RE: Last Bugatti Veyron sold

[anonymous-user]

I agree with pretty much what has been said so far really.

It's an amazing car but strangely does absolutely nothing for me, and wouldn't even make my top 10 or probably top 20.

Someone made a good comparison to it being a 4 wheeled Faberge egg, and I think that's about eight. It's basically like just driving round in a big pile of money for everyone to see. I don't even think it's much of a drivers car is it apart from the obviously mental straight line speed.

It just doesn't look fun to me.

If someone gave me one, I would be absolutely delighted... Because I could sell it and buy a few cars that are both crap and ridiculously exciting at the same time, like an F40 and Diablo SV.

[mrloudly]

Whilst it's an amazing feat of engineering, why would you want to blow a million quid to drive around sporting a chrome bog seat as a radiator surround

[daytona365]

DO you even want a second-hand status symbol - is that not missing the point of the thing?....Not really. What would Townsend and others do without their probably 6th hand vintage Ferrari's ?.....I'd gladly swop my new BMW for a bit battered F1 McLaren !!

[NRS]

NinjaPower said:

I agree with pretty much what has been said so far really.

It's an amazing car but strangely does absolutely nothing for me, and wouldn't even make my top 10 or probably top 20.

Someone made a good comparison to it being a 4 wheeled Faberge egg, and I think that's about eight. It's basically like just driving round in a big pile of money for everyone to see. I don't even think it's much of a drivers car is it apart from the obviously mental straight line speed.

It just doesn't look fun to me.

If someone gave me one, I would be absolutely delighted... Because I could sell it and buy a few cars that are both crap and ridiculously exciting at the same time, like an F40 and Diablo SV.

You might well be struggling to get a Diablo with the change, F40 prices have been increasing a lot.

To be honest for most people all supercars are exactly the way you describe the Veyron. It's just a different type of drivers car - one for comfort and yet massive performance, rather than a sports car to hold on the limit. And some people prefer that, in the same way some like 4x4s for offroading etc.

[X5TUU]

KTF said:

soad said:

Servicing cost is eye watering from what I recall? Tyres and wheels, at least.

"The problem is that a Veyron can easily generate a bill of £100,000 for an annual service...

Each annual service reputedly requires that the Veyron be transported back to the Bugatti factory in Molsheim, France, for inspection and maintenance. “Bugatti will not touch the car if you don’t do what it wants to do,” says Hartley. “When the company says you need a new set of tyres, you need a set of tyres. That’s £6000 a corner. Then every three sets you need new wheels, which cost £50,000."

An annual service costs £15,000, but if any additional work – such as new wheels and tyres – is needed, the costs will spiral.
From: http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/used-car-buying-...

That's the first time I've heard/seen associated costs and fook me they're high! No wonder people shy away from ownership, and I thought the Lexus LF (or whatever it's called) lease and never own concept was ridiculously expensive. It's not even lottery winner territory but much more Oligarch territory lol

[daytona365]

Is my 'baby' really ten years old already ? Well, well.

[jakesmith]

Mark-C said:

Go on then ... lets be charitable and put the word "extensive" down to hyperbole. Let's see a list of the parts the Veyron and an '05 (or whenever) Passat have in common. I'm sure there are a few hidden ones that it didn't make sense to create from scratch but I wage it's not many.

OK fair enough not all major components but still a few - from memory, same bonnet, air filter, door handles, door straps, wheel arch liners, 6th gear synchro same as on the 170BHP TDI, speedo needles, headlining, rear quarterlights, coolant cap, battery same as on the 2.8 4mo Passat, same cats, handbrake cable, optional mudflaps fit both cars, coat hanger, and the turbos on the Veyron are the same as from the 1.8t engine but it has 4, wing mirror motor, mufflers, and of course the engien is 2 W8's joined together, using passat mounts and passat sun visors. Oh no, it was sarcasm all along!

[alexpa]

Chicane-UK said:

I know the Veyron has always divided opinion but honestly it would still be high up in my dream garage. Just for she sheer lunacy of a car with that engine and that power, all tamed into nothing any harder to drive than a Golf.

Would love to know what flat out acceleration in a Veyron feels like. Doubt I'll ever know I suppose.

You can book a two seater dragster at Santa Pad

http://www.santapod.co.uk/dr_2seater.php

[Talksteer]

LotusOmega375D said:

If I remember my O-Level maths correctly: 450 cars over 10 years, even at say a million quid each, that's 45 million quid per year, which is not a lot of revenue for any car manufacturer. Take poor old cash-strapped Lotus' 2000 cars per year at say an average of say 50,000 quid each and you still get a loss making 100 million quid annual income.

Anyway, well done VW and your shareholders for bank-rolling the engineering feat/cul-de-sac that is the Veyron. I just wish they sounded a bit more exciting.

The Autocar article noted that Veyrons had sold for an average of £1.7million once all the options and special editions were factored in. If you add another £100k per year per car with an average fleet of 200 that produces a turnover of around £100million. Not bad for a company with only 73 employees.

That said of be surprised if they have made a profit but they certainly haven't made the millions of pounds per car losses that early poorly sourced reports suggested.

