The UAE was the top market in the Middle East for Rolls-Royce Motor Cars last year.
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Sales for the luxury car maker's Phantom model more than doubled last year through to the end of November at Abu Dhabi Motors, the company's top-selling dealer in the Middle East and among its top five in the world.
"Growth in the UAE was tremendous," said Alaa Tarabay, a spokesman for Rolls-Royce at its Middle East and Africa regional office.
"The UAE is our biggest market in the region in terms of sales."
Mr Tarabay declined to share exact figures for the UAE, but he said sales of the Phantom in Abu Dhabi grew 214 per cent to the end of November compared with the same period a year earlier.
The price of the customisable car starts at Dh1.7 million (US$462,824), although a growing number of buyers in the Emirates are spending upwards of Dh3m for bespoke options such as built-in fridges in the centre console or picnic hampers in the boot. Other popular options include a cigar humidor in the glove box.
This month, Rolls-Royce plans to open a new showroom in Sharjah, and a service centre in Al Ain.
The car maker opened its largest showroom in the world last year in the capital, at Abu Dhabi Motors, while AGMC is its authorised dealer in Dubai.
Separately, Prestige Cars in Abu Dhabi's Khalidiya is now selling one of the world's most expensive vehicles - a €3.5m (Dh16.65m) model based on Rolls-Royce's Phantom Drophead Coupe, which is already the car maker's priciest offering.
Dubbed the Pininfarina Hyperion, it is the "only one in the world", said Basel Al Farra, a sales executive at Prestige. "And everything is hand-made, from A to Z."
Parked behind blue velvet ropes at the back of Prestige's showroom, the sky-blue convertible features hand-crafted wood trim around its windshield and behind its two seats. Its two "suicide" doors open automatically to an eggshell-white leather interior.
An LCD screen is concealed in the wooden dashboard, which features classic manual gauges.
The luxury does not end there.
The car also comes with a watch custom-designed by Girard-Perregaux that unfastens from its wristband and can be mounted on the dashboard.
The Hyperion originally debuted in Pebble Beach, California, in 2008, and was first offered at €4.5m. Part of the reason it costs so much is its rarity — and also the cachet of the companies behind it.
While the car is based on a traditional Rolls-Royce chassis, Pininfarina - an Italian engineering firm responsible for some of Ferrari's most lauded designs - added its own twist.
Last year, the French supercar Bugatti Veyron Supersport topped Forbes magazine's list of the world's most expensive new cars of 2010 with a price tag of $2.6m.
In the emirates, interest in Rolls-Royce's Phantom brand hit a new high last year. At one point, customers had to wait while the car maker flew in additional models to meet demand.
Rolls-Royce said it had expected a drop in sales of its Phantom line, after the newer Ghost model revved into showrooms in 2010.
"This, however, has not been the case, as both models have increased in sales year-on-year," said Kadhim Al Helli, Rolls-Royce's brand manager for Abu Dhabi Motors.
"This success has been strongly linked to our bespoke specifications, which make almost every car unique and different in its own way."
The bespoke offerings have proved especially popular in the UAE, although drivers in other parts of the world have taken to them as well. One customer in Europe wanted the veneers in his Phantom to be taken from an old oak tree outside his home.
"He immortalised his tree in a Phantom," Mr Tarabay said.
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