No Veyron's for America?

Wait wait wait. I thought Bugatti/Volkswagen is worried about not being able to sell more Veyrons due to their soon-to-be-out-of-date airbags AND the fact that they will have to spend more to redesign the interior. I mean aren't they selling the Veyrons at a loss already and, assuming that they do retrofit the interior, selling for $100,000 USD won't matter too much because they end up losing more money due the redesign?

Of course I could be overanalyzing this, but I just think that there is more to it than what the article provides.
 
bugatti already sold several veyrons in america, and you also must remember that there are plenty of rich oil people in dubai who'd buy an extra veyron or two if it's in stock. bugatti doesn't need to worry, even without the american market they'll still have enough buyers.
 
I don't think they are actually worried, they just don't want to spend the money.

None of those companies would be crippled by new airbags, they just want to save money.
 
I really can't understand the US car safety regulations. You're actually far more likely to die in an accident if you're not wearing a seatbelt and an airbag goes off than if there's no airbag at all. Why the hell they don't make seatbelts the law I really don't know.

And it's not just a case of sticking in new airbags.

*New mechanism need to be made to fire the things
*New wiring needs to be added
*Sensors have to be installed
*Trim has to be modified to include sensors
*The correct electronics have to be produced
*Everything has to be tested (which will no doubt include another full crash test)
*New moulds, machine tools and machining routines need to be made for all the new parts
*Everything then has to be certified
*New brochures have to be made!

It would probably take at the very least 6 months to fully do this and would probably involve:

*Engineering Design Dept
*Styling Dept
*Electronics Dept
*Testing Dept
*Legal Dept
*Marketing Dept

So you can see where all the money goes....and for small companies like Bugatti, Lotus, Ferrari etc with small car ranges that have little in common it's VERY low return for the investment....and remember 10% of ?900,000 is ?90,000! That's a hell of a price rise even at that level. It may be enough to put some people off.

For more mass produced cars it's a lot easier. Take VW for example. The Polo, Golf, Golf Plus, Jetta, Passat all have the same fundamental steering wheel so the cost is spread over the whole range...and lets face it...crash testing a ?12,000 Golf doesn't really compare to a Veyron. Cost price of a Golf probably ?5,000....cost price of a Veyron....quite possibly as much as ?500,000. There's a lot of high investment machining and costly materials in that thing!
 
ArosaMike said:
I really can't understand the US car safety regulations. You're actually far more likely to die in an accident if you're not wearing a seatbelt and an airbag goes off than if there's no airbag at all. Why the hell they don't make seatbelts the law I really don't know.
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I just don't understand that how, with all the time and money sunk into designing the Veyron, this wasn't factored in?

Not that I don't think they shouldn't get the exception if Ferrari got it, but really, even for both companies, it's just plain stupid.

Steve
 
Steve Levin said:
I just don't understand that how, with all the time and money sunk into designing the Veyron, this wasn't factored in?

Not that I don't think they shouldn't get the exception if Ferrari got it, but really, even for both companies, it's just plain stupid.

Steve
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Imagine the meeting: "okay engineers, by a show of hands, how many of you want to work on the e-diff? Okay good, now how about the 5-way traction control? Fantastic, now, airbags and seatbelts?...anyone?...ANYONE?...helloooooo??"
 
Steve Levin said:
I just don't understand that how, with all the time and money sunk into designing the Veyron, this wasn't factored in?

Not that I don't think they shouldn't get the exception if Ferrari got it, but really, even for both companies, it's just plain stupid.

Steve
Click to expand...

Time to develope the Veyron: 5+ years
Time to come up with stupid, pointless legislations: 5 seconds
 
For it to make it to the final car, the legislation would have probably had to have been made in the 1st year or two of development. Once your past sign off, not a lot can be changed as specs get sent out to sub contractors, budgets are defined and money gets invested in machinery.

Also...http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/airbags/buckleplan/mayplanner2003/factsheet.html

So it would seem that in some states you can't get stopped for not wearing a seatbelt. You're percentage of non users are much higher than here too. IMO it's absolutely nuts that people don't wear them. Would you race a car without a helmet? No. Then why don't people wear a saftey device that's provided for them?!
 
Because people's stupid. Nothing else really. It's just like the morons who drives a MC or a scooter without a helmet.. "Well, a helmet looks stupid", yeah perhaps but whenever i see someone on a scooter without a helmet, my first thought is really "what an idiot". Don't people like their lifes?

And a seatbelt.. You don't even notice wearing it when you're in a car! Much less than you notice a helmet at the very least. How hard can it be?
 
Buktu said:
Because people's stupid. Nothing else really. It's just like the morons who drives a MC or a scooter without a helmet.. "Well, a helmet looks stupid", yeah perhaps but whenever i see someone on a scooter without a helmet, my first thought is really "what an idiot". Don't people like their lifes?
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A helmet looks better than a gaping, crushed-in skull.

Some people still say "I don't wear a seatbelt because it makes me look unattractive." Are they serious? It's not like the seatbelt is a permanent fixture on the body: "eww, so&so is soooo ugly, she wears a seatbelt."

Humans...
 
BlaRo said:
Buktu said:
Because people's stupid. Nothing else really. It's just like the morons who drives a MC or a scooter without a helmet.. "Well, a helmet looks stupid", yeah perhaps but whenever i see someone on a scooter without a helmet, my first thought is really "what an idiot". Don't people like their lifes?
Click to expand...
A helmet looks better than a gaping, crushed-in skull.

Some people still say "I don't wear a seatbelt because it makes me look unattractive." Are they serious? It's not like the seatbelt is a permanent fixture on the body: "eww, so&so is soooo ugly, she wears a seatbelt."

Humans...
Click to expand...

Ugly? :shock:
 
Buktu said:
Because people's stupid. Nothing else really. It's just like the morons who drives a MC or a scooter without a helmet.. "Well, a helmet looks stupid", yeah perhaps but whenever i see someone on a scooter without a helmet, my first thought is really "what an idiot". Don't people like their lifes?

And a seatbelt.. You don't even notice wearing it when you're in a car! Much less than you notice a helmet at the very least. How hard can it be?
Click to expand...

People?s?
 
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