Bugatti’s Strategy of One-Off Supercars

That's something we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better. In reality class is an abstract concept that it also derived from status-seeking behavior and creating a distance from others through abstract metrics, or defending our egos from more powerful people.

kyleblarson2• 7 years ago

ok, money != taste, is that better?

nikanj• 7 years ago

Similar strategies seem to be working across the board from luxury mansions to designer watches.

beenBoutIT• 7 years ago

A one-off luxury OS could be extremely secure and difficult to hack.

the_watcher• 7 years ago

If you built and sold it to someone (presumably an extremely private, wealthy individual), you could also presumably stay on retainer for life as the only person who could fix it.

est31• 7 years ago

That's security by obscurity and in the computing world this strategy has shown to fail. In other areas of life obscurity gives you advantages like in military conflict, but not here.

Furthermore, an OS with only one or only few users would have to go through a lot of extra testing compared to the free testing that "popular software" companies are getting.

But your comment made me think about why there isn't much going on in luxury computing. As in: where are the raytraced photorealistic nvidia DGX games. Probably too small of a market but I don't know. Do rich people play a lot of games? Or do they rather prefer real life because they have the resources?

adetrest• 7 years ago

This is both absurd and obscene. I could think of a million better ways to spend the money and benefit people or ecosystems if I had 10 or 20 million $ burning a hole in my pocket. Shame to the people spending this kind of money on such trivial and useless things, and to Bugatti (and other brands) for humoring them. It makes me really sad to know there are people who would rather blow these amounts and waste the money.

numakerg• 7 years ago

spend the money and benefit people or ecosystems

I think the kind of people buying $13 million cars often neither know nor care about the state of the world outside their bubble of luxury.

DamnYuppie• 7 years ago

Most likely not only are they aware but they have probably paid 10’s of millions in taxes, donated 10’s of millions to charity and created jobs for 100’s if not thousands.

The idea that they get money for nothing and spend it all on luxuries is very misguided.

mfatica• 7 years ago

Fortunately, many of us live in free countries and are free to spend our money as we choose. At the least, the money going to bugatti with benefit the people who helped design and build the cars. Maybe those aren't the people you think should be helped, but after all we are free.

bredren• 7 years ago

"Le meilleur des mondes possibles."

bgorman• 7 years ago

Unless you want to sell certain types of plants/chemicals, gambling services or your own body...

Retra• 7 years ago

I don't have the freedom to spend $13M as I see fit... I don't think if your spending budget were 1/100,000th of mine, you would consider us equally free.

jessriedel• 7 years ago

Luckily, you don't have to be super wealthy to do this! If you have ~$7k in your bank account you were planning on spending on things beside food and shelter, you can easily save a life in the developing world instead.

https://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

AlexMuir• 7 years ago

An alternative is that this money goes into buying 10 apartments, pushing their value up, and making even more money for the buyer. Buying this $13m car will transfer money to dozens of employees, subcontractors and shareholders in Bugatti. "Blow this amount" and "Waste the money" = the money is put into circulation. If the buyer doesn't "Blow the money" then they either keep it, or invest it and gain even more money from someone else.

perfmode3• 7 years ago

This is wasted labor. These people could instead spend their time more productively.

viscanti• 7 years ago

This is both absurd and obscene.

Someone with less money than you could say the same thing about a lot of your purchases from your discretionary income. The people paying for a $13m Bugatti are likely spending a lot in taxes which is generally how society has agreed upon people benefiting society through their spending. You could argue for higher taxes but that probably doesn't impact much spending for these people who own 80+ cars and have $13m+ to buy a car with.

hxegon• 7 years ago

then make 10 or 20 million and do something better with it.

I hate this argument of "I could have done something better with x", it's reeks of authoritarianism. Yes, there is a better way to spend money, if you decide what "better" means, which you don't, because it's not your money.

ReptileMan2• 7 years ago

Well those money provide jobs, r&d and so on. So it has pretty good effects overall.

Taus are boring. Be dark eldar and enjoy the good stuff in life.

SketchySeaBeast• 7 years ago

Anyone who puts things in terms of Warhammer 40k armies probably knows a great deal about spending large amounts of disposable income for little to no actual benefit. :-)

cycrutchfield3• 7 years ago

So easy for you to be sanctimonious from the comfort of your internet perch. How about you post the entirety of your purchasing history for the past year here and we will pick through it and decide which of your transactions are "absurd and obscene"?

