Hypercar running costs

[Toilet Duck]

Evening all

I would be very greatfull if any owners of hypercars on here could enlighten me about the running costs they have experienced. I know if you can afford a Veyron etc then you are not going to worry about running costs, but I find it fascinating. EVO magazine some time ago ran a small insight into the running costs of Enzos, Veyrons, Koenigsegg's etc, I found it truely fascinating. The cost of Veyron tyres was somewhere around £4000 each, and the alloys had to be changed every 3 tyre changes as well.

If you own a Veyron/Koenigsegg/McLaren F1/Zonda etc, where do you have to go to get it serviced? If you breakdown, what happens? Would the AA or RAC be able to transport your car or would it need some sort of "special" transporter? Where would they take it, I'm guessing that with something like a Koenigsegg etc there cannot be many official dealers in the country? Is it true that the factories fly technicians over to work on your car? What are the servicing schedules, what work is carried out and at what sort of costs? What sort of warranties do you get on cars costing (in the case of a Veyron) over a million euros? Is it a 3 year/60,000 mile one like with normal fiestas and astras etc? What happens if you need a replacement part for your hypercar? Are they readily available or do you have to wait weeks for them to be manufactured/delivered?

The only reason I ask these questions is to satisfy my curiosity. I cannot get my head around a tyre costing £4000 that purportedly only lasts 1500 miles (according to EVO). I'll never be in the fortunate position to be able to afford a supercar, never mind a hypercar, I'm just genuinely interested in the running costs as some of the figures I've heard have been like telephone numbers.

Many thanks

[Mike Rob]

So many questions

[jonny5]

Agree with Mike. Let's disect

>> Veyron/Koenigsegg/McLaren F1/Zonda - where do you have to go to get it serviced?

At the factory. Veyron in the UK @ HR Owen

>> what work is carried out and at what sort of costs

Andy74b recently had his Zonda serviced back at Pagani (more of a recommission I think) and it was iirc €20k and still not right

>> I cannot get my head around a tyre costing £4000

I thought they were €12k and lasted 9000 miles ? Sure that's what they told me at the factory. Suppose they have to be speed rated super high , and they need to make money

Edited by jonny5 on Thursday 29th April 23:56

[andy74b]

jonny5 said:

Agree with Mike. Let's disect

>> Veyron/Koenigsegg/McLaren F1/Zonda - where do you have to go to get it serviced?

At the factory. Veyron in the UK @ HR Owen

>> what work is carried out and at what sort of costs

Andy74b recently had his Zonda serviced back at Pagani (more of a recommission I think) and it was iirc €20k and still not right

>> I cannot get my head around a tyre costing £4000

I thought they were €12k and lasted 9000 miles ? Sure that's what they told me at the factory. Suppose they have to be speed rated super high , and they need to make money

Edited by jonny5 on Thursday 29th April 23:56

All sorted now, factory got the parts out within 24hrs so happy with them now. I think alot of the problem was communication, things seemed to be lost between translation. I think that going forward the Zonda should be sensible money to run.

F40 is actually quite cheap to run. Lambo/612 alot more to service and get parts for than the F40.

[Mike Rob]

andy74b said:

F40 is actually quite cheap to run.

Wish I could say the same, lol. But I must admit I do have one hell of a car now - just had a straight through exhaust made to order (many thanks again to all at DK Engineering) which sounds the muts nuts. Boys and their toys

[teen_cerbera]

andy74b said:

All sorted now, factory got the parts out within 24hrs so happy with them now. I think alot of the problem was communication, things seemed to be lost between translation. I think that going forward the Zonda should be sensible money to run.

F40 is actually quite cheap to run. Lambo/612 alot more to service and get parts for than the F40.

Totally off topic, but you seriously need to get your Zonda in a remake of your profile picture and send it to me in HD to use as wallpaper . What a picture and what a car collection!! Your a very lucky man!! I do envy you having to make the decision of what to drive from day to day though lol.

Edited by teen_cerbera on Friday 30th April 09:16

[andy74b]

teen_cerbera said:

andy74b said:

All sorted now, factory got the parts out within 24hrs so happy with them now. I think alot of the problem was communication, things seemed to be lost between translation. I think that going forward the Zonda should be sensible money to run.