[Mark-C]

jakesmith said:

Mark-C said:

Go on then ... lets be charitable and put the word "extensive" down to hyperbole. Let's see a list of the parts the Veyron and an '05 (or whenever) Passat have in common. I'm sure there are a few hidden ones that it didn't make sense to create from scratch but I wage it's not many.

OK fair enough not all major components but still a few - from memory, same bonnet, air filter, door handles, door straps, wheel arch liners, 6th gear synchro same as on the 170BHP TDI, speedo needles, headlining, rear quarterlights, coolant cap, battery same as on the 2.8 4mo Passat, same cats, handbrake cable, optional mudflaps fit both cars, coat hanger, and the turbos on the Veyron are the same as from the 1.8t engine but it has 4, wing mirror motor, mufflers, and of course the engien is 2 W8's joined together, using passat mounts and passat sun visors. Oh no, it was sarcasm all along!

That's clearly bks but having checked you're right about the bonnet

If it was sarcasm it was brilliantly disguised as tttery and I salute you

[dapprman]

Andy JB said:

I wonder if at the end of its life they made any money on them after development costs - they didn't to begin with ?

My understanding is they make/made a loss on every one built, in addition to development costs, however after just a few years the total was considerably less than one year involvement in Formula One for similar levels of annual 'advertising', so in the mid term onwards it has been an efficient and effective advertising campaign for the VW group.

[British Beef]

gregf40 said:

My Nismo R35 GTR has the same 0-60 time. Never gets boring

An early modified R35 GTR with 800+ HP would probably be the cheapest way to get behind the wheel of car with Bugati performance levels! Nismo GTR would also work......if you have slightly deeper pockets!

[jhoneyball]

Its a pity that Autocar article quoting Hartley was so full of utter crap.

For starters, there is an official service centre in the UK

[Janosh]

998420 said:

The running costs were so ridiculous that even the stupidly rich cannot afford to run them

All things are relative. The annual cost of running a super yacht is roughly 10% of it's value. Some yachts cost upwards of $250,000,000...

The Veyron is aimed at the 'stupidly rich' where a $50k set of wheels and tyres might be considered lunch money.

[KTF]

jhoneyball said:

Its a pity that Autocar article quoting Hartley was so full of utter crap.

For starters, there is an official service centre in the UK

The same article does mention that:

"Official dealer H.R. Owen does offer a fixed price servicing scheme, however, as well as extended warranties and UK workshop facilities, which may grant you more control over yearly expenditure."

[Cheib]

Talksteer said:

LotusOmega375D said:

If I remember my O-Level maths correctly: 450 cars over 10 years, even at say a million quid each, that's 45 million quid per year, which is not a lot of revenue for any car manufacturer. Take poor old cash-strapped Lotus' 2000 cars per year at say an average of say 50,000 quid each and you still get a loss making 100 million quid annual income.

Anyway, well done VW and your shareholders for bank-rolling the engineering feat/cul-de-sac that is the Veyron. I just wish they sounded a bit more exciting.

The Autocar article noted that Veyrons had sold for an average of £1.7million once all the options and special editions were factored in. If you add another £100k per year per car with an average fleet of 200 that produces a turnover of around £100million. Not bad for a company with only 73 employees.

That said of be surprised if they have made a profit but they certainly haven't made the millions of pounds per car losses that early poorly sourced reports suggested.

£1mil of turnover per head is not bad as you say but unfortunately that doesn't include manufacturing costs and doesn't include the seven years R&D period before they sold a single car. Then there's the cost of marketing, brand building etc.

Not a chance that it made money.

Now clearly they still have all that expertise, the brand is built etc so whatever comes next will have a much easier birth but as a business exercise it just don't see it makes sense. Quite often brands have a halo product like the Veyron....and whilst it's a VW group car I just don't think your average punter who buys a VW Golf does so because it's made by a company that also owns Bugatti.

[Dave Hedgehog]

Cheib said:

Now clearly they still have all that expertise, the brand is built etc so whatever comes next will have a much easier birth but as a business exercise it just don't see it makes sense. Quite often brands have a halo product like the Veyron....and whilst it's a VW group car I just don't think your average punter who buys a VW Golf does so because it's made by a company that also owns Bugatti.

Halo project that reflects glory all the way down the VAG food chain

the 100's of hours of TV / Video time and 1000s of pages of mag coverage would have cost VAG 10 times what the project has cost

[mark0006]

here is the last one.



from the press release:
Molsheim/Geneva, 2 March 2015. The curtain rises on an icon! At the Geneva International Motor Show, Bugatti is celebrating the Veyron, the fastest production supercar in the world whose performance has captivated legions of fans around the world since its launch ten years ago. The Veyron is limited to 450 units, which have now all been sold. The world première of the final Veyron in Geneva will mark the culmination of an unprecedented chapter in automotive history. Bugatti will showcase the Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse "La Finale" with chassis number 450 alongside chassis number one of the Veyron 16.4 which rolled out of the company's factory in Molsheim ten years ago and heralded the start of the Veyron's success story.


16 pictures and full press release

.