Hi Guys, first post here but I have been a long time lurker..

I had an interesting question pop into my head today...Do car companies actually make some profit from selling supercars? Cars like the Pagani Zonda, Ferrari Enzo, MercMclaren SLR and so on? I know the Veyron is being sold at a loss and I believe so was the Mclaren F1..

What do you guys think? Surely the cost of production is extremely high so the profit margian, if there even is one, would probably be quite low...

 

anyone?

 

I would believe in the case of the Veyron, the R&D would be huge.

 

You can sometimes tell if the company is making money on the car.

Pagani has to...they are small.

The Veyron costs twice as much to make as they are selling them for...but VW can handle it.

Im sure the Enzo payed off...but the FXX I dont know.

 

The Ferrari FXX is one of the ugliest super cars ever to go into production.

 

I would think that for the major companies..they are sold at a loss for the Halo effect. Specialty companies have to make a profit. I dont think that they qualify as a 501c3

 

Most supercars from big companies (BMW, Lambo, Audi, Porsche) are a loss. Porsche losts tons of money with the 959.

 

Let me let you in on some info. It costs ferrari about $16,000 to make 1 F430. It enzo had only 7 costs them about $126,000 to make 1 Enzo. The F430 development was cheap because it was just an evolution of the 360. The engineers in order to get that one finished. I would say that big companys make more profit than smaller companys. Pagani makes a very small profit. This is because they have to make a name. Money shouldn't be a factor in the development stage. Then, once your sure you have a name and a worthy product, you start to see bigger profit.

 

While it is true that it costs Bugatti nearly $8 million dollars to produce one Veyron when the R&D costs are factored in, the car is not meant to make a lot of money for any company directly. It is meant to be a halo car (halo brand) so that the other VW brands can "bask in the reflected glory".

A bigshot at VW was asked a similar question and responded by saying yes it was a costly project, but no more costly that a season of Formula 1 and with a much greater impact on the automotive world in general.

The VW Phaeton blunder cost VW far far more than the Veyron ever will.

 

is this true???

 

does it really take 100m to develope a car?

 

You're gonna have to back this up, because as it stands, I just can't fathom how these figures could be realistic ...

As far as making money ... I think the short answer is no.

Pagani doesn't make money by selling the Zonda, its main activity is composite work for Lambo (the Zonda being their masterpiece, if you will). The McLaren was sold at the factory's cost. Most of the time, the supercars are flagships that shape and define the image of a manufacturer, only to sell smaller more affordable cars (think SLR and SLK)

 

how would the buisness's stay in ... in buisness? Not many companys out there will produce a car to lose money. It doesnt equate or make any sense what so ever. Im with whoever said it only costs around 16,000 to make an f430. I dont agree on that exact number but I do belive it is significantly less than the msrp.

 

I don't know about those numbers, but in general you have to look at the bigger picture. The supercars manufacturers that lose money are the ones that are owned by a much larger parent company, i.e. Bugatti. The reason they can afford do do this is because VW with its deep pockets can afford to allow a loss on the tiny number of Bugatti's sold.

The benefit that they get and the reason for doing this at all is for image. The Bugatti completely redefined the automotive scene and redefined what we thought was possible from a normal car. The engineering that went into it was absolutley phenomenal and everybody knows it. The costs go here.

The whole purpose of Bugatti as a company owned by VW is not to make money, it is to show what VW engineers are truly capable of if all restrictions are lifted. It makes people feel, "damn, if the same guys who designed the Bugatti also designed the A6 or the RS4 or the Continental GT then damn those must be great cars as well!" While it is unlikely that the same people designed all these cars, it is the public's concept of if a comapny can make THIS, then the company that owns that company should be even better at everything, etc that pays off in sales of lower brand vehicles.

 

I will buy that in straight up manufacturing costs.... it costs about that much to make an F430, but thats just manufacturing alone, materials come in, machines and people make them into a car. Done for that amount of money. Much more money is invested in the R&D than the production of the car. Since there was already a lot of R&D in the 360, the 430 was just an evolution. It may not be much for the 430, but more than 16k goes into each car.