Got it, I had no idea how larger their auto group was, one would think that given the amount of expertise & vast collection big brain geniuses that went into the Veyron at least one person would have figured out a way to turn a profit.

That bonnet has some serious Mercedes envy

Is it just me, or did they sneak a little bit of Porsche into the boot?

The Veyron is probably the most high tech car ever built, so much so that it cost Volkswagen as much to make as a business jet. I disagree with the notion that it was a mere muscle car, or a hackjob.

The linked article claims they loose $6.24 million per car and blame it on the R&D costs which they cite as $1.62 Billion. However, if you multiply the per car loss by the 450 model run you end up with around $2.8 billion. I'm guessing they didn't account for the cars yet to be sold as that article's from 2013.…

I would argue that common folk paid the price for it, especially in the US. Volkswagen set such stratospheric sales targets for itself that it ended up giving the US crappy, cheaper versions of many of its cars in an effort to reduce cost and sell more vehicles. If they hadn't lost, what, 2.7 BILLION dollars producing…

The numbers themselves are a bit impressive, but they're shocking when you put them in context.

They will probably use a lot of the past R&D to amortize their cost

Small price to pay, I'd say, for being able to say you've designed the best car in the world.

for better or for worse, the Veyron was a very complicated car indeed. And mostly because they settled on a styling model first and then forced that styling model to go 250+mph. So yes, it was high tech and complex. Perhaps needlessly so. then again, that's probably the whole point.

Elephant.

And making all of those things work together consistently and safely while launching you at 250+ mph is pretty damn high tech. A space shuttle isn't just big rockets on a plane.

good troll post

You're kidding me right? The engineering that went into the Veyron was, and frankly still is, absolutely astounding.

It's Bugatti's signature elephant ornament.

Yeah except no body in Europe cares. They might sell 20 a year if they are lucky. Sorry.

Good Lord. Just when I though I was through being embarrassed for GM...

Unibody, discs and independent suspension in 1968. Might've been a shock in less civilised parts of the world.