FIRST LOOK: New Rolls-Royce Cullinan - Upgrading The World’s Most Luxurious SUV
The Cullinan, Rolls-Royce’s controversial super-luxury SUV (at least to those who can’t afford one) is now its most popular model, and has been given a mid-life tickle-up.
The changes for the Cullinan Series II are driven by the evolving Rolls customer, who is just 43 in 2024. And that younger customer wants, says Rolls, ‘bolder forms of self-expression’. On the outside that means new vertical daytime running lights, an illuminated ‘Pantheon’ grille and 23in wheels.
Inside, the luxe is dialled up even more, with the likes of a bamboo-based ‘Duality Twill’ interior that has up to 2.2 MILLION stitches and 11 MILES of thread, while ‘Placed Perforation’ seats create imagery through the position of over 100,000 tiny holes.
There’s also a Cullinan Black Badge model from the get-go, again determined by that younger customer: when the Cullinan was launched in 2018, over 30% were chauffeur driven; today, it’s less than 10%. There’s more power than standard, an uprated chassis, and no shiny chrome.
Do the tweaks keep it a rung above the Bentley Bentayga and Range Rover? Top Gear’s Jason Barlow has been to find out…
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Chapters:
00:00 The Cullinan Series II
02:07 Walkaround With Anders Warming
06:50 Interior With Christine Franck
09:45 Conclusion
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First Drives: bit.ly/TGFirstDrives
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What do you think of the updates to the Cullinan?
Is that a keyhole on the front door?
Ich glaub dem chinesischen Markt gefällt das ❕👌🏼 Mich persönlich, holt dieses Design nicht ab 🤷🏻♂️ Aber ich bin auch kein Rolls Royce Kunde 😅 Lieben Gruß aus Berlin 🇩🇪 Ramsi 🙋🏻♂️
Looks like heavily inspired by the Hongqi EHS-9 design at the front.
@@vengadeshkannavathy7225 😂😂
Nothing Mansory can't fix.
After ruining their own designs, bmw is now busy doing the same to rr
I agree they've butchered the front of the Mini.
Not like the cullinan was ever really beautiful
The worst thing about BMW Designers! Making the high end cars limited to colors and options!!! And who told BMW that black grill is more beautiful than chrome?
Culinan came pre-ruined.
The front sigh
What will Mansory do now, their job has been taken away from them.
😂
How much uglier can mansory make this now, poor mansory 😢
Best comment yet!!! Untacky as fuuk...like Mansory
Best comment, Winner 😂
😂😂
WOW that front end is spectacularly awful.
Now the front looks like some Chinese knockoffs😂
Amazingly still better than before
Looks better than the last
Don't let this get into production
@@Kahuthia it's already in production
5:02 That front end looks so cheap.
Looks like a mansory bodykit
Rolls Royce is the only brand where masonry bodykits look good Let that sink in
They fked it up with those lights and diagonal lines in the bumper.
Also finally removed the side blinkers for countries that don't require them
Well, I wouldn't say it's the headlights... rather, this LED strip, which makes his look sadder. But the worst thing is the huge air intakes like on sports cars, which are completely inappropriate here in this form!
The front vents make it look cheap
The lights are okay'ish but the bumper really really ugly and feels sporty for a classic SUV
Those side intakes are taken straight off the pre-facelift 3 series...
Whoever designed the Spectre should have done the refresh on the Cullinan.. that thing is gorgeous
Nope. Spectre has that weird and ugly split headlight thing from BMW 7 series.
@@the80386 Its the car that did it better tho
Anders also designed spectre
Not gonna lie, I'm not feeling it.
Im not gonna lie. I totally feel you
@@mathieubrosseau1153not gonna lie. I feel how you felt him.
@@mathieubrosseau1153 i dunno bauss, itz kinda gae" -pink guy
For real.
You cannot afford we don't care😊
Rolls is getting design tips from BMW
Funny enough BMW owns Rolls Royce
And not good ones either
All RRs are built on BMW platforms.