F40 is actually quite cheap to run. Lambo/612 alot more to service and get parts for than the F40.

Totally off topic, but you seriously need to get your Zonda in a remake of your profile picture and send it to me in HD to use as wallpaper . What a picture and what a car collection!! Your a very lucky man!! I do envy you having to make the decision of what to drive from day to day though lol.

Edited by teen_cerbera on Friday 30th April 09:16

Been a long time since all the cars been at home together, will try to do photo next month when everything back. Profile little out of date, will update.

[shoebag]

You do not have to take a Koenigsegg back to the factory in Sweden for a service. I took mine to Broughtons at Pangbourne who have a Koenigsegg trained mechanic.

[Toilet Duck]

andy74b said:

jonny5 said:

Andy74b recently had his Zonda serviced back at Pagani (more of a recommission I think) and it was iirc €20k and still not right

All sorted now, factory got the parts out within 24hrs so happy with them now. I think alot of the problem was communication, things seemed to be lost between translation. I think that going forward the Zonda should be sensible money to run.

Can I ask what they did for E20K (sorry I haven't got the euro symbol on my keyboard)? Do you have to take it all the way back to the factory each time it needs servicing or fixing? Do you have to drive it there or do they collect/transport it? If the car develops a fault which turns out to be something silly like a blown fuse, would you still have to take it all the way to Italy to find out? If its using a Mercedes/AMG engine, in theory could a local Mercedes dealer plug their diagnostic tool into the engine to check for faults etc?

jonny5 said:

>> I cannot get my head around a tyre costing £4000

I thought they were €12k and lasted 9000 miles ? Sure that's what they told me at the factory. Suppose they have to be speed rated super high , and they need to make money

Does the car have to go back to the factory for tyre changes? Do you own a Veyron?

shoebag said:

You do not have to take a Koenigsegg back to the factory in Sweden for a service. I took mine to Broughtons at Pangbourne who have a Koenigsegg trained mechanic.

May I ask how often it has to be serviced? Can I ask how much it costs and what do they actually do at the service? If you live miles away, say in the tip of Scotland, how would you go about running a car like this if you have to take it all the way to Pangbourne every time it needs work/fixing?

On some hypercars, is it not possible to plug them into a phone line so that the factory can remotely dial in and interrogate the car for faults etc? I'm sure I saw a McLaren F1 on Top Gear years ago when they did this.

Thanks for the replies

[andy c]

[quote=Toilet Duck
If you live miles away, say in the tip of Scotland, how would you go about running a car like this if you have to take it all the way to Pangbourne every time it needs work/fixing?

[/quote]

With this sort of car they come and get it.Part an parcel!

[jerwatt]

Toilet Duck said:

andy74b said:

jonny5 said:

Andy74b recently had his Zonda serviced back at Pagani (more of a recommission I think) and it was iirc €20k and still not right

All sorted now, factory got the parts out within 24hrs so happy with them now. I think alot of the problem was communication, things seemed to be lost between translation. I think that going forward the Zonda should be sensible money to run.

Can I ask what they did for E20K (sorry I haven't got the euro symbol on my keyboard)? Do you have to take it all the way back to the factory each time it needs servicing or fixing? Do you have to drive it there or do they collect/transport it? If the car develops a fault which turns out to be something silly like a blown fuse, would you still have to take it all the way to Italy to find out? If its using a Mercedes/AMG engine, in theory could a local Mercedes dealer plug their diagnostic tool into the engine to check for faults etc?

I know one of the Zondas in the UK damaged the sump and to save sending it back to the factory the owner got it fixed at the local Mercedes garage because it was a standard Mercedes part. So it depends what the exact problem relates to. Generally these companies have a few service companies scattered around, for example HR Owen in London do the Bugatti servicing here, SPS in Hong Kong do Zonda servicing. That saves having to take the car back to the main factory for small things.

In regards to the Bugatti wheels, they have to be changed at the main factory, so the wheels are sent over there (meaning the whole car doesn't have to be shipped), where they put on the new tires. I was speaking to an owner today from the states who said his last set cost £25 000 by the time he bought the 4 tires and shipped them over.

[Willie Dee]

What kind of warranties do supercars come with? Is a 20k repair bill within a year par for the course or do super car manufacturers try and retain a sense of reliability.

