Geneva Motor Show: A $19 Million Bugatti and Supercars to Spare

The German magazine SPIEGEL said that obviously there is a revival of the coach makers from the early days of cars. A company provides the frame (motor, transmission steering, etc) and a coach maker creates a body on demand. With the abundance of billionaires nowadays that concept seems to be promising.

For $19,000,000 I want a car that flies.

“if the world is headed for climate catastrophe in the foreseeable future, the Geneva show will go down, like the band on the Titanic, playing for time. For now, business remains brisk.” So let’s blithely ignore the iceberg of climate change in our future, that will, by this analogy, kill 5.2 billion people.

And refugee children as young as infants from Central America are separated from their parents who seek a better life in America and placed in cages. That’s life in 2019. Obscene cars and obscene politics. I don’t understand it, but I do.

Consider that the crazy amount of money that gets paid for these items actually flows back into the system. Better than that it gets stashed away somewhere.

What a ridiculous example of conspicuous consumption. To spend that much on a car is just grotesque.

"If the world is headed for climate catastrophe in the foreseeable future, the Geneva show will go down, like the band on the Titanic, playing for time." What a ridiculous non-sequitur. I guess it is in the contract of every New York Times staffer and free lancer that a hysterical warning about Climate Change must be made every 800 printed words, or face a six-week re-education program.

No car will ever top the simple elegance of a 1967 Mercedes Benz 230/250/280SL. They don't win many races, but what a road sculpture. If I ever get into a mode to buy a classic car, one of these is first on my list. These shows and the cars are evidence that some people have too much money.

Some people collect art or sculpture. While others collect autographs, Barbie dolls, action figures, campaign buttons or whatever. Rich or poor, most of us like to have *things* that we consider special. So if some old rich guy wants to buy this car to impress his 3rd trophy wife, I don't care. He has at least given the engineers and technician who built this Bugatti a job. Although personally, I'd bet Ettore Bugatti would be disappointed to see a car with his name delegated to a static display locked away from sight. Kind of a waste. I love seeing the old, *true* Bugattis from the 1920s (such as the T35b) still being raced at Lime Rock. This modern "Bugatti" is really a façade of any sporting aspirations and will never do that. It will never earn a bit of the provenance that real Bugattis were know for. I've been racing my old MG since the 60s. My working-class Brit roadster has far more active motorsports history than this not-so-"super-car". But as I said, if it makes some old dude happy, who cares?

My 1997 Honda Accord with 340,000 runs great and I got it at dealer's cost plus $20 for the sales guy - it was a transaction that took him less than 10 minutes. I love it when people used to say they loved that new car smell. Well they no longer have that smell because that smell contained cancer causing chemicals.

Nice car but it ain't no Buick Deuce n' Quarter.

When I go to car shows here, it's always some old dude with a 2.5 million dollar Pagani or Bugatti with Montana tax-dodging plates. I really do not understand it. I drive a Maserati, but the level of wealth people come into these dealerships with is insane: guy drives his Rolls Wraith to buy a new Ferrari Portonino. Yes, at a certain levels, money simply doesn't matter. I'm not quite there yet.

I can’t think of a better reason for the tax rate on large fortunes to go to 70% than an $18 million car. You have to have some messed up priorities to want one, and our society should encourage socially positive outcomes rather than conspicuous consumption

Two words: Tesla Roadster $250 K tops, and it outshines every one of these ridiculous cars.

Sign of the times. Look back through the history of the automobile and it’s clear that the most outrageously expensive cars were always produced during times of enormous political, social and economic upheaval. What followed was never pretty (I’m not referring to the cars).

I'm thinking that if I had $19 million to spend on a one-of-a-kind car, I'd work with the designers and engineers beforehand to build it precisely to my liking. I wouldn't wait for someone to put something they dreamed up on an auction block.