@@AtheistOrphanwrong, the x7 is based on this car chassis, but the ghost used to be 7 series, now it's own chassis, the phantom is it's own and the Specture is a shorted version of the phantom chassis
came here for this comment, first thing I thought of when looking at the lower half of the front end
Front looks soo sad...........
It looks like its crying💀
Hope we all get one those I'm the future
No wonder, it saw itself in the mirror and couldn't believe how awful it's make over was.
more like a chineese face
They ruined the headlights and front intakes
They ruined everything, let's face it.
That's a face only a mother would love.
I am not liking your comment because I don’t want to spoil that beautiful 69 likes number…
No its looks like stormtroupler from star wars its best design
the typ eof peopel who buy these thigns want a "fuck you" look, as long as thats there, it doesnt really matter if it loooks good. leftism, new world order
9 mins into the video, the Cullinan had already depreciated £125k 💰
Never expected in a million years that Rolls Royce would screw up a design this bad
Still looks like a London Taxi...
Ja, ich glaub RR nutzt als Basisfahrzeug ein London Taxi ❕😅
🤣
Excuse me! The London Taxi is much better designed, than this tackie beast.
typical reaction from guys who can’t afford one..
@@ericthes can you afford to comment ? 🤣
Nooooooooooooooo what did Rolls do?
They got chinesed
@@NotMyAccount German lol
@@hassyg4083 Nah. Even the germans got chinesed.
@@NotMyAccount Germans are quite naughty people they make inferior products now
They don't exist since they were bought by BMW, like every other compay bought by other.
BYD Cullinan?
Dudeeeee😂
Can't wait to see that
TBF, I think BYD would have made a nicer looking Cullinan.
BMW
Underrated comment fr Also the green interior with those textile seats looks so kitsch
The front looks like someone made a Cullinan in their basement.
Why why why?
Because taste and understatement are now dead.
BMW designer is the culprit 😀
To sell in China.
cullinan ❌ cryllinan 💯
True😂😊
Didn’t see this coming 😂
I cant believe they let the bmw designers ruin the timeless cullinan. Congrats on making a half a million dollar car look cheap and overstyleized
Timeless? Most people hated the original version when it first came out. This is no improvement, but let’s not get carried away
@@theseb1979 I agree that timeless might have been an exaggeration but it was imo the best first iteration of a luxery suv
Gosh...there is something utterly wrong with design department at BMW. Just when you think they've hit the bottom, they just keep digging 😂
Please don't ruin the phantom and ghost like that also
Day time running lights look like tears😢
Tears of Dissapointment when you realise its just a beemer dressed up. did you hear what christine said" we wanted to return to our history" a german woman working for the german owner with no history ties with RRoyce as it once was.
It's crying because it has seen how Fugly it looks.
@@darthgardnerIt’s got pretty much no BMW in it apart from the platform. Everything is bespoke
Because It's Really Crying for help
@@Homerlovesbeer2 ONLY THE SAME PLATFORM...?!
No one can bull$hit like Rolls Royce designers and marketing people. So many useless pieces of information. This video makes me not ever wanna be in a conversation with a RR owner.
Exactly what I was thinking. They overuse everything down to the words that they use to describe anything. It just screams pretentious and fake, which we know anyone buying a $500,000 car already is. If the buyer cared about luxury only without the pretentiousness, they'd just buy a $120,000 S-Class or something similar.
@@kalpamonx Honestly I think that throwing money at a maybach sedan or a cadillac eldorado, BMW I7, chrysler imperial hell even a Toyota Century. Is so much more worth the money than what a Rolls Royce will ever even be in comparison. They are kind of mediocre when it comes to providing things that makes them stand out with their luxury cars. And honestly their whole mentality to make their brand ''special'' and not being able sell your RR Spectre whenever you want is just stupid.
