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A 1985 Ford Escort for $915,000? If it was owned by Princess Diana

What makes a used car worth more than the car itself? If it was owned by John Lennon. Or Muhammad Ali. Michael Schumacher, perhaps, or Stirling Moss. This year’s edition from the Hagerty organization of its “Power List” makes for amusing reading even if youÂ’re not on it. But you can make believe that you are. Essentially, the list, which was launched only last year, tracks the impact of celebrity ownership of a vehicle on its value, as measured by its worth at auction. Nearly 400 sales of celebrity cars and bikes have been analyzed from around the world by Hagerty using market data and “expert” analytics. Hagerty is aware, certainly, that famous folks — from royalty, sports, movies and music — grab gobs of attention from ordinary people. ThatÂ’s why the 2023 Power List comprises these categories: Art Cars, Racing Drivers, Movies and TV, Musicians, Royalty, Screen Stars, Sporting Icons. But you don't have to be a rock star or a F1 pilot to get listed: Princess Diana, besides an Escort Turbo RS that she owned between 1985 and 1988, numbered a convertible 1994 Audi 80 Cabriolet and a Jaguar XJS Cabriolet among her rides. HereÂ’s a look at some of the more notable entries: Racing driver category: In pole position was an unlikely titleholder, a 1976 Ford Bronco. This was the car bought new by legendary Canadian Formula 1 driver Gilles Villeneuve and untouched since his death; it sold at the Aguttes auction in Paris last December for $148,000, a huge 210% increase over the $47,800 that Hagerty would value a regular example in the same condition. Just a note: The list doesnÂ’t include race cars, only vehicles kept privately by the drivers. Musicians: A 1974 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow had been Freddie MercuryÂ’s personal chauffeur-driven transport from 1979 until his death in 1991. Without celebrity ownership, Hagerty would value the Silver Shadow at a lowly $9,500, a car that would take a lot of time, effort and money to restore properly. But add in MercuryÂ’s aura and bids ended at $362,500. “ItÂ’s no surprise that MercuryÂ’s car dominated our Musicians list on the 2023 Hagerty Power List,” the company said. Movies and TV: For those readers now emerging from hibernation since 1968, the news is that the historic Highland Green Mustang from “Bullitt” remains at the top of the Power List for the second year running.

2018 Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII First Look | It's all new, we swear!

At a well-decorated warehouse just off Hollywood's Sunset Blvd., a gaggle of PR, design, operations, and executives from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars are stoking our excitement for the all-new, 2018 Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII. Along with the normal Rolls-Roycey words like "heritage," "brand," and "bespoke," was a repeated phrase. A phrase that shouldn't be necessary. A phrase eliciting a concept that should be obvious if true. The new car, it said, was "not an evolution" on the current Phantom. That, friends, is exciting to hear. Don't get us wrong, we like the train-engine-bolted-to-a-horseless-carriage look, and the beast's scale and presence on the street. Trouble is, since the car first took to unsmoothing our air with its cathedral-facade front end in 2003, the looks have gotten a little, um, tired. Blame the mercilessness of time. Blame the success of the car, which means they're on every street corner in west Los Angeles. Blame the "imitation-is-the-most-sincere-form-of-flattery" Chrysler 300. Blame the fact that this car's magnetism vaults it into the public eye more frequently than a Kardashian. Whatever the cause, fact is, the Phantom needs a reboot. A subtle evolution a la the last Bentley Continental won't do. The lights are out. We're led through a darkened antechamber into the full-dark of the warehouse. We can see the shape. It's big and has the classic squared off D-pillar. The front, too, has the required grille bigness. It is enviously long. Let's pause. Here at Autoblog, we're known for giving people advice. We take that responsibility seriously, because the results of our evaluations and expertise are often the reason someone has dropped thousands of dollars on a car they're going to live with for many years. We try to keep it on cars and to not to get too preachy on the life coaching. We're going to break that convention now. Here's a life pro tip: The more frequently that someone in a position of power repeats a claim, the more likely it is that that claim is false. The lights click on. The men and women of Rolls-Royce, for whom this project is a true honor, clap in genuine appreciation and reverence for what they've been a part of. And the journalists in the room turn to each other and mouth, "Wait, is this the new one?" If you're casually familiar with the current-gen Phantom, based on seeing them pull into the club as you wait in line, then this new one will likely register as just another Phantom when it hits the streets early next year.

Bugatti and Rolls-Royce set annual sales records in 2022

Most of the carmakers positioned on the industry's upper echelons ended 2021 on a high note, and many posted even better sales figures in 2022. Bugatti and Rolls-Royce independently announced that they set new sales records in 2022 and noted that the future looks bright. Bugatti is one of the smallest car companies so its record might not initially sound impressive: it delivered 80 cars in 2022, which is exactly the number it predicted at the beginning of that year. If that seems like a rounding error, keep in mind that every car it offers is a hand-built, limited-edition model with a price tag pegged well into the six digits. Viewed in that light, making and delivering 80 cars is an impressive feat. That number includes the 400th example of the sold-out Chiron, the last nine units of the Chiron Super Sport 300+, and the 10 planned examples of the Centodieci. Bugatti points out that 80 cars is a record for the Molsheim factory, which was inaugurated in France in 2005. Bugatti has its work cut out for the coming years. It needs to build the final units of the Chiron, the 99 examples of the Mistral (pictured), and the 40 units of the track-only Bolide. All of these cars are sold-out so the firm currently doesn't have a car to sell but that's set to change soon: Bugatti-Rimac CEO Mate Rimac pledged to release more details about Bugatti's future in the second half of 2023, and he added that "Bugatti will honor its rich motorsport heritage and its connection with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which celebrates its centenary year." Across the English Channel, Rolls-Royce delivered 6,021 cars in 2022, an increase of 8% compared to 2021 and its first annual result above the 6,000-unit mark. The company notes that these cars went to customers in about 50 different countries. Demand for personalized cars was at an all-time high in 2022 and the average selling price of a Rolls-Royce now stands at approximately ˆ500,000 (around $536,000). Rolls-Royce's biggest market remains the United States, where sales increased in 2022, followed by China, where sales posted a single-digit drop due to COVID-related lockdowns and other headwinds blowing across the nation. Sales in Europe increased in 2022 as well in spite of the war in Ukraine; Germany and the United Kingdom are among the nations that posted record sales in 2022. Interestingly, one of Rolls-Royce's largest Asian markets is South Korea, and more Bespoke orders came from the Middle East than from any other region.