You see, in the real world, a Rolls-Royce is a bespoke thing. They don't come from specialty coachbuilders any more, but even in their modern factory-built form they're fantastically expensive custom-built things, with more choices for personalization than you can shake a very fat brochure at. Colors for the carpet, colors for the upholstery, colors (on the Phantom Drophead Coupé) for the soft top - would sir perhaps like the stitching on the seats to be in a tastefully contrasting color to the hides? They offer 44,000 different colors of paint, for Christ's sake (that's true, that is). I've never visited one, so I can't say for sure, but it wouldn't surprise me if real Rolls dealerships didn't even have any cars in them, except maybe one or two kept around to make the showroom meet expectations and for prospective customers to (have their chauffeurs) test drive.

So, then, in This Year's Model, we have Mr. Benjamin Stark walking into a Rolls-Royce dealership in a strange city and buying a million-dollar* Silver Spectre Drophead Coupé (the TIA universe's turboelectric successor to the real-life Phantom) off the peg, as it were. "I want to buy that car." "Of course, Mr. Stark. Shall we start the design with the interior or exterior configuration?" "No, no. I want to buy that car. That one sitting right there. The grey one with the brown leather. And I want to take it with me right now."

There's something kind of working-Joe-made-good about that. He doesn't want his name specially engraved on the glove box lid or some fantastically unique combination of paint shade and carpet stitching that no other car on Earth has. He didn't even go in there looking for a Rolls - he was probably going to sniff the Astons - but as soon as he walked into the showroom and saw the car, he thought, "Right, I'll have that one."

It's another indication that he was never really taught how to function as an actual rich guy. I like that about him.

--G.
* A real '08 Phantom Drophead costs around $500,000, if memory serves. I'm making the standard nearish-future SF assumption that Things Cost More in the Future.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.