[jerwatt]

Depends on the car and the make (and how you warm it up/ drive it!). Some are known for being more reliable than others.

[Toilet Duck]

jerwatt said:

I know one of the Zondas in the UK damaged the sump and to save sending it back to the factory the owner got it fixed at the local Mercedes garage because it was a standard Mercedes part.

Would this void the manufacturers warranty by having a "non Zonda approved" dealer working on it?

jerwatt said:

In regards to the Bugatti wheels, they have to be changed at the main factory, so the wheels are sent over there (meaning the whole car doesn't have to be shipped), where they put on the new tires.

Why do they have to be changed at the factory? Surely any decent tyre outfit that regularly deals with upmarket cars can change them? It seems ludicrous, I mean imagine you take your Veyron out to drive off to the continent somewhere on holiday and you get a puncture on the way to the Eurotunnel. You'd have to cancel everything, get your car towed home and then post your wheel off to the factory just to have new rubber put on it?!

[jerwatt]

In regards to both questions, I'm not sure. I'm nowhere near owning any of the cars, so it's what I've talked to owners/ people from the companies about.

I would doubt the owner would do something that would void the warrenty, so either Pagani were happy for them to do this, or the warrenty was out of date already (the car was around 3 years old at the time). I'm not sure why Bugatti do that, they may have something in place to cover when something like that happens.

Just trying to help from my limited knowledge, as most owners won't post here due to the attention they recieve once people find out what cars they have.

[Toilet Duck]

jerwatt said:

as most owners won't post here due to the attention they recieve once people find out what cars they have.

Yeah, I appreciate this fact. Its a shame, we all know the headline facts about hypercars (0-100mph figures, bhp figures etc), but its only those who are fortunate enough to own/run one that are privy to the everyday facts and figures that don't make the headlines in magazines, reviews etc. I can understand if owners don't want to stick their heads above the parapet to share info and "expose" their self, but its a shame. For the record, I'm not trying to be nosey, I don't wish to know about owners personal details/wealth etc, I just have a simple petrol heads fascination with the everyday foibles of running a hypercar.

Anyway, good luck to anyone who runs such a beast

[Animal]

Toilet Duck said:

Why do they have to be changed at the factory? Surely any decent tyre outfit that regularly deals with upmarket cars can change them? It seems ludicrous, I mean imagine you take your Veyron out to drive off to the continent somewhere on holiday and you get a puncture on the way to the Eurotunnel. You'd have to cancel everything, get your car towed home and then post your wheel off to the factory just to have new rubber put on it?!

In the case of the Veyron I'd hazard a guess that it's something to do with VW losing a lot of money on the sale of each car, hence the expensive options, servicing, warranty, warranty stipulations and perhaps also the number of special editions that Bugatti have conjured up.

It's like magic, only with marketing and a balance sheet.

[Orichalon]

Animal said:

Toilet Duck said:

Why do they have to be changed at the factory? Surely any decent tyre outfit that regularly deals with upmarket cars can change them? It seems ludicrous, I mean imagine you take your Veyron out to drive off to the continent somewhere on holiday and you get a puncture on the way to the Eurotunnel. You'd have to cancel everything, get your car towed home and then post your wheel off to the factory just to have new rubber put on it?!

In the case of the Veyron I'd hazard a guess that it's something to do with VW losing a lot of money on the sale of each car, hence the expensive options, servicing, warranty, warranty stipulations and perhaps also the number of special editions that Bugatti have conjured up.

It's like magic, only with marketing and a balance sheet.

with the tyres i suspect it's more likely because it needs to absolutely perfectly fitted - if it suffered a defect at 250 mph due to poor fitting it would be disastrous publicity for vw, although im sure money has something to do with it as well.

[deviant]

Not sure where I read it but I thought the Veyron had wheels made up of multiple parts so changing the tyres is not a simple process. I also read that the wheels are X-Rayed and crack tested at each tyre change.

[Exoticaholic]

I've probably posted this already but for Toilet Duck's info, I have two friends who own a Bugatti Veyron each. One of them told me the tyres cost £25,000 a set. A set of rims £60,000 and they must be changed every three sets of tyres. He, in jest, said he can't afford to let rip on the racetrack

But it is relative isn't it?