Effortless, imperious, unashamed luxury. Who could say no?

If I had to, I would guess the answer to that question is not many of us. Unfortunately, the luxury car to which I refer doesn’t come cheap but then, as everyone knows, you get what you pay for.

In the case of the Rolls Royce Ghost Series II you pay in excess of £200,000 – how much in excess really depends on your personal ambitions – and what you get is swathes of beautifully soft leather, luxurious deep pile carpets and, in my test car, acres of beautifully polished walnut veneer.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and, while the Ghost may be Rolls-Royce’s smallest model, it is still a big brute of a car. It is imposing, as a car in this class should be, and it turns heads like few others but beautiful? I, perhaps, would would be more inclined to apply the term elegant but, given the infinite options for personalisation – Rolls-Royce will try to accommodate any request – it’s not beyond the realms of possibility for a buyer with bad taste to turn elegance into something altogether less palatable. And yes, I do have the evidence to back up my claim.

Still, in Royal Blue with a satin silver bonnet the Ghost look every inch – all 212.6 of them – the stately limousine that it is. All that length is put to good use, too, and even with a six-footer in the driver’s seat there is no shortage of legroom in the back, unless you happen to play for the Manchester Giants.

For all its great size there are some beautifully delicate touches, particularly the steering column stalks, which are pencil thin. Here you’ll find the gear selector and it feels wonderfully contradictory to be able to move this two-and-a-half tonne behemoth with the aid of such light, slender controls. Combined with the skinny steering wheel it imbues the Ghost with a delightfully old-fashioned sense of occasion.

The sumptuous seats are surprisingly firm, supporting you rather than sucking you in, and can even be extended at the front so longer-legged passengers can get themselves comfortable.

Sitting in those seats the vista before you is as much a treat for the eyes as it is for the fingertips. The beautiful white analogue gauges, three of them, dominate the instrument binnacle. Rolls-Royce have seen fit to dispense with a rev counter and, instead, bestow upon the lucky driver a Power Reserve meter, which tells you exactly how effortless forward momentum is.

The multimedia system is as good as anything I’ve seen. Controlled with a large dial mounted atop the transmission tunnel it is intuitive and responsive. To set a destination on the sat nav you have the choice of voice, using the rotary dial to select letters onscreen or, and this is my personal favourite, tracing out the letters on the top of the touch sensitive dial. Short of perfecting mind control I can’t conceive of any way that Rolls-Royce could make life any easier.

Now, anything that isn’t made from wood, leather, metal or some other exotic material spewed forth from the heart of a dying star is going to feel a little out of place in what is, after all, a wonderfully appointed cabin, but the plastics that have somehow found their way into the car are tactile and soft to the touch.

It would be safe to say then, that sitting up front is a pretty special experience but even passengers forced to ride in the back don’t have too bad a time of it.

Rear seat passengers can catch up on daytime TV while being chauffeured to the supermarket – or is that just me? – on the screens mounted on the back of the front seats, or use the exquisite fold-out picnic tables to crack on with some proper work.

You’ve got your own climate controls in the back and, should your chauffeur neglect their duties and leave your door wide open, well, there’s a button for that. One subtle design touch that could well go unnoticed is the way the rear seats are gently angled towards each other to better enable social interaction, should you have company.

There’s room in the back for three but, in this instance, it really is a crowd.

Despite the commodious accommodation in the rear of the car, I think the place most owners of a Ghost will want to be is up front, where all the action is. Buyers, I believe, will want to drive it themselves and there are plenty of very good reasons why.

For a start, there’s the view. Sitting at the wheel, staring at the far edge of the bonnet in the distance, gazing at the place where the Spirit of Ecstasy should be… It’s okay, she’s there. Switch the ignition off and she disappears into the grille. Start the engine and up she pops again.

The 6.6-litre twin turbocharged V12 gives very little indication that it’s running, and not just at idle, either. So well insulated is the cabin that at times it would be easier to believe that you’re being blown along on a breeze, rather than propelled along by a 563bhp combustion engine.

That sensation dissipates very quickly, however, when you put your foot down and find yourself subjected to a rather less civilised shove in the back as the Ghost’s full potential is unleashed. It’s a moment that you’re unlikely to forget, not because of the astonishing way this near two-and-a-half tonne car picks up speed, but the way it does so with absolutely no fuss whatsoever.

Go a little faster sir? Certainly sir. No problem sir.

The 8-speed automatic gearbox is as smooth as silk thanks, in no small part, to some clever trickery that uses GPS to predict the most appropriate gear. Genius.

The steering is light and, while it makes manoeuvring the Ghost a doddle, it’s also vague and uncommunicative. It is direct but don’t expect to be throwing the car through a series of tight corners because despite its impressive performance, and I realise that I’m stating the glaringly obvious, the Ghost is no sports car. You can only push the laws of physics so far, after all.

It won’t take you long to learn, if you didn’t know already, that hustling the Ghost along is far from the best way to enjoy its very special qualities. This is a car that wants to do all the hard work for you. It wants to shut you away from the outside world, isolate you from all the noise, all the stress and convey you in blissful tranquillity to your chosen destination.

It doesn’t matter if you driver 30 miles, or 300, you’ll still arrive refreshed and relaxed. The Ghost is a beautifully efficient way to get around – if you ignore the fuel consumption, that is – such is the minimal effort required to drive one.

It’s a big car – unless you compare it to every other Rolls-Royce – but its mass is concealed behind a veil of light steering, supple suspension and delicate controls. It’s a magical piece of engineering that really has to be driven to be believed.

If you’re keen on saving the planet, but still insist on owning a Rolls-Royce, I suggest that you plant a lot of trees to offset your carbon footprint. Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, unsurprisingly, don’t make for pretty reading at 20.2mpg combined and 327g/km respectively.

Once you slip behind the wheel into the lap of ultimate motoring luxury any guilt you might have been feeling about the impact your purchase is making on the earth’s climate will almost certainly be wafted away on a carpet of air, such is the Ghost’s capacity for altering your perception of the world around you, of putting distance between you and everyone and everything else.

The Rolls-Royce Ghost is more than just a car, it’s an experience.

Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II

£180,720Price:

£225,210As tested:

6.6-litre twin-turbocharged V12Engine:

8-speed autoTransmission:

563bhp @ 5,250rpmPower:

575lbft @ 1,500rpmTorque:

4.9secAcceleration (0-62mph):

155mph (governed)Maximum speed:

13.3mpgUrban:

28.8mpgExtra urban:

20.2mpgCombined:

327g/kmEmissions (CO2):

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