Insuring a Bugatti

As the producer of the most expensive vehicle in the world, Bugatti isn't a brand with which most people are intimately familiar. In fact, very few people have ever seen one of these vehicles on the road. Not only are they exorbitantly expensive, but they are also among the sleekest, most refined and most well-designed cars on the planet. In addition to that, they offer a level of performance that is above and beyond anything that you will find by everyday automakers. For most people, owning one of these cars is out of the question. Even if someone is lucky enough to be able to afford one, he or she will have to fork over a small fortune to insure it. While official numbers aren't available, it stands to reason that insuring one would cost upwards of $10,000 per year. Of course, if someone could afford to buy one, he or she should be able to pay that kind of premium as well.

The Company History

From the very beginning, Bugatti was a company that was obsessed with performance and perfection. It was founded in Mulsheim, France. Its founder, Ettore Bugatti, came from Milan. He was determined to create gorgeous, high-end vehicles that would perform outrageously well on the race course. His sports cars and racing cars boasted amazing features like engines that were so precisely designed that they didn't need gaskets. Sadly, his factory was ruined during World War II. For a long time, the company proceeded to strictly produce airplane parts. That changed in 1991, when the EB110 debuted. The company closed in 1994 but came back in 1998, after being acquired by Volkswagen. In 2006, it produced the Veyron in a factory in Mulsheim, and it is now the fastest and most expensive automobile in the world.

Insanely High MSRPs Keep Premiums Up

This isn't the kind of car that you waltz into a local dealership to buy. Only a limited number of them have ever been produced. Supposedly, it costs more than $5 million to produce and design a single car. The car that put the automaker on the map in recent years, the Veyron 16.4, is offered as a coupe or a convertible. Its MSRP of approximately $1.192 million makes it the most expensive car in the world by a long shot. You know a car is expensive when it makes an Aston Martin look cheap. Insurance rates are largely based on the price of a car, so there's no question that insuring one of these rides would cost a fortune.

Theft Rates and Safety Ratings

Two other things come into play when calculating premiums: safety ratings and theft rates. As rare and exceedingly expensive as these vehicles are, they are not popularly stolen. They do not show up on the top-100 list that is maintained by the National Insurance Crime Bureau. You can bet your bottom dollar that almost every one of these cars is kept safely under lock, key and even surveillance. As for safety, these cars have all of today's standard safety features. However, they have not been tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or the U.S. government. As far as the amount it takes to insure the Veylon goes, consider the average Aston Martin, which costs between $100,000 and $150,000. The average annual cost to insure one is around $2,500. That should give you an idea about how much it would take to insure a Bugatti.