Rolls-Royce Dawn Review

The Rolls-Royce Dawn is one of the most exclusive drop-tops in the world, a car that offers unparalleled levels of elegance and exclusivity. This is the car for people who don't just vacation on an island — they buy the island outright. The Dawn is effectively a bespoke convertible, and if you have the time and the budget, Rolls-Royce will customize your Dawn to your exact standards.

Compared to other Rolls-Royce models, the Dawn is smaller and more powerful than the Phantom Drophead Coupe convertible, and it employs unique sheetmetal and a new front end to make it look smaller and less imposing than the Wraith coupe on which it is based. While there are, technically, competing cars, nothing from Bentley or Mercedes can match the prestige of the Rolls-Royce Dawn.

Current Rolls-Royce Dawn
Rolls-Royce offers the Dawn as a single, lavishly equipped model. Most of the creature comforts you can imagine come as standard, including a self-adjusting air suspension, self-closing doors and four-zone climate control. Surprisingly, however, Rolls-Royce offers advanced safety features such as lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control as extra-cost options. Much of the options list is geared toward personalization of the Dawn's paint, leather and trim materials (not to mention gold plating or interior-lit polycarbonate for the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament). If you can come up with a way to customize the car outside of the options list, chances are Rolls-Royce will accommodate you.

The Rolls-Royce Dawn is powered by a turbocharged 6.6-liter V12 that delivers 563 horsepower and 575 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission. We haven't track-tested a Dawn, but Rolls estimates a 0-60 mph time of 4.9 seconds — not bad for a car that weighs two-and-a-half tons.

Naturally, performance is not the focus of the Dawn, though it is significantly quicker than Rolls' other convertible, the Phantom Drophead Coupe. It's the attention to detail found in the cabin that really sets it apart. Wood for the trim is split down the middle, so that the grain on one side of the car perfectly mirrors the other side. The leather is as rich as anything you'll ever feel, and we highly recommend kicking off your Louboutins and letting your bare feet ooze into the lambswool floor mats.

Though Dawn owners are likely to drive themselves (as opposed to Rolls sedan owners, who may well be chauffeured), the Dawn has a generous back seat with room for two adults. The devotion to rear-seat space, however, makes for a smaller trunk. We haven't spent much time in the Dawn, but its fixed-roof cousin, the Wraith, offers strong acceleration (with a transmission that uses GPS data about the road ahead to select the proper gear) and a glass-smooth, whisper-quiet ride. Aside from letting in the din of the outside world, we don't expect the Dawn to be too much different.

Used Rolls-Royce Dawn Models
Rolls-Royce introduced the Dawn for the 2016 model year. 2017 brought the introduction of the Dawn Inspired by Fashion edition. For 2018, Rolls-Royce added the Dawn Black Badge edition.

Read the most recent 2017 Rolls-Royce Dawn review.

If you are looking for older years, visit our used Rolls-Royce Dawn page.