When you think of high-dollar, high-intensity supercars like the Bugatti Veyron, your mind probably goes to one of two places: Videos of cars being pushed to their limits on British motoring programmes or the mental image of these beasts locked in cages, being traded between billionaires like diamond-encrusted Pogs.
Once in a while, though, these cars actually get used — driven, taken out of the garage, filled with gasoline which they then convert into heat, sound, and motion. But that use seems to come with a cost, one measured in repair bills and garage-floor stain removal, as this thoroughly trashed Veyron can demonstrate.
This Veyron, currently bid up to one million United States dollars on Bring A Trailer, will actually require its buyer to bring a trailer. The car was looked over by a shop last December and listed as “not safe to drive.” Let’s take a quick look through the damage this car has sustained in its 14,000 miles:
- Left rocker panel damaged and repaired
- Front spoiler damaged and repaired
- Active rear wing no longer works
- Front heat exchangers, plural, show leaks
The car took field trips to service centers in December 2021 for mechanical maintenance and January of 2022 for cosmetic repairs. The listing doesn’t say which issues make the car a hazard on the roads, but its mileage has gone up since that report — so the Veyron still appears to run.
Comments on the auction suggest this Veyron may have been used as an exotic car rental in Newport Beach, CA. The rental company, Newport Exotics, has had its phone number disconnected and appears to have shut down. The company’s still semi-functional website does list a Veyron for rent, but the car in the photo clearly isn’t the one in this auction. Whether that means it’s a different car, or if the rental company simply used stock imagery, is unclear.
For a seven-figure sum, most buyers would expect a car they could drive home from their purchase — or at least take on a test drive. This auction has already broken into two-comma prices with nine days left for interest to grow. Hopefully whoever’s placing these bids has a good relationship with their local Bugatti shop.