Julian Jenkins, who runs sales and brand for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, says the typical person buying one of the company’s cars is now 43 years old. Before 2010 the average buyer was 56, a drop of 13 years in a business where a base car starts around $500,000 and a bespoke build can double that.
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Jenkins gave the figure to Automotive News, and Autoblog picked it up on November 3. The brand has repeated a number in this neighborhood for years, but the 56 baseline is the new detail, and it frames the shift as a deliberate project rather than a drift in the customer base.
What Jenkins credits for the younger buyer
As Autoblog summarizes the interview, Jenkins points to the Cullinan SUV, the Black Badge models and the bespoke program as the draw for younger clients. He singles out the Coachbuild cars, the Boat Tail and the Droptail, as sources of interest among buyers who are not yet in their fifties, and notes that some of the brand’s youngest clients are in China, in their mid to late 20s. Black Badge versions of the Spectre and Ghost Series II, a yacht-inspired Cullinan and the Phantom also come up in the coverage.
At a dealer opening in Chennai, reported by Autocar Professional on October 16, Jenkins described a new generation of customers arriving alongside the established client base: younger entrepreneurs, members of business families and owners stepping up from other luxury brands. That account gave the average as the early 40s, about 13 years below 2010, which matches the 56 baseline. He also said the brand is chasing value rather than volume.
A half-million-dollar car and the same again for customization
Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury Institute, is quoted by Autoblog saying that baby boomers, once a large share of Rolls-Royce sales, are gradually fading from the buyer pool. He compared the brand’s repositioning toward bespoke work to the way Hermès operates. By his estimate a base Rolls-Royce costs about $500,000, and buyers often spend a similar amount again on personalization, so a typical purchase can approach $1 million.
The money is shifting into factory capacity. NewsBytes reports that BMW is putting £300 million into expanding the Goodwood plant, driven by buyers who want one-of-a-kind interiors such as a design with 3,000 iridescent feathers. Jenkins said no two cars end up alike because buyers are very specific. The same report repeats the 43 average and says buyers often come from technology or crypto backgrounds.
Showrooms rebuilt for a speakeasy crowd
The change has reached the dealerships, where the pitch is aimed at people who may not yet own a Rolls-Royce but are in the market for a luxury car, and where a bar and lounge now do some of the work once done by a quiet appointment room. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Beverly Hills added a Black Badge Lounge, a speakeasy-style room with a bar that hosts gatherings for owners and prospects. Autoblog notes that Bentley’s Jack Barclay store in London was the first Bentley dealer to adopt a boutique format, with a bar doubling as reception, and that Mercedes is building standalone stores for Maybach to give its buyers a more exclusive setting.
Autoblog’s view is that Rolls-Royce customers have always wanted bespoke cars. What changed, in this reading, was the marketing and the showroom experience, which the company set out to make appealing to a younger buyer. Pedraza’s own view, as Autoblog reports it, is that the reinvention is deliberate, and nothing in the coverage suggests the brand expects the average to climb back toward its pre-2010 level.
Why published ages differ by a year or two
Ages quoted over the last 18 months vary. A Carscoops report from August 2025 quoted Gerry Spahn, head of communications at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Americas, saying the average was about 60 fifteen years earlier and 43 now, and calling the brand the youngest in the BMW Group, ahead of BMW and Mini. The same piece says roughly half of the previous year’s Rolls-Royce sales were in North America and that the average new-car price climbed over a decade from under $300,000 to more than $500,000, a reminder that the buyers getting younger are also paying more. A July 2026 piece on Car Revs Daily gave the all-buyer average as 42 and quoted Jon Collbeth, president of Rolls-Royce North America, saying new customers who buy the electric Spectre average 35.
The spread suggests the 43 is a rounded, brand-wide estimate that moves with the mix of models and regions, and Rolls-Royce has not published the underlying survey, and no source defines whether the average covers new customers, repeat owners or both. Jenkins is quoted by name on the 43, but the sources do not say how many buyers the average rests on or which markets are included. Whether the figure keeps falling as the Spectre and Black Badge cars take a larger share, or whether the next count lands at 42 again, is the number worth checking at the next annual results.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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