OK, exotic car lovers . . .

[hydralique]

I spotted this coming up a street in the Hollywood Hills and watched it park on the street. It’s a Bugatti Veyron, the most expensive series production car in the world ($1.2 million) and one of the fastest (250+ mph guaranteed) and most powerful (1001 hp). They’ve been out a couple of years in Europe, but I’d never seen one until last week when I spotted a different one on the Ventura freeway, and then today this car. I was leaving a job site and happened to have my good camera and wide angle lens with me so I snapped the pic. It's really funny thinking of how pointless it is to drive such a super high performance car around the gridlock that is LA, but hey, the paint was really nice and shiny so at least it can be admired in traffic. If that big blue recycle bin next to the front fender scrapes the car it won't be so shiney, though, as those bins are tough on car finishes. Don't ask how I know that . . .

For those who don’t know, the current Bugatti has almost nothing at all to do with the classic “pur-sang” Bugattis which were the equivalent of Ferraris in the ‘20s and ‘30s, aside from being made in Molsheim, France. After the combined tragedies of the deaths of founder Ettore Bugatti in 1947, his son Jean in 1939, and the economic devastation of WWII, the real Bugatti firm limped into the late ‘40s and then folded. There were a couple of attempts at reviving the name in the ‘50s and ‘90s, and a small number of EB110 models were made in Italy in the ‘90s but the money ran out. VW bought the name and poured vast amounts of money into the design and manufacture of the Veyron, including building the French factory. Most experts think they lose several million dollars on each Veyron, so in at least one sense the owner got a bargain!

 

[whirlcool]

But will people be willing to spend $1.2 mil to buy a Volkswagen?
The same problem holds true for the Phaeton. It isn't selling all that well and VW is losing lots of money on it. People won't even spend $80K on a VW.

But I will admit that while the parent company of Bugatti may be VW, there is cache to the name.

It's all about image, and who cares more about image than the citizens of LA?

 

[63getelevision]

At least they got the correct car to put the Bugatti name on.

 

[gyrafoam]

Well, now that Bentley is owned by VW--------------!

And Whirlcool has a point. I've only seen one of the VW Phaetons here in Atlanta. Obviously there must be more but it is just not selling. People would rather have a Lexus Hybrid I suppose.

Anyway, that Bug-a-T toy sure looks fun. Talk about a sex magnet! To be young, pretty and jaded that toy would sure bring some action! Plenty of exotics here around Atlanta----idiling in traffic gridlock--- looking pretty and going nowhere.

Would be kool to drive one of those up in the mountains zipping around tight curves or out west on some deserted straightaway---at 250MPH the police should not be a problem. Just contact approach control when ready to land.

 

[rp2813]

The failure of the Phaeton can probably be blamed on more than one strategical miscalculation, but the one that strikes me as the biggest is the fact that if you're going to pay the big bucks for a car like the Phaeton, you are going to be expecting superior service both when you make your purchase and when you bring that car in for maintenance or repairs. This is what you receive when you pay a lot less for a Lexus or Mercedes. Nobody is going to fork over the money for a Phaeton only to be lumped in with the masses at the VW service department.

I've only seen one Phaeton on the road and I live in the Silicon Valley where conspicuous consumption is king and the Bentley dealership needs to install a revolving door. VW already has a sport and luxury line. It's called Porsche/Audi. What were they thinking?

 

[hydralique]

VW and Porsche . . .

Traditionally Porsche has never been a subsidiary of VW or under their control, but always a separate company. Porsche is linked to VW by way of history (Ferdinand Porsche designed the Beetle), family relationships (Ferdinand Piech, head of Audi in the '70s and '80s and later chairman of VW is Porsche's grandson), and combined projects (VW-Porsche 914, Porsche 924, VW Taureg/Porsche Cayenne). Very recently Porsche has bought a huge amount of stock in VW in an attempt to ensure that a controlling interest in VW would never be bought by anyone else. Part of this was precipitated by political issues regarding the significant amount of VW stock held by German government entities since the end of WWII. If the government had sold all its stock then control of VW would be in question, and Porsche has been pretty successful in the past several years and had the resources to buy into VW. The Audi nameplate is linked to Porsche mainly here in the US, as a result of a marketing agreement dating back to the early '70s when VW realized that launching Audi here at VW dealerships would be a mistake. Porsche got the benefit of their cars being sold at more professional looking dealerships than the old situation in the '50s and '60s when they were often sold by small dealers specializing in lots of other sports and import makes.

The Phaeton (like the Bugatti, one of Piech's babies) may not have been a success by itself, but served admirably as a test bed for the current Bentley Continental and Flying Spur, which share the basic four wheel drive, air suspended platform and W-12 engine. The fancy new factory in Dresden which makes Phaetons also turns out engines and running gear for Bentley. Ironically, the only new cars today to use the old Rolls-Royce designed engines and platforms are the TOL V-8 Bentleys, as they are still made pretty much entirely in the old Crewe RR-Bentley factory. New RRs are of course BMW based and owe nothing to old ones aside from the name.

I really, really doubt that the VW connnecton has hurt sales of the Bugatti Veyron. The problem is self-evident in that it is a spectacular car, but also spectacularly expensive and mostly useless. Ferrari and Lamborghini (itself a VW subsidiary) can supply nearly as spectacular performance cars for between one quarter and one half the price, plus there are other boutique makers and tuners. I suspect most wealthy enthusiasts with over $1 million to spend on a special car would prefer to spend it on an older sports car of the '50s or '60s, as they are more likely to hold their value. I am just saddended by the Bugatti nameplate being treated as a marketing tool for a car designed by a German conglomerate, as original Bugattis were all designed by Ettore Bugatti (with help from son Jean). Bugatti ("Le Patron") was a very singular engineer and interesting man from a family of artists and sculptors. Still, the Veyron is a very interesting car and a nice technical achievement.

 

[pturo]

Wow, the owner must have a really small d*** to need this kind of validation.

 

[revvinkevin]

Wow, the owner must have a really small...............

*giggle*