Its a German style of marketing.@@kalpamonx
all the Germans and east euros are running the show
The front end looks like what you'd get if you asked a not-very-talented five year old to draw a robot.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🍻
Or a bmw designer
@@Lukeywoodsey No BMW designer is that ugly or angular.
@@cbotten106 have a look at the XM and come back 🤷♂️😂
@@Lukeywoodsey Yeah, I was actually joking about a portrait of the human beings who do the designing being drawn by a five year old and the result coming out at angular and ugly as this. Picasso style perhaps. The XM is pretty egregious, Label Red in particular.
Now I understand why the thumbnail is a picture of the rear three quarters
Fk, they changed the thumbnail
lol
Didn’t expect RR-bro to hit a Blur reference right out the gate. 😂
Woo-hoo!
The need to get their head checked. Awful design
Its almost as if some car manufacturers have been told to make their cars look undesirable *Bmw* *ferrari - 12 cillindri* and now RR
So true i wast just thinking the same thing
The 12 cilindri is beautiful in my opinion but I can see why people would hate it
Ferrari nailed it with the 12C, Rolls-Royce ruined it.
And all the Mercedes since 2016
The ones that look like the A class. I think this is down to gen z designers or designers who think this will appeal to gen z, who are the worst kind of people to give judgment on the looks of the car
Looks like a loaf 🍞 of bread 🍞
Looks like a loaf (bread) of bread (bread)
And costs a whole bloody bakery.
😂
The arse end reminds me of the new, electric london cab
Gave up at 6.03. I wasn't "Warming" to him or the car..
More influence of bmw looks esp the front
I don't understand why, especially on a vehicle at this price point, the wheels are not specific to left and right. It means that the rims are 'pointing' forward on one side and backwards on the other. I don't think this is excusable in this marketplace.
Great point actually
That's not a front view I like to see on a Rolls-Royce
Looks like one of those Chinese knockoffs of a Cullinan
Given the amazing car designs coming out of China recently, the Chinese probably would've done a better job.
Front is a bit saggy like its driver most likely
The outgoing design looks bolder and gives off the way effect more 🤷♂️
There's a good ten of them near me (I live in a big city centre) that I see regularly. In black they can easily be mistaken for a taxi but in lighter colours they really do look good in person.
I think the cover image of this video was changed from frontal to rear. The frontal photo was quite bad visually.
Is it based on a Black Cab? it looks the same?
The Front End Kills It. The Way The Bottom Inlet Look Just Throw The Whole Ting Off
Wow, the audio in this video is so crisp. It sounds like a voice over recorded in a studio.
Front looks bad doesn't expect this with rolls royce !!
No it doesn’t look bad at all
Looks awful the symmetry is all off- the lower valance looks cheap and nasty- the DLR's look straight off a KIA. They've butchered the front like they have the Mini.
Looks better
It looks gangsta af what are you people talking about
I agree, especially the angled air intake shape in the front just doesn't suit Rolls Royce
Can the customization of those rear compartment seats also carry the interior compartment colors or do they come basic black?
Wow! Metal door handles. Just like every car for 80 odd years.. Well done for staying awake through all that marketing guff though Jason.
The people at Rolls Royce speak very good English. For 300k I would expect metal door handles! The doors and handle arrangement are a copy of the 60's Lincoln Continental.
So what is this car's final colour going to be? Seeing as its only got the undercoat.
That front is just horrendous
I can't get over the fact that they ruined the front end of this car.. Hopefully someone will design a better after market bumper especially the lower intakes
Lower intakes inspired from X3 or X4???
The BMW effect again, first it was Spectre with split headlights like the 7 series, now it's the cullinan. At first i thought it was a counterfeit design generated by AI, until I saw Top Gear, utterly shocked, I clicked the video just to prove it was not a prank. Could have been better off with a rear design imo in the silhouette of the tail lights
2:08 😂lol🤣 The look of disgust playing the grille like a harp 😂
It’s hard to look at that front end. Actually depressing it makes it literally hard to watch this.
