Ghost vs Phantom vs Cullinan vs Wraith vs Dawn: What Actually Separates the Five

Model	Figure	What kind of number that is
Phantom	saloon, RWD, 563 hp	The flagship. Two lengths. Built to be sat in the back of.
Ghost	saloon, AWD, 563 hp	Shorter, driven through all four wheels, set up for the owner at the wheel.
Cullinan	SUV, AWD, 563 hp	Five seats and a tailgate. The one that survives an itinerary.
Wraith	coupe, RWD, 624 hp	Fastback, two rear-hinged doors, ended 2023.
Dawn	convertible, RWD, 563 hp	Four seats, six-layer fabric roof, ended 2023.
In our garage	Cullinan, Wraith, Dawn	For the saloon brief, the Cullinan with a driver.

The one out of production Rolls-Royce Wraith The most powerful of the five, out of production since 2023. Settle the date first. Dates and rate →

Five names, one grille, and four of them share an engine

Almost everyone arrives at this question with the right picture in their head and the wrong name attached to it. The five are not variations on a theme; they are five different answers to five different evenings.

The confusion is earned. All five wear the same grille and the same figure on the bonnet, four use a version of the same twin-turbo V12, and since 2017 the Phantom, the Cullinan and the current Ghost have shared one aluminium spaceframe underneath — which is why they photograph as relatives even when they are nothing alike to sit in.

What separates them is the part no specification sheet leads with: how many doors, which way those doors open, whether the roof comes off, and whether the important seat is the front one or the back one. Get that right and the name follows. In our own Rolls-Royce garage: the Cullinan, the Wraith and the Dawn.

You are probably picturing one of these five things

This is the fastest way through, because it starts from what you saw rather than from a name you are trying to match to it.

Two doors, both hinged at the back, and no roof at all. That is the Dawn: a four-seat convertible with a six-layer fabric roof that folds away entirely. If the picture in your head has sky in it, this is the car. Two doors, both hinged at the back, and a long fastback roofline running to the tail. The Wraith, the most powerful of the five and the one with the longest doors the company has built in the modern era.

Four doors, a very long back seat, and somebody else at the wheel. The Phantom, the flagship, rear-wheel drive, every decision inside it assuming the owner is in the back; Car and Driver’s Phantom review is blunt that the car is best experienced as a passenger. Four doors, and the owner driving. The Ghost: smaller than the flagship, all-wheel drive, and the saloon most people mean when they say “a Rolls-Royce” without meaning anything more specific. Tall, five seats, a tailgate, and you step across into it. The Cullinan, the SUV, and since 2018 the model that brought most new owners to the marque.

The two saloons: the only pair where the choice is genuinely close

It is worth understanding, because it is the distinction that makes the rest of the range legible; for the back-seat brief, the Cullinan with a driver is the car to book.

The Phantom is the top of the company: rear-wheel drive, the longest car here by a wide margin, and the rear compartment is the point — reclining chairs, a table, a cabin tuned for silence rather than for the person steering. The Ghost sits a step below and is a different proposition rather than a cheaper one: shorter, driven through all four wheels, tuned around the person holding the wheel. One of these two announces itself from a hundred yards away and the other does not, and for a certain kind of owner that is the whole argument.

Both are built at two lengths, and the long ones are where nearly all the miscounting of this range begins. An Extended Wheelbase car is the same car with about 220 millimetres let into its middle, not a separate model; the lineup explained takes the rest of that vocabulary apart.

The coupe and the convertible: the roof is not the whole difference

Here the two cars really are close, because they were designed as a pair on the same underpinnings, and here the difference matters to a booking rather than to a purchase, because both are in our garage.

The Wraith is the fixed-roof coupe and the more theatrical car standing still: a fastback line, an enormous bonnet, 624 horsepower, and two rear-hinged doors long enough to want an open bay or a valet rather than a tight subterranean stall. Rolls-Royce ended production in 2023 and the showroom carries no page for it any more, so the Wraith’s production record is where the dates and the specification are now kept. Ours is black, and its Saturdays go first, so hold the date early.

The Dawn is the four-seat convertible on the same architecture, 563 horsepower, and it is the better car in this city for the plain reason that Los Angeles has a coast road and good light. Both seat four adults; for rear passengers who want an easy step in, the Cullinan. Choosing between those two has enough in it to deserve its own page, and the Cullinan, Wraith and Dawn comparison is that page — doors, seats, roofs and colours — once you have narrowed it to the three we hold.

The sixth name, and which of the five are in Los Angeles

The Spectre is the electric two-door that took the Wraith’s place in 2023: coach doors, four seats, no engine, roughly the same footprint. For that two-door shape with the V12, the Wraith is in our garage.

So the map is short. The Cullinan: five seats, all-wheel drive, and the only one of the three with a boot that takes a weekend’s luggage without argument. The Wraith, whose Saturdays go first. The Dawn, for the coast. And for the saloon brief, the Cullinan with a driver.

If what the day wants is a back seat and somebody else steering, put a driver from our chauffeur service in the Cullinan: it stands taller, its rear doors open wider, and stepping out of it in formalwear takes no athleticism whatsoever. That last part is usually the real reason a saloon was on the list.

What it costs, and how it reaches you

Every Rolls-Royce here carries the same $2,000 refundable deposit, held rather than charged and back 5–7 business days after the car returns. The Protection plan is priced per day off the deposit band, and all of them sit in the top band. The rate spread between the three bodies is narrow enough that it should not decide anything; the figures and the live calendars are on the Rolls-Royce page, and what the rest of the bill is made of has its own page.

Collection from our lot on Robertson Boulevard is free and delivery to the partner hotels in Beverly Hills is complimentary. Airport delivery is $150 both ways standard, where the car waits in the airport parking structure and you take the shuttle out to it, or $300 both ways VIP, where it is waiting at the terminal when you walk out — half that for one direction.

On the two-door cars the VIP tier earns its money more than it does on the SUV: a coupe with two suitcases and a shuttle is a worse start than a Cullinan with the same bags. Drivers are 21 or older with a licence held two years; under 25 there is a young-driver fee per day, and on this shelf it is the higher of the two we charge. Mileage, fuel and the rest are in the terms.