Or maybe you can realize that moralizing about what other people do with their own money is the absurd and obscene thing.

themagician2• 7 years ago

Don't think of a Bugatti as a car. Think of it as a piece of art, because that's closer to what it is. Many of their customers will either never drive the car or drive it a half dozen times or less.

There may come a time in the future where Bugatti makes cars that aren't even drivable. It won't matter. People will still buy them. They could make an engine block out of solid gold and sell it and people would buy it just for the novelty.

beautifulfreak• 7 years ago

I agree. When you see them IRL, luxury cars are inspiring, because they're engineered to be the best they can be, with attention to every detail. They may be impractical as transportation, but they're beautiful in many dimensions. They're not just about human capability, but about aspiration. The joy of being free on an open road, speeding past everyone else, not because one's better than them, but because it's possible.

Scoundreller2• 7 years ago

Am I to believe that one-off (or low production) cars are exempt from emissions, mechanical inspections and crash testing requirements?

And if so, why am I breathing in their exhaust or involuntarily at increased risk with their driving?

dclowd9901• 7 years ago

See: kit cars.

TomVDB• 7 years ago

If it makes you feel better: they're hardly ever being driven...

gavia13• 7 years ago

You seem strangely concerned about the health risks of a one-off/low production car that you will probably never encounter on the road.

Personally I'm much more concerned about the 100s of diesel powered buses that run 24/7 across cities such as London, and the huge amount of particulate pollutants they emit into our lungs.

rakoo2• 7 years ago

The 100s of diesel buses probably emit less than the 2000s of individual cars they replace, so you should be relatively happy that they are here and even concerned there aren't more

Scoundreller2• 7 years ago

My concern is the thought that individual exceptions be made because it’s everyone else in aggregate that causes most of the damage. Because that’s always true.

The entire purpose of regulations would fall apart if anyone that wanted could exempt themselves.

I disagree with systems that allow the wealthy to opt-out of regulations that exist for the benefit of all.

iancmceachern5• 7 years ago

This is what's wrong with the world. I can understand a $100k car, but this level if unnecessary decadence and the apathetic world view that one must have to own and operate one is staggering to me. One of these cars is the equivalent cost of education and medical Bills for several large families over a generation or more. One question, why? How do things like this move us forward as a civilization and society?

bluGill• 7 years ago

This does feed hundreds of family's: the families of those who design and build the car.

seibelj• 7 years ago

It’s not your decision to tell people what to spend their money on. I’d rather one beautiful super car is made than 20 million $5 cups of useless Starbucks coffee. Why not make a cup at home and save the paper and plastic garbage that ends up in landfills?

You start playing the game of “this is an insane decadence that means the world is broken!” and the logic falls apart quickly.

iancmceachern5• 7 years ago

I don't understand the comparison. We are working toward the greater good right? Coffee shops provide thousands of jobs, and a public shared social meeting place for people. So we trade one supercar for the happy mornings, daily commraderie, neighborhood meeting place, and place of work for 54,000 people for one year? That math seems off... One supercar cannot bring that much joy and comfort to that many people.

The comparison that makes sense to me : Why would one person, just because they can, buy 20 million dollars worth of coffee, when a $5 cup would do, while others are in need around them, and then not even drink it all.

Many, most of these cars like this end up sitting in a massive garage somewhere, with the owners other 80 cars. Most Bugatti owners have 80+ cars.

Don't get me wrong, I think these things are engineering marvels too. I'm just asking the question how far do we go with it? What is the right supercar vs. Basic humanitarian aid ratio?

HeyLaughingBoy2• 7 years ago

Perhaps if you backed off for a second and considered the amount of wealth this person had to create, and the people and businesses they had to support (besides Bugatti) in order to achieve this level of wealth, you'd find that it's not as obscene as you think. That process was the one that "moves us forward as a civilization and society."

IOW, as you get to this level of wealth, you improve the lives of the others who provided you products and services. Does it really matter to you that much what this person then chooses to do with their accumulated cash?

