Ranging from tiny two-seaters to minivans and supercars, automobiles of today come in all shapes and sizes.

For many, however, super-luxury cars like Rolls Royce and Maybach represent the pinnacle of automotive engineering.

While domestic brands offer little in the way of super luxury automobiles, many of the more luxurious brands from overseas carmakers are available here to meet the needs of those looking for something extra.

The Rolls Royce Ghost that was introduced to the local market earlier this year is a prime example of a super-luxury car available here.

The car is decked out with luxuries that most people could not afford for their homes, much less for their cars, such as wool carpeting and a 16-speaker sound system.

The car also comes with 9.2-inch LCD screens built into the headrests of the front seats and four-zone air conditioning system.

The car is also fitted out with the latest automotive technologies, which according to the company make the vehicle the most technologically advanced Rolls Royce ever, including a lane departure warning system, active cruise control, head-up display and night vision camera.

At nearly 5.4 metres in length, the vehicle provides more than a meter of leg room for both front and rear seats.

In addition to the luxury trimmings, and usual convenience features, the vehicle packs enough power to outdo most sports cars, with its 6.6-liter twin turbo engine with maximum power output of 563 brake horsepower.

According to the Rolls Royce website, the vehicle can reach 100 kilometres per hour from a standing start in 4.9 seconds and has a restricted top speed of 250 kilometres per hour.

The Maybach 62 Zeppelin also made its way on to the local market this year.

However, with production limited to 100 units for the global market and all of the three allocated to Korea already sold, the Maybach 62 Zeppelin is now off limits.

Despite prices more commonly associated with housing - the Rolls Royce Ghost starts at 430 million won ($488,159) and the Maybach 62 Zeppelin at 800 million won - both Rolls Royce and Maybach vehicles sold well, boosted by new additions to the lineup and economic improvement.

“There is the Ghost, of which all 12 vehicles allocated to the Korean market have been sold, and sales of the Phantom have also increased compared to last year,” a Rolls Royce public relations official said.

He added that of the 12 Rolls Royce Ghosts sold here, only one has been delivered so far this year, and the remaining 11 will be delivered during the second half of the year.

“Phantom sales for the first half of the year have already overtaken the figure for all of last year as the economy improves.”

So far this year, four Rolls Royce vehicles were newly registered, up from one last year, while Maybach registrations went up by 50 percent.

An upward trend is not limited to such super-luxury vehicles, whose rise this year could be attributed mostly to the launch of new and limited edition vehicles, with luxury brands such as Mercedes-Benz seeing sales double during the first half of the year.

Along with the rise in sales of high-end vehicles from foreign carmakers, figures for domestic brand luxury vehicles are also picking up.

During the first half of the year, Hyundai Motor Co. saw an increase of 10.4 percent in Equus sales compared to the same period last year.

Although the company puts the increase down to the fact that Equus sales bottomed out during the first two months of last year due to the scheduled release of the new model, the Equus is the only passenger car in Hyundai’s lineup to see sales increase so far this year, with the exception the Sonata and the Avante LPi Hybrid, whose sales officially began during the second half of last year.

While Chairman W sales are still lower than before the company’s troubles began, the sales figure for the vehicle rose at a faster rate than the company’s average.

During the first six months of the year, 2,190 Chairman Ws were sold here, up 57.2 percent compared to the same period last year.

The average growth rate for Ssangyong models over the period is 53.7 percent.