“The design has taken inspiration from the architecture in the mega cities where these cars spend most of their time” - SUVs are hypocrites on wheels
9:24 Jason cracks a joke 9:27 The german answers seriously 9:29 *"...Oh dear."*
I can’t unsee the Chester tear streaks each time l loook at it
I keep wondering why the phantom front end wasn't transferred to the cullinan.
One has to give credit where credit is due. It must’ve took a lot of effort to make the front that bad.
lol “we created different sounds with the metal pieces”. Prob a mistake
atleast they could have polished that metal grill at the front, for the show car ! you can spot all the scratches
What’s with those 2x black plastic bits at the front?
New London Taxi😂
They're 500k+, taxis aren't buying them
I really don't know why RR went this path. it was ugly when it was released, it's still ugly now. just because you have money doesn't mean you have taste or style. RR 'fitting into' a broad category of vehicles (SUV), "just because". another case of *just because you can, doesn't mean you should*
Rolls Royce heard everyone referring to cullinans as a London Cab and immediately started redesigning it 😂
I love how Anders controls his laugh so well.
My god the lower part intake is hilarious 😂 if it was shaped as a rectangular it will look way better wt the new redesigned DRL’s light.
Jason Barlow! As I live and breathe, good to see you again. After what, 20 years, it’s great to see and hear him again. Nerdy review but nicely executed
If they only finished the front grills all the way down to the bottom spoilers. It would look majestic
The front reminds me of one of the pigs from Kung Fu Panda
💀
This attention to materials reminds me to Pagani interiors.
Its odd theyre calling this series 2. Is it not the same car with refreshed styling?
I think this look elegant the subtlety of the changes just mean they didn't fix much the vertical lights give it character reminds me of the Cadillac
Old one is better
Totally agree brother
A shart on wheels…
Dont know about the new front bumper but I love the headlights
I don’t mind the light design. It’s just the bottom portion of the bumper that bothers me. Maybe if they continued the DRL further down into a square element it would look better.
Hongqi cullinan aka cullinian
Honqi would likely have done a better job with the front end.
Earlier, passing by Cullinane, I wanted to spit at him for class discrimination... Now for the lack of taste!
Rolls-Royce customers are buying the cars for their prestige, and timeless designs. Reaching a more fashionable, hipper clientele will ONLY do harm to RR. The same thing happened to Gucci: now people think the brand is trashy
Aftermarket bumper manufacturers have hit the jackpot🤑
Classy and tacky at the same time. Car for Kardashians and rappers. 😂
Expensive and tacky, that's all. No class any more.
Bmw designed this car for sure
All RRs are built on BMW platforms so I guess so.
She MW
The Shard or the shart?
I kind of like the lights but the front bumper gives me sports car vibes looks like a need for speed body kit
Those air intake god damn
Finally looks decent
Is that you, Stevie?
I can see hints of the last of the London taxis in the tail lights 😬
I like these videos when exterior and interior designers discuss the finished product! More like this please!
It looks like it ran into a wall while half-asleep and now it is very sad!
What is with the front end? It’s all out of proportion, and don’t like the big vents along the bottom.
the inclined lines of the bumper just doesnt match with the headlight and the grill
There's an awkwardness to the basic design, particularly evident in the side view, which will remain until there is a wholesale redesign. Pushing the front wheels forward and very gently animating the beltline toward the rear might help, but I'm confident that the next generation of this car will be quite lovely. This one has the unfortunate proportions one might expect of a commercial vehicle, not a Rolls Royce.
It looks great, I can imagine it in Black with an Orange interior 🔥
why no recliner seats
Cullinan: putting the cull into the Rolls Royce line up.
3:01 - Will look great when they get a top coat on that grey primer.
For me the previous design was amazing,now it looks like a sport suv
Rules? Royce?
The upper front is fixed now; the lower part air inlets; not so sure
Front end looks like master Shifu from kung fu panda