The Finally Defunct Bugatti Veyron's U.S. Sales Run: By The Numbers

Timothy Cain
by Timothy Cain

Finally. The Veyron is done.

Bugatti reportedly sold the last Veyron, a car which will be displayed at the Geneva auto show in March, to a customer in the Middle East.

Volkswagen-owned Bugatti’s 450-unit production run comes to a close after nearly a decade of delivering cars to customers. Although the cars routinely sold for more than $2M, Bloomberg referenced Singapore-based analyst Max Warburton who believes VW lost €4.6M per car, more than USD $5M.

Unlike the detailed sales reports we see each month from Volkswagen of America’s namesake brand, Veyron-specific numbers were never formally reported. Automotive News reports that approximately one-quarter, or 113, of the Bugatti Veyrons produced ended up in the United States.

It would be easy to rib Bugatti for its sales struggles. But rather than critique the French hypercar, let’s do ourselves the service of placing its numbers in context.

If there are 113 Bugatti Veyrons on America’s roads – or more likely, locked in hyperbaric, anechoic chambers – how do such figures align with the sales numbers (circa 2014) for the vehicles you drive?

671 – the number of seconds it takes for Americans to buy 113 SUVs and crossovers.

79 – the number of minutes it takes Ford to sell 113 F-Series pickups in America. Ford sold more than 2000 F-Series per day in 2014, a slightly slower year for the F-Series, America’s best-selling vehicle line.

9 – the number of hours Ford needed in the final two months of 2014 to sell 113 Mustangs.

5 – the number of days required for the Chevrolet Trax to find 113 new owners in its first month of availability, December, when a twin of the Trax, Buick’s Encore, had already been on sale for nearly two years.

1 – the number of days required for GMC to sell 113 Yukons. The Yukon is the third-best-selling nameplate off GM’s full-size SUV platform. On an average day in the U.S. in 2014, GM dealers sold 697 Escalades, Suburbans, Tahoes, Yukons, and Yukon XLs.

2 – the number of weeks required for Mercedes-Benz USA to sell 113 G-Class SUVs. At the moment, the G-Class has the highest base price of any SUV sold in the United States.

4925 – the number of minivans sold in America during calendar year 2014 for every Bugatti Veyron ever sold in America.

35,619 – the number of Toyota Camrys sold between 2005 and 2014 for every Veyron ever sold in America.

130 – the number of $845K+ Porsche 918 Spyders sold in the United States in its first eight months of availability.

51 – the number of miles one must drive from the Smart factory in Hambach, France – from which 10,453 Fortwos were shipped and sold in the United States in 2014 – to Molsheim, France, where the Veyron was assembled.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.

Timothy Cain
Timothy Cain

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  • Theflyersfan OK, I'm going to stretch the words "positive change" to the breaking point here, but there might be some positive change going on with the beaver grille here. This picture was at Car and Driver. You'll notice that the grille now dives into a larger lower air intake instead of really standing out in a sea of plastic. In darker colors like this blue, it somewhat conceals the absolute obscene amount of real estate this unneeded monstrosity of a failed styling attempt takes up. The Euro front plate might be hiding some sins as well. You be the judge.
  • Theflyersfan I know given the body style they'll sell dozens, but for those of us who grew up wanting a nice Prelude Si with 4WS but our student budgets said no way, it'd be interesting to see if Honda can persuade GenX-ers to open their wallets for one. Civic Type-R powertrain in a coupe body style? Mild hybrid if they have to? The holy grail will still be if Honda gives the ultimate middle finger towards all things EV and hybrid, hides a few engineers in the basement away from spy cameras and leaks, comes up with a limited run of 9,000 rpm engines and gives us the last gasp of the S2000 once again. A send off to remind us of when once they screamed before everything sounds like a whirring appliance.
  • Jeff Nice concept car. One can only dream.
  • Funky D The problem is not exclusively the cost of the vehicle. The problem is that there are too few use cases for BEVs that couldn't be done by a plug-in hybrid, with the latter having the ability to do long-range trips without requiring lengthy recharging and being better able to function in really cold climates.In our particular case, a plug-in hybrid would run in all electric mode for the vast majority of the miles we would drive on a regular basis. It would also charge faster and the battery replacement should be less expensive than its BEV counterpart.So the answer for me is a polite, but firm NO.
  • 3SpeedAutomatic 2012 Ford Escape V6 FWD at 147k miles:Just went thru a heavy maintenance cycle: full brake job with rotors and drums, replace top & bottom radiator hoses, radiator flush, transmission flush, replace valve cover gaskets (still leaks oil, but not as bad as before), & fan belt. Also, #4 fuel injector locked up. About $4.5k spread over 19 months. Sole means of transportation, so don't mind spending the money for reliability. Was going to replace prior to the above maintenance cycle, but COVID screwed up the market ( $4k markup over sticker including $400 for nitrogen in the tires), so bit the bullet. Now serious about replacing, but waiting for used and/or new car prices to fall a bit more. Have my eye on a particular SUV. Last I checked, had a $2.5k discount with great interest rate (better than my CU) for financing. Will keep on driving Escape as long as A/C works. 🚗🚗🚗
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