I’m not going to sit here and say $300,000 isn’t an absolute boatload of money. I would argue that that amount of money on a car makes that boatload feel even bigger, but everything is relative, or so I’ve been told. That being said, a hypercar that typically sells for millions of dollars offered for $300k probably counts as cheap. There are plenty of Ferraris or Lamborghinis that cost around that money, but not Bugattis. So why then would this Hypercar buyer pass on a chance at a Bugatti Veyron for $300,000? 

This is one jacked-up Bugatti Veyron

This isn’t a trick, but there is a catch. Two years ago, there was a 2006 Bugatti Veyron for sale for the “low” price of $300,000, which is roughly a little less than a third of what these typically cost. As the tale was so rivetingly told on VinWiki, this was the same 2006 Bugatti Veyron that was driven into the Galveston bay.

The story goes that the driver was distracted by a pelican, and as a result, he drove the car straight into the water. As we found out later, someone was filming the car (as people tend to do when a $1 million car drives by. The film showed no pelican and, in fact, proved that the driver was committing insurance fraud. The driver ended up being sued and prosecuted and ultimately spent 10 months in jail. 

So, what happens next? 

The insurance company paid a salvage/rebuilder to take the Veyron apart and see how bad the damage really was. According to the VinWiki video, The car sat partially taken apart for a few years until the insurance company rejected the claim and the owner was out of the big house. The owner then sold it to an exotic car dealer, and after various loans and bankruptcy and other financial dramas between multiple banks, the salvage company, and the dealer. 

The car changes hands more than an old penny until finally, it gets back to the original owner after years of insanity. Eventually, Ed Bolian, former cannonball record holder and VinWiki video star heard about the Bugatti via Facebook marketplace ad and decided to entertain following the rabbit hole. 

As Bolian started to look deeper into the Veyron and made some phone calls, he quickly gets firmly warned by everyone he speaks to run, not walk away from this car. As he says himself, “…but the dream was still alive. I wanted to at least vet out all the possibilities to see if there’s any way I could own this car.” 

What will make this Veyron hard to finish? 

Obviously, you can basically pick anything on this sunken Bugatti Veyron to point to as a big problem, and you’d probably be right, but Bolian isn’t new to these sorts of hurdles. As he notes in the video, although there is plenty of troubling damage to the Bugatti, the wiring harness will likely be the source of endless gremlins and thrown wrenches.

Although he found friends and mechanics excited to help work on it, the numbers just didn’t add up even though the Veyron seemed relatively cheap. After realizing the theoretical value after the project is done, it would likely only be worth $600,000-$700,000. Considering that value alongside the amount of time and money needed to put it all together, not to mention the cost of the parts, if anything breaks which could easily be $200,000. 

Sadly, after loan conversations, estimated values, and repair costs, Bolian really needed to buy at $150,000 to make it work. The dealer wasn’t having it, and neither was he.