-hinged doors and a driver who has opened them before	Red carpets, dinners, a proposal
Mercedes Sprinter	Nine quilted chairs, a starlight headliner, luggage behind everybody	Wedding parties, crews, seven people on one schedule
Cadillac Escalade ESV	Three rows and a real boot in an American shape	Families landing at LAX, teams, the airport run with cases
BMW 7 Series	The executive saloon: quiet, correct, says nothing loudly	Meetings, a week of them, dinner after

What makes a chauffeur car, and why it is not the badge

A car is good to be driven in for reasons that have nothing to do with the engine. The rear seat has to be the best seat: legroom that lets you cross your legs, a window line low enough to see out of and high enough not to be seen through, and a door that opens wide enough to leave in a dress without a rehearsal. The sill height decides whether an arrival is graceful or a climb. The luggage has to go behind the people rather than on their knees. And the cabin has to be quiet enough for a phone call, which rules out most of the cars people picture when they picture a chauffeur.

That is why the sports cars are not on this list, and why the loudest cars in the fleet are the ones least often sent with a driver. A Huracán with a chauffeur is a car with its point removed. The cars below are the ones where the point is in the back.

The Rolls-Royce brief: Cullinan and Wraith

Rolls-Royce is the name that comes up first, and the Cullinan is the one most of these bookings end on. It is tall, so the seat is at hip height and you step out of it standing up; its rear doors are hinged at the back, so the kerb-side reveal is the whole car opening towards the camera; and the boot takes four people’s luggage without a conversation. It is the wedding car, the ceremony-to-reception car, and the car for an airport arrival when the whole trip is meant to be one vehicle. Which of the two colours here matters less than the date: it is the car that goes first on a Saturday.

The Wraith is the coupé, and a driver suits it rather than wastes it. Coach doors, a kerb and an audience are a combination best handled by somebody who has done it before, and the back seat of a Wraith is a better place than most people expect a two-door to have. It is the dinner car and the entrance car; it is not the luggage car.

The Maybach GLS 600: the one you are not seen in

The Maybach is asked for by a different person. A Rolls-Royce is a car you are seen getting out of; the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 is one you are not seen in at all, which for some bookings is the entire brief. Mercedes builds the GLS for seven and Maybach takes the third row out and puts two reclining, heated, massaging chairs in its place with a console between them, so the back is two first-class seats rather than a bench. The glass is thicker than the standard car’s, the running boards fold out when a door opens, and the whole cabin is built around the idea that the important person is not driving.

If the question is which of the three big SUVs to be driven in, the answer is worked through seat by seat in Cullinan vs Bentayga vs Maybach GLS, and it is not close on the narrow question of the back seat: the Maybach reclines and the other two do not. Here it is $1,799 a day for the car, with the driver’s hours on top.

When there are seven of you: the Sprinter and the Escalade ESV

For seven with a driver the answer is the van, and the Mercedes Sprinter is the one vehicle in the fleet designed around being driven rather than driving: nine individual quilted chairs in three rows, a starlight headliner, screens, lighting you set by colour, a refrigerated drawer, and the luggage still going in behind everybody. One vehicle replaces a convoy and keeps a wedding party or a crew on one schedule instead of three. The group vehicles, priced with the driver, are on the seven-seater chauffeur page.

If seven seats is literally what you mean, a family and a week of cases rather than a party, the Cadillac Escalade ESV is the three-row car with a real boot behind the third row, the American shape every hotel doorman recognises, and the one most often sent to the terminal for a family landing at LAX. The airport chauffeur page is the meet-at-the-terminal version of that booking.

The executive week: 7 Series, Range Rover Sport, G 63

Not every chauffeured day is an occasion. A week of meetings wants a car that says nothing loudly, and the BMW 7 Series is that car: a long-wheelbase saloon, a quiet cabin, a back seat built for a laptop, at $230 a day for the car with the driver’s hours as their own line. The Range Rover Sport is the same brief with a higher seat and a boot for the cases; the Mercedes-AMG G 63 is the executive car for the person who wants the arrival noticed after all. All three are on the chauffeur rates page with an evening and a full day worked out, car and driver together.

Chauffeur or self-drive, on the same car

Every car above is also a rental with the keys in your hand, and the two bookings are different products. Self-drive puts the car on its day rate against a refundable deposit and cover; chauffeured puts the car on the same day rate, adds the driver by the hour on a two-hour minimum, and takes no security deposit, because our driver is behind the wheel. The same Cullinan can be driven to the reception and be yours with the keys the morning after. The chauffeur service page sets out what the driver does between the legs and how the hours are counted; the rates page has the evening and the full day priced, car and driver together.

What it costs, and how it reaches you

The car is on its own day rate: the Cullinan from $2,500, the Maybach GLS 600 at $1,799, the Sprinter at $2,000, the Escalade ESV from $399, the 7 Series at $230. The driver is a separate line, by the hour on a two-hour minimum, with the waiting inside the block and the fuel in the driver’s line; the exact hourly figure and the evening and full-day totals are on the chauffeur rates page, and a chauffeured booking takes no security deposit. Say you want a driver when you enquire and the car and the driver come back as one total, and the car meets you where you name it: the hotel, the house, the terminal.