Abu Dhabi, home of all things extravagant such as the largest indoor and first Ferrari theme park, can now lay claim to having the world’s largest showroom for BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and BMW motorcycles.

BMW Group’s long-standing importer for the region, Abu Dhabi Motors, invested some AED 300 million (roughly €62 million or US$81 million) in the new 35,000-square-metre showroom over its three-year construction.

The facility features separate showrooms and sales areas for the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce cars, and for BMW motorcycles, with more than 70 automobiles and 10 motorcycles on permanent display.

Further proof that Rolls-Royce is getting ready to revamp its entire Phantom lineup comes from our scoopsters in Europe who captured a very lightly camouflaged prototype of the Coupé model undergoing winter testing.

This will be the first facelift for the Phantom Coupé that was presented five years after the sedan version of Rolls-Royce's flagship line in 2008.

We don't know what's more annoying about this video that shows a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe in Adelaide, Australia, with its top down being drenched in rainwater, reportedly for at least half an hour: the careless owner that didn't come out to see what was going on or the indifferent bypassers whose only concern was to film the spectacle.

According to news reports from Australia, the convertible Rolls-Royce, which costs upwards of AU$1.35 million, the damages to the car's interior from the rain may cost the owner as much as AU$100,000. Watch the rainy clip in the video after the jump.

According to data provided by Rolls-Royce, 56 percent of the company's clients who ordered a Ghost and Ghost Extended Wheelbase model last year customized their vehicle through the brand's bespoke operations.

The British luxury brand's personalization program includes anything from the application of unique paint colors, coach lines and tread plates to special features such as champagne sets, humidors and picnic cabinets.

While not many in numbers, Wald International believes that some owners of the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe would like to give the luxurious convertible a more bespoke tuner look.

The Japanese firm's offering is a styling package is named "Black Bison Edition", which starts off with an assortment of aero parts made of carbon fiber.

Admittedly and regardless if it fits your taste or not, the BMW Group has done a superb in renovating the Rolls Royce brand, which delivered 3,538 cars in 2011, up 31 per cent on the previous year’s 2,711 units, and a new sales record in the firm's 107-year history surpassing the 3,347 cars it sold in 1978.

The rebirth of the Rolls Royce under the control of the Bavarian firm started with the extravagant Phantom that was introduced in 2003. Even though nine years is a long time in a vehicle's product cycle, the BMW Group doesn't intend to replace the Phantom just yet.

In a glitzy event held in Beijing, China, this month, the World Luxury Association (WLA), which is a non-profit research organization, named its Top 100 most valuable luxury brands of the year.

In the automotive field, the Top 10 premium car brands included some of the usual suspects such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Ferrari and Lamborghini along with some surprise entrants like Saab's former owner Spyker and Koenigsegg. Not that it matters any more, but Daimler's Maybach brand didn't make the cut.

Bentley saw its global sales increase by a whopping 30 percent worldwide last year. while Rolls-Royce, helped by the launch of the Ghost, sold 3,500 cars in North America, smashing its 2010 record of 2,711 deliveries.

The first thing that comes to mind is that, in the midst of a recession, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

Bentley’s North American president Christopher Georges, however, sees things from a different perspective, in that booming sales of uber-luxurious cars are reflecting a confidence in the economy.

Some may call it a Holiday Special, all we know is that the wacky trio from Top Gear UK is returning to the small screen on December 28 for its annual special that will see Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May heading out to India.

After discovering that Britain does more business with Ireland than with the second most populous country in the world after China, the Top Gear crew set out on a mission to boost the trade between the two countries – or at least that's the excuse for the epic road trip.

November proved to be another successful month for the BMW Group as global sales of the BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce brands rose to 138,978 vehicles, an increase of 7.7% over the previous year (129,001). This was the German group's best November sales month ever.

From the beginning of the year, global sales of the BMW Group climbed to 1,510,862 units, 14.5% more than in the same period last year (1,319,808) and another new record for the company.

In a recent interview with WitneyTV, Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson let slip out that this year's Christmas special episode will take place in India.

Being that all episodes are filmed several months before they hit the airwaves, it doesn't come as a surprise that the British TV show's crew were snagged in Mumbai this month.

Along with a short video clip showing Richard Hammond and a modified classic MINI Cooper that we found on Youtube, the guys over at IndianAutosBlog tipped us off about a set of pictures they took during the filming of the Christmas episode of Top Gear.

Google “Year of the Dragon” and chances are you ‘ll come up with either the Chinese calendar that starts on January 23, 2012, or the Michael Cimino directed and Oliver Stone scripted 1985 film starring Mickey Rourke.

Now the world’s most popular search engine will also display a new collection created by Rolls-Royce's recently expanded Bespoke Department.

Despite the turmoil in global markets, Rolls-Royce is doing extraordinarily well. In fact, the above sentence is an understatement: while the recession seemed to hit the company in 2009, when it sold a little over 1,000 cars representing a 17.3% drop over the previous year, sales in 2010 were up by an amazing 171%.

And things are looking even better for 2011: in the first half of the year (January through June) Rolls-Royce recorded a 64.1% increase in sales delivering 1,592 units.

Good news for Roll-Royce's 'Bespoke' division which is responsible for the creation of unique automotive parts as well as life style items such as custom picnic sets for the brand's clientele, as due to growing customer demand, the British company has decided to expand its operations. Read more »