How is buying the car worse than, say, a single person winning a $13M lottery? Would you complain about that?

ceejayoz3• 7 years ago

Perhaps if you backed off for a second and considered the amount of wealth this person had to create...

It's possible that amount is zero, if they're just spending their parents' money. Plenty of multi-generational wealth sitting around.

iancmceachern5• 7 years ago

I agree that there are many (most?) who achieve this level by doing great things for those around and who work for them and moving society forward.

In my experience those folks are less flashy than the folks driving these around.

No "complaining" here. I'm pointing out the fact that a 13 million dollar supercar is a great object to point at to highlight income disparities and our apathy towards them. It has spawned some good discussion from which I have learned.

GuB-42• 7 years ago

These cars are technological marvels. They may have only one owner but they inspire millions of people. And some of the things found in these hypercars can find their way in your future car. It is like an experiment funded by a billionaire.

And when someone pays for one of these cars, he does pay for the education and medical bills of everyone involved in making this car.

These cars are not made from blood diamonds and the skin of endangered species. They are made by well paid, highly skilled workers and engineers. And they are proud of what they are doing.

iancmceachern5• 7 years ago

Indeed, they are not made from blood diamonds, endangered species and organized crime profits, etc.

I think we can agree that they are on occasion paid for with such though.

Excellent point re: providing for the folks who make it. You're right.

aqme28• 7 years ago

I think about this quote a lot.

"The clientele between Bentley and Bugatti is remarkably different," Bentley CEO and Bugatti president Wolfgang Duerheimer told Bloomberg. "The Bentley customer on average owns 8 cars. The average Bugatti customer has about 84 cars, 3 jets and one yacht."

f_allwein• 7 years ago

Future generations may wonder about this too...

benj111• 7 years ago

Story's like this just remind me of the early days of the app store, when someone launched an app for the then maximum price of $999 or something, that didn't do anything except put an icon on the home screen.

That for me is perhaps the purest example of people selling 'status'

ceejayoz3• 7 years ago

I'd forgotten about that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich

ebg13• 7 years ago

$12.5 million ($18.9 million, counting taxes)

50% sales tax? How does that happen?

Theodores• 7 years ago

It is widely understood that the featured one off car is for Ferdinand Piech, the former boss of VW group who also introduced his own luxury car brand at Geneva this year.

The lifetime of these cars is pretty limited, the Veyron no longer is where it is at, it is an old car but not a classic old car, it just says 'eugh' to some people that have seen it before. A technical marvel when new, now quite passe.

The Bugatti brand value is an interesting exercise in make believe. It is a revived brand, there is no common heritage. But they pretend there is and nobody points out the flaw to this thinking. At least VW's Lamborghini brand is a bit more credible, there is some thread between the old and the new. The Lamborghini style is spot on for consistent lineage, with Bugatti they have to have the horseshoe grill even though it makes no sense from an aero or other engineering relevant reason.

In theory VW could bring out a 'Tucker' car and pretend that there was some link between the three headlamped effort their designer comes up with and the original:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_48

They could sell the thing with faux American heritage and have it churned out of their Slovakia plant with a few Bentleys. If there was novelty in it people would buy it just because nobody else had one yet.

Meanwhile MacLaren are making cars that are ageing gracefully. There is no fake heritage and there is no horseshoe grill or other legacy novelty that goes with resuscitating a badge engineered image. They are also in the business of doing extremely expensive one off projects but that seems okay as the tech filters down to the cars affordable by lesser multimillionaires.

Returning to VW, the original brand proposition was 'the people's car', something that could bring motoring to the masses. Plenty of other marques had this starting point. But right now we need some reinvention of that with some humble electric car. I think something could be put together with enough range to get you to work and to the train station for longer treks, with a modest sized battery, super-capacitor and humble seats for less cost than a cheap hatchback. But we haven't had that, we keep getting these absurdly expensive cars that are not for the masses.

amanzi• 7 years ago

The world that billionaires live in is just so difficult to fathom. They literally need nothing since they already have multiple mansions, jets, yachts, etc paid for sitting there waiting to be used. Yet they still have access to hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, so spending a measly $13m on a car is literally nothing to them. No need to even blink at the cost. What a crazy world we live in...

Bugatti’s Strategy of One-Off